SCHOOL OF

BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT

LEADERSHIP
AND TEAM
EFFECTIVENES
S ST
MBA HR 1 YEAR

Internet and Databases sub-group

GROUP 5
Eashna Jain HRA005
Hunar Ahuja HRA006
Recommended Decision Arfa Fatima HRA038
Diversity and Inclusion have become very important in the recent times and is no more

known as an HR checklist item only, rather these two topics have turned into a cultural

phenomenon. Diversity and Inclusion creates a direct impact on the organization and its

working. These two programs are really necessary for employee engagement, company

confidence and attracting new talent.

Before taking the decision, we read about Diversity and Inclusion and the impact that it

creates on the organization. We also analyzed these two topics in terms of our company and

how responsive is our company culture to these two topics.

After considering all the factors, we came to a consensus that our company should create a

sustainable diversity and inclusion program for people with disabilities with a goal of having

10% of our workforce consisting of people with disabilities. The proposal was for 20% but

for the initial stages we will be going for 10% of the workforce of people with disabilities.

10% of 60000 means employment to 6000 disabled people and we have almost 3000

branches all over India which means that on an average each branch will have 2 disabled

people in the workforce.

Our company has always believed in diversity and inclusion and if we see the track record –

there are almost 45 % women in the total workforce. Now as an HR head we want to move

onto a different stratum of diversity and for that we want to include people with disabilities in

our company. We believe that any disability cannot hinder your growth path if you have the

willingness to do the work. People with disability adds a lot of value to the organization and

they also have the skill set required to be in that job position. Some work like field work

might be challenging but people with disabilities have that additional will power that they can

do any task allotted to them.

For the initial period we are not setting up a goal of including 20% of the total workforce

consisting of disabled people because we want to see what changes are required in the

organization when we are hiring disabled people and also want to see whether there is any

change in organizational climate or culture after hiring disabled people. So for now our

recommended decision is to include people with disabilities in the workforce and their

proportion would be 10% of the total workforce.

With the passing of time, we would like to achieve that target of 20% as well but for now we

don’t want to keep that 20% criteria. We want to build up on this proposal slowly and as a

base we will be including 10% people of disabled category in the total workforce (initial

phase). If everything goes well then, we would increase the number or percentage

accordingly to make our organization more diverse and inclusive.

10% would act as a indicator which would help us to know how can we improve as an

inclusive organization and moreover all the changes whether infrastructural changes or

behavioral changes will be highlighted by this 10% criteria. This will help us in improving

and becoming more diverse and inclusive in the future and whatever gaps there are in terms

of problems faced by disabled people would also be acknowledged and worked upon, so that

people with disability do not face any problem in the future.

We have included a lot of points in this report and the rationale behind our decision is also

mentioned in the points given below in the report.

How the research was conducted by our sub group

For this project we used secondary research technique in which we systematically

investigated information based on the existing data that was available for our topic.

Secondary research is usually the first step of every research project because of its advantages

like it is easily accessible, cost effective and helps to identify knowledge gaps etc. In this

research technique we first identified what is the main topic for which we need answers. We

then organized all the information, collated it and then analyzed it on the basis of the existing

data and the questions that we made in our first step of the project.

We started by making questions on the case that was given to us and divided the questions of

similar nature to each and every person in the subgroups. After the division of questions of

similar nature, the research area for an individual got a bit narrowed down. Then we started

with our research and found out various sources for all the questions that we had made.

Firstly, we conducted a basic google search on the topic which helped us to explore the topic

from a very wide perspective. Then after analyzing some information we started to link it

with the questions we have prepared. Then we organized our research and started to look for

research papers from Google scholar and our college library database. We were looking for

research papers which had a lot of citations. Research papers gave us a clear idea and helped

us in decision making.

After collection of all the information we started to analyze the information and made

answers for each question. Then we collated all the answers and came to a consensus on the

decision that we need to make as an HR head.

Different kinds of information we gathered and the method of analysis used to make the

final decision

As a part of the Internet and Database subgroup, we conducted secondary research from

various sources like existing reports, documents, and published statistics. The research was

done while keeping in mind the research objectives which are the unanswered questions that

helped us to take our final decision. The data that we found is both qualitative and

quantitative data as it involves both collection of facts and figures, and opinions and feelings.

The quantitative data includes the data of a survey conducted by the US Department of Labor

Job Accommodation Network which helps us identify the additional cost which the company

will incur because of the proposed initiative. We further analyzed the example of Wipro and

how it is taking new initiatives for differently-abled people in their organization. These data

were available to us from the research report of the ILO and CII as these organizations have

provided Wipro, which is its member company, a platform to properly execute the plans of

diversity and inclusion for disabled people. We also looked at the demographics of the

disabled persons from the 2011 census report, to better understand their employment level in

India.

On the other hand, the qualitative data includes descriptive information which will help us as

a company to take further actions. We looked into different hiring processes that would

ensure diversity and inclusion in the company and also eliminating biases in the procedure.

Other research papers that we analyzed helped us with the information on the importance of

creating a disability management committee at the workplace and also to make people more

aware of the company’s as well as government’s policies for the disabled person.
 As the research objective includes an open-ended question therefore the research method

we implemented was exploratory research. Three essential things take place during the data

analysis process including - first data organization. Summarization and categorization

together contribute to becoming the second known method used for data reduction. It helps in

finding patterns and themes in the data for easy identification and linking. Third and the last

way is data analysis. As the decision which we need to take requires us to identify the pros

and cons of the decision therefore we tried to categorize the data that we found based on the

strength and weakness of the proposal. For example, the result that we found that companies

could benefit from this proposal by getting awards, incentives, and tax exemptions strengthen

the proposal of introducing a reservation of 20% for the disabled people. On the other hand,

the findings that increasing the reservation up to 20% might cause the BFSI sector to lose on

more talented people and also the benefits gained by the company will be evened out by the

expenditure in infrastructural changes for disabled people, weakens the proposal. Through

our analysis, we also tried to identify patterns, associations, and causal relationships among

all the findings. For example, by identifying the reasons why employers don’t hire people

with disabilities, we were able to understand the correct way to approach this problem and

how creating awareness in a workplace is important. This method of analysis helped us to

come to a conclusion and also to find out further recommendations for the company.
Important information which helped us taking our final decision and the reason for our

choice

Most of the information which we found through our research was useful for us in making

our final decision and writing our sub-group’s rationale for the decision taken. Some of these

important findings include the scheme of the government for promoting the inclusion of

people with disabilities, hiring strategies which could be followed to ensure more inclusion

and diversity in a workplace without any biases, importance of implementing a health

promotion programme at a workplace and how to execute this plan, analyzing the myths that

employers have while hiring people with disabilities etc.

We consider these informations more important than others as it helped us in coming to the

decision of implementing an alternative plan to what has been proposed in the question of

this project. Rather than giving a full fledged reservation of 20% we could use the methods

that we found in our research to ensure more inclusion of disabled people. Alternatives like

giving proper training to them, developing their skills, improving the infrastructural facilities

at the workplace, conducting job analysis to find more suitable jobs for the disabled people,

and creating more awareness among the employees thus eliminating any stereotypes in the

workplace. The results and the findings of our secondary research helped us to take a more

practical approach for our company.

The information which we find less important for our final decision and reason for our

judgment

Although most of the information which we found through our research helped us in making

our decision. But the findings which were backed by proper statistics and definite data were

more useful for us as making decisions on the basis of well-defined information is more

feasible. Whereas the findings which were not backed up by any research and were only

based on personal opinions or beliefs of the writer were not of much use for us. Also, the

findings for some of the questions were overlapping with each other and they basically

explained the same points. Especially the questions discussing the importance of the

inclusion of disabled people at the workplace and how to implement it was covered in most

of the research papers which we found and the content for which was mainly based on that

particular company’s choice and decision. The suggestions given in the research papers were

also almost the same. All of them paid more attention to increasing the sensitivity towards

disabled people and making infrastructural changes at the workplace. As these results did not

tell us exactly to what extent it improves the condition of the disabled people at the

workplace, therefore we overcame this by comparing some of the best diversity and inclusion

practices followed by different companies. But this was also subjective and did not give us

proper facts. As a sub-group we tried to overcome this difficulty by doing more research as

increased frequency of research made the decision more reliable. We also tried to find results

from trusted sources.

WHAT IS THE RATIONALE BEHIND THE DECISION?

Since we have decided to go ahead with the decision to go with the idea of creating a

sustainable diversity and inclusion program for people with disability. We came to this

decision by understanding various parameters through secondary research method. We

looked into the Disability Laws (The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (along

with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017).

First, we looked into the demographics so by understanding the percentage of disabled people

in this India, we got the count and also knew how many are still unemployed. The Banking

and Financial Sector is a promising industry which contributes around 12% to GDP. A

KPMG (2000) Indian banking industry report suggests that the Indian banking industry could

become the fifth largest banking industry in the world by 2020 and the third largest by 2025,

owing to the high GDP growth of the region.

In India, figures of people with disabilities range from 2.21 percent - 7 percent of the total

population. This is translated into a range of 26. 8 million—90 million people. Of these, 64%

are unemployed, which translates into possible losses of around 5-7% of GDP.

The technological adoption in Banking industry is high which means that the support which

is required is available and we can equip the disabled workforce suitably well.

We also looked into the reason behind the low rate of employment of disabled people in

India.

Reasons why unemployment is low in India for disabled people-

There is not a good understanding of disability in the corporates.

There is a myth which exists that PWD are expensive and the productivity is low.

The job-skill mapping is low so which makes it difficult to leverage the potential of disabled

employees.

The role models in the PWD are not present right now.

After looking into the numbers, we read about the educational aspect –
The 2011 census showed that only 36% of the total number of people with disabilities are

working. 47 percent of male disabled people work and a low 23 percent work among female

disabled people; 25 percent work in rural India and 16 percent in urban India. These low

figures correspond to high dependency levels and no educational institution has ever

attended. Education Literacy is estimated at 55 percent of the total population of people with

disabilities, literacy among men is estimated at 62 percent and 45 percent among women with

disabilities. As can be predicted, the educational level of people with disabilities in urban

areas is better at 67% compared to 49% in rural areas, with illiteracy among women with

disabilities in rural areas being high. The employment level stated that the proportion of male

working is twice higher than female. The ILO's (International Labour Organization) 'Persons

with Disabilities and India' report for 2011 Labour Market: challenges and opportunities' It

reports that 73.6% of the disabled in India are still disabled. The most neglected regions are

rural areas. A more recent research carried out by Cyber Media Research Ltd. in 2013 to

NASSCOM the number of disabled workers consisted of only 0.36 percent was vis-a-vis total

workers! For the private sector in India, it seems, disability Hiring is not part of negotiations

at the board level. When one looks at the micro level, it may seem like there has been some

progress. There is increased awareness amongst companies about hiring people with

disabilities. There has been pressure on the Government to implement the various legislations

effectively.

We also looked into the why job analysis is important. Since there are various types of

disability so it is important to put in the required effort so to get a suitable job for that

particular person.
Blindness Low vision Leprosy Hearing Locomotor Dwarfism Intellectual

cured Impairment Disability Disability

persons (Deaf &

Hard of

Hearing

Mental Cerebral Autism Muscular Chronic Specific Multiple

illness Palsy Spectrum Dystrophy Neurological Learning Sclerosis

Disorder conditions Disabilities

Speech & Thalassemia Haemophilia Sickle Cell Multiple Acid Attack Parkinson’s

Language Disease Disabilities Victim Disease

Disability Including

Deaf-

Blindness
The 1st figure shows the various types of disability and the 2 nd figure lists out the different

kinds of job available in the BFSI domain.

Once the employment of a particular person is done, he/she should not be discriminated on

any front be it recruitment, training or promotion

It is also important that an organization makes reasonable adjustments in bringing in the

required changes like infrastructural or assistive technology. There shouldn’t be any

monetary loss to the organization.

Since disabled people have special needs it is important to look into the infrastructure

changes so first, we looked into what are the barrier which companies generally face.

Through a particular research paper, our main aim was to jot down on the various barriers in

the infrastructure of the companies. In a research paper it was written physical accessibility

was one big hurdle. There wasn’t any ramp and even the entrance was not clear. Regarding

the ATM, the keys of it didn’t have an added feature of Braille. The height of the ATM

Machine is not at an appropriate level. Even the emergency banks and alarm should be loud

enough for the hearing impaired to hear and if not, then light can be fired. So this made us

aware of the various issues an organization faces.

Now coming to changes we have to do with respect to infrastructure, after understanding the

various space issues, a company faces, we also looked into the changes a company needs to

do so to make it a truly inclusive organisation. There should be an entry and exit ramp for

wheelchairs. A switch-based door opening, handrails on the ramp and a smooth corridor

inside the building. Even the restroom, cafeteria needs to be revamped. One important point

to note was to hire an ergonomic specialist so that he can look into the problems disabled

person may face. A designated parking spot for the handicapped people is also needed. There

should be a strict penalty for anyone occupying the designated space for handicapped.
It is also important to look into the training the existing workforce needs to do.

The various parameter we looked into were

Laws- Educating the employees about the various laws is the first step. For example, if an

employee is providing some special assistance then it is mandatory that the concerned person

has the license or the certification.

Accessibility- Making the employees aware of the difficulties a disabled person faces will

make them more helpful and understanding. Like making sure that employees don’t store

items in places where it is difficult for disabled people to reach

Interactions- It should not look like as if the disabled person needs help all the time. Before

providing assistance, it is important to politely.

Language – It is important to make everyone aware to be mindful of the language they use.

Words like afflicted with,” “suffering from,” “handicapped,” “deaf and dumb,” “wheelchair-

bound” and “invalid should be avoided.

Expert Insight- Hiring a professional consultant to incorporate a sensitivity training program

will help the workplace to be truly inclusive.

Now to include people with disability in the workforce, it is important to help employees

chart out a career path and relevant training required. Hiring a job coach can also help.

Training of the workforce and Sensitisation of Line Managers Teams dealing with disabled

workers is also helpful. Improved management has also resulted in enhanced ability, a

stronger culture of organization and an improved brand image for the company. For teams

that have PwD, the NGOs perform sensitization training. Some companies do hire sign

language interpreter.
Since we have decided to create this program, we also looked into the various costs a

company can incur, so the government has approved an incentive scheme for employers in

the expanding private sector to encourage the jobs of people with disabilities. It has been

agreed that private sector employers should be granted incentives. Section 41 of the 1995 Act

on Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunity, Protection of Rights and Full Participation)

offers incentives for employers to ensure that persons with disabilities make up at least five

percent of their workforce. The National Policy on Persons with Disabilities, introduced in

2006, also stipulates that pro-active steps will be taken to include incentives, awards, tax

exemptions, etc to facilitate jobs in the private sector for persons with disabilities. The

scheme would cover employees with disabilities covered by the Equal Opportunities, Rights

Protection and Full Participation Act, 1995 and the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons

with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 and

working in the private sector, with a monthly salary of up to Rs.25000/- per month.

Through Research we also got to know that company culture is extremely important. A good

culture has well-defined processes and a road to success that is readily identifiable. With a

simple set of expectations in place, in an environment of mutual cooperation and consensual

sharing of company values, new workers are able to assimilate easily. Weak cultures are

characterized by representatives who struggle to consciously promote the community,

resulting in inconsistently implemented policies and practices. Built around rules rather than

people, such cultures weaken morale and stifle creativity. Persons with disabilities may have

difficulty fitting into a standard recipe for job success and can benefit from the well-defined

expectations that a strong culture communicates. At the same time, mutual support and

sharing of company practices can speed onboarding and orientation. The mentoring

opportunities that a strong culture offers can be of great benefit to the company and to its

employees.
To make the hiring strategy smooth, there are important aspects to note. So it’s important to

ensure that the job ads, position descriptions, online application forms, timesheets, and

mandatary policy-adhesion documents, such as a social media policy, are accessible to screen

readers for those with a vision impairment (with alt text in place and a phone option), offer

flexibility for deaf and hearing-impaired people (captions on videos and also options to a

phone number only), and those with a cognitive disability or English as a second language

(not too much jargon or complicated language).

Now to source such candidates, we got to know there are companies which tie up with

various organizations. They help in the recruitment process and also help in training people

with disabilities. Many NGO’s are working towards this aim to reduce unemployment among

2 crore people with disability. One NGO we looked into was NASEOH. The most important

challenge for people with different abilities to conquer is gaining economic freedom. They

find it difficult to get jobs and have very few work options to choose from. NASEOH

operates a vocational training centre that teaches things such as pottery, customization,

communication skills, etc. After completion of the course, external or self-employed

employment is provided to the trainees. This NGO for people of various abilities collects

donations to help sponsor the vocational training of people with special needs. After

completion of the course, external or self-employed employment is provided to the trainees.

This NGO for people of various abilities collects donations to help sponsor the vocational

training of people with special need.

Since people with disability needs extra care, so companies do roll out various health

promotion program.
It is important to make people with disabilities feel more secure in different health promotion

environments using person-first language, treating all people with dignity, and ensuring

respect for individual differences.

Similarly, it would also help to make buildings structurally more open and disability-friendly

by educating practitioners about universally built items.

More and more products are developed using common concepts of uniform design to offer

access to a wider range of people with disabilities, including usable medical equipment (i.e.

examination tables) and fitness products (universally designed exercise equipment). Better

lighting, larger font sizes on different signs, and rails or measures for hard-to-reach objects

are easier options for enabling environments for people with disabilities.

For many people with disabilities, accessible transportation to a wellness or medical centre

can be a formidable obstacle. Providing accessible transportation alternatives for people with

disabilities can lead to greater access to community-based health promotion programs. Such

access may have a huge effect on the enhancement of wellbeing and the risk reduction of

secondary and chronic conditions.

According to the Disability Act 2016, Appointing a Liaison Officer, Private establishments

with more than 20 employees are expected to appoint a liaison officer to supervise the

recruitment of people with disabilities and to provide such employees with the requisite

arrangements and facilities in the establishment.

It is also important to comply with the company’s vision, philosophy and connect with the

inclusive workforce. Communicating with those who differ from us can require us to make an

additional effort and even change our point of view, but it leads to better cooperation and

ultimately more favourable results. People with disabilities are no longer missing from the

corporate agenda, and their participation in the workplace. Inclusion of disability now
appears in many initiatives and is gaining traction in business strategies rapidly. Having

people with disabilities and addressing their needs related to disabilities are essential

measures for businesses in terms of talent resourcing and social responsibility, as well as

complying with national laws. Managers are well aware of the value of disability inclusion

for their company performance, but may still have concerns about how effective

implementation of measures can be carried out. For e.g.- Wipro was one company who was at

the forefront in this area and had reached a number of 440 disabled employees. They look

into different aspects of infrastructure, training and sensitization. Like they have interview

certification program which makes the interview inclusive and they also have travel and

transport policy where they have revamped so to include additional accommodations.

We looked into the questions we had listed and picked up the most relevant questions for our

research. After gathering the information of why companies don’t include disabled people,

we decided not to use it as it didn’t connect with our vision.

With such a thorough research, we got clear on the program we plan to include in the

company by objectively analyzing the content from various angles and then taking on a

decision.

We used Secondary Research for our study. This method has both advantages and

disadvantages.

Pros of the Secondary Research Method

1)Since the data from secondary research is available from previous research, it saves a lot of

time and is inexpensive.

2)Secondary research can also provide information which may not be connected to the

current area of study, but the information can be used to learn about something about the

future.
3)Since the research is done in great detail from various credible sources, we can rely on their

findings.

4)Secondary research allowed us to find gaps in information that can serve as the basis for

more systematic research.

Cons of Secondary Research

1)Sometimes, as the source of the data may be questionable, the consistency of secondary

research should be closely scrutinized. So, at times it becomes important to assess the quality

and reliability by reviewing the way data was obtained, delivered and evaluated.

2)It can be possible that the data we get may have most of the part irrelevant and only a

certain section is useful.

3)On some sites, there were cases where only a snippet of the data was present and to access

the full content, payment was required.

4)The data collected at times, was outdated and did not fit in the present context.

5)At times, it can happen that the research obtained may not be suitable to apply in our

context

All in all, secondary research is a powerful and a convenient tool to get answers at a large

scale. Although it has its advantages, such as its cost effectiveness and its access to the scope

and depth of data, secondary data analysis may also compel researchers to modify their

original query or work with a data set that is not suitable for their objectives otherwise.

There were certain challenges we faced because the data was not gathered by us. Sometimes

we found that the data was general and not specific which confused us. At times, we felt that
personal bias could also creep like newspapers or some magazine can have personal views

which distorted the opinion from facts.