In October this year, a unique event was held at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland – 11 multinational companies signed ILO’s newly created Global Business and Disability Network Charter, pledging to promote and include persons with disabilities throughout their operations worldwide. The ILO declared that its new charter is a global tool for businesses to promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities ‘in the world of work’. The charter covers a wide range of areas, chief among them being protecting staff with disabilities from any kind of discrimination, and making company premises and communication progressively accessible to all employees.
Laudable as this is, some companies have been actively hiring and promoting physically-challenged people long before the charter even came into existence. In India, Costa Coffee is a case in point.
Coffee with sign language, anybody?
Way back in 2007, Costa Coffee decided to provide mainstream employment to hearing-impaired people across its outlets. The high point of Costa’s endeavours was that the company did not relegate them to back-end operations, but placed them right in front in a customer-facing function, where they interact directly with customers, taking orders and interfacing non-verbally. Speaking to Biz Divas, Ashish Chanana, COO, Costa Cofee, India, says: “Typically, organizations, especially those operating in the F&B/retail sector, would have reservations about hiring people with disabilities in roles that demand a high level of customer interface. However, at Costa, we were convinced that hearing- and speech-impaired people can prove to be excellent employees, with a high level of motivation and commitment, and we have been proved right. As a brand, Costa is strongly committed to this activity and we are very pleased that our discerning consumers appreciate this sensitivity and encourage us in this endeavour.”
Image Credit: ea-audits.com
However, hiring is just one part of the story. Costa Coffee has taken steps worthy of emulation by other conscientious corporates in so far as training the differently-abled and providing them a stress-free work environment is concerned. Adds Chanana, “In a customer front-ended business such as ours, rigorous training is of paramount importance. Our training routine is not meant for just the Special People, but the rest of the store staff and managers as well. They have to learn how to manage these people effectively. Today, every Red Shirt (store leader) in Costa has to necessarily go through an intensive education and understanding of sign language before he or she is given the responsibility of managing a store.”
A notable aspect of Costa’s focus on hiring differently-abled people is that it does not just wait for one to come by. It is a stated goal of the company to actively look for, and hire, such people. For this, it associates closely with NGOs working with the hearing-impaired. The company helps in training and skilling them, and then employs them across its outlets. Presently, around 11 per cent of its total store employees are differently-abled. “Our aim is that every Costa store must have at least two differently-abled employees. We have a very unique store in Green Park, South Delhi, which is run almost entirely by special employees (with the exception of the store manager), making it the only coffee shop of its kind in India. We have had many instances where our special employees have moved up the chain fast and some have quickly become shift managers and assistant managers,” says Chanana.
Fortunately for Costa Coffee, customer complaints are few and far between, if any. “Almost all our customers are happy to be served by our work force of special people, who try harder to please customers.Our customers say the experience of interfacing with differently-abled employees has instilled respect for such people in them, and taught them to be patient and understanding,” Chanana adds.
And now, the reality check
Even though Costa’s story of inclusion is heartwarming, a reality check wakes us up to the fact that similar stories are very hard to find. While companies routinely proclaim themselves to be equal-opportunity employers, more often than not, it turns out to be just a line they prattle about in their websites.
Census 2001 reveals that over 21 million people, or 2.1 per cent of India’s population, suffer from some kind of disability. Sadly, most of them are a neglected lot, with very few meaningful employment opportunities. The private sector has been most negligent on this front — in the past decade, people with disability made up only 0.3 per cent of the workforce in large private firms. The public sector, which is mandated to reserve 3 per cent of jobs for the differently-abled, has not been able to meet even this meagre target.
In such a dismal scenario, Costa Coffee’s efforts become even more noteworthy. In the end, however, just waiting for the public sector or corporate India to step up is not going to give the differently-abled their due. Ultimately, it is civil society that has to undergo an attitudinal shift — we have to stop treating the differently-abled differently.
