Best employers of people with disabilities in Russia
The winner of the competition for the best employer of people with disabilities is Yulmart, an online retailer of electronics, components, and computers.
Moscow 12 March 2015
This was the choice of the panel judging entries for HR-Brand 2014 in the section on equal opportunities. The company was adjudged to be the best of the ten finalists taking part, 62 firms in all that employ people with disabilities, train them and help them adapt to working with colleagues.
Yulmart’s special project, called Our People, has been ongoing since December 2013. By May 2014, the company had taken on the first 25 participants who had graduated from its training programme. Its office is comprehensively adapted to accommodate people with disabilities. A sign language interpreter is invited to company events.
It was the general director of Yulmart, Sergei Federinov, who came up with the idea of the project. The main aim according to him is to give those with disabilities the opportunity to acquire needed specialisms and be properly rewarded for their services thanks to modern IT and appropriate training. The basic point was to enable them to enjoy a good quality of life and feel themselves to be fully valued members of society whose work makes a valuable contribution to its development.
A separate diploma was awarded to Olimp, the Public Opinion Research Centre, for their work on creating employment opportunities for blind people. The organisation takes on workers who are on the books of the Moscow City labour department. It has a special programme for providing resources. Texts are translated into Braille. The workers use Braille keys and a Braille printer.
This is the first time the equal opportunities category has featured in the HR-Brand competition. It was created by the regional social organisation for people with disabilities Perspektiva, and the company Headhunter, with support from the Business Council on People with Disabilities.
Perspektiva has been dealing with the employment of people with disabilities for ten years, but said it would not wish to pick out the best companies taking such people into their employ. For this organisation it was very important that as many as possible in Russia see them as having massive potential and as charming colleagues. It was to be hoped that the prize would prompt other companies to follow suit.
Thanks to support from the ministry of labour this category will feature in the HR-Brand competition in 2015.
Author: Dmitry Petrov