Mondial Assistance actively strives to break down barriers and build a culture of diversity and inclusion. Mondial aims to fulfil the Brazilian quota requiring companies with a headcount of more than 1,001 to employ five percent of staff with a mental or physical disability instead of following the widespread practice of paying a yearly fine.
Disability and productivity rhyme
After analyzing their facilities and business areas, Mondial decided that recruiting blind and visually impaired staff for its call center would be the best choice for starting its integration program. It quickly became clear that working with disabled people could mean much more to Mondial than just fulfilling legal requirements. "Even more important than meeting quota mandatories became the direct influence on the business success of the program", says Rodrigo Jimenez, Commercial and Marketing Director of Mondial Brazil.
Rodrigo Jimenez, Commercial and Marketing Director of Mondial Brazil
How does the program work?
The call center program began in 2008, and now also includes people with mobility impairments. It required three main initial steps:
- Adapting the IT systems to include screen reader technology,
- Recruiting and selecting visually impaired employees, and
- Training them in using the screen reader technology. This takes about 38 days, and is performed by internal trainers and two NGOs called Adeva and AMADEV, which work with blind people.
It was also necessary to ensure that lifts were adapted and the relevant software licenses purchased.
How many people have been hired?
Mondial Assistance has hired 70 blind people and three with other disabilities (dwarfism and mobility disability).
The Mondial Assistance Brazil call center team
What are the careers opportunity for those employees?
In order to be promoted, every associate must participate in an internal evaluation, which is also open to employees with disabilities. One such employee with a disability succeeded in being promoted twice. She is now working in the Training Department.
Business benefits of the program
Mondial Assistance measures the productivity of all call center employees, and those who are blind or have a visual impairment are 11 percent more productive than average. Feedback from the call center's managers is that this group of employees is particularly focused and provides excellent customer service.
Is Allianz going to roll this out globally or will this be in other call centers in Brazil?
Feasibility studies are currently being conducted to see if this program can be extended to other call centers, which provide different services to customers.
Allianz has invested in a Dialogue in the Dark Training Center which belongs to Allianz Global Investors AG (http://dialogue.allianzgi.com)
Training measures include exercise and team-building sessions in the dark, allowing the participants to focus on specific tasks and reflect on their behavior and interaction once deprived of eyesight. Blind trainers accompany the training sessions as guides and facilitators.
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