Indian third-party logistics solution provider, Mahindra Logistics (MLL), is geared up to strengthen diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the workplace. It will be leveraging untapped talent pools, enhancing engagement, and also ensuring a unity of purpose to accomplish the same. As part of its five-year roadmap, the Company is actively hiring differently-abled persons and ex-servicemen from the armed forces. It is also attempting to bridge the gender-diversity gap by recruiting more women from various backgrounds and with varied experience.
At the very start of the Pride Month, the Company has rolled out its LGBTQIA policy and its robust plan to employ people from the community.
Rampraveen Swaminathan
It is imperative to make MLL attractive for millennials, provide equal opportunities to women as well as persons with disabilities, recruit employees from diverse backgrounds, such as armed forces, and shatter the stereotypes around LGBTQIA workforce.
Not long ago, MLL began hiring persons with disabilities (PwDs) for operations in its warehouses. It aims to recruit 500 employees in FY2021, on its rolls as well as on the rolls of its business partners. It is also working on sensitising its workforce towards the new recruits, and has completed infrastructure audits to assess the readiness to hire PwDs.
The Company is endeavouring to bring on board ex-servicemen — JCOs/NCOs from the Army, Air Force and Navy — mainly for large operations at customer sites. The Company aims to include 10 ex-servicemen under its rolls in the first phase and 50 in the next three years.
To bridge the gender gap, particularly in the logistics sector, the Company, which specialises in supply-chain management and enterprise mobility, has initiated ‘Udaan’, a second careers (comeback) programme and second-career internship programme, under which women are being hired at all levels, functions and divisions. This is in addition to the ‘Birth & Beyond’ policy, which aims to create a conducive work environment for women employees throughout the maternity continuum.
Rampraveen Swaminathan, managing director and CEO, Mahindra Logistics, says “We encourage and value diversity amongst our employees, associates, business partners, customers and communities. It is therefore imperative to make MLL attractive for millennials, provide equal opportunity to women as well as persons with disabilities, recruit employees from diverse backgrounds, such as armed forces, and shatter the stereotypes around LGBTQIA workforce. It gives us the opportunity to increase our exposure through varied thought processes and knowledge streams that can broaden our outlook towards our business,” he adds.
