SAP to have 1% autistic employees by 2020

The company plans to take the number of autistic individuals in its India office from ten to 20. 

SAP Labs has restarted its recruitment drive to hire autistic individuals for its India operations. This is part of its global programme, ‘Autism at Work’, which focusses on individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In 2013, the German software company had tied up with Specialisterne, a Danish firm that assists with job training for people with autism.

Globally, SAP aims to employ people affected by ASD to form one per cent of its workforce, by 2020. In addition to the ten individuals with ASD currently working at SAP in India, an additional ten will be hired by the end of 2015.

The hiring process will start in July. The candidates will have to face the initial screening process, following which their unique talent will be evaluated, in terms of their ability to successfully execute tasks in development, functional testing, support and research. The selected candidates will also undergo a three-month training aimed at equipping them to join their respective business teams.

Bhuvaneswar Naik, head of HR, SAP India, says, “Hiring of people from outside the mainstream reflects our belief that a diverse and inclusive culture sparks more innovation, and therefore, helps us create value for ourselves and our customers.”

“Tapping a larger pool of talent also helps us to accelerate our innovation,” he adds.

The focus of ‘Autism at Work’ is not only to create employment opportunities, but also to work closely with the community to foster better education and training for individuals with ASD.

SAP has partnered with Specialisterne and EnAble India to harness talent and to train people with autism to work in technology-oriented jobs, such as software testing, programming and data management. So far, the organisation has created employment for 50 individuals, globally.

Microsoft is yet another company which actively works in this sphere. In May, it launched a small pilot programme to hire people with autism for full-time positions, in collaboration with Specialisterne.