31/3/2022

In a one-of-a-kind live session on March 31, five CEOs and 25 HR professionals of Indian industry learnt about the inclusive workforce story of Grundfos India, at Hotel Surguru in Puducherry.

Mr. K. Amarnath, past chairman, CII Puducherry and vice president, Hotel Surguru, welcomed the gathering. Dr S. Sureender, chairman, CII Puducherry, gave an introduction to the work done by CII in inclusion.

The seminar, headlined by Mr. N.K. Ranganath, past chairman of CII Tamil Nadu and ex- managing director, Grundfos India and Ms. Arudhra Mathur, country HR head, Grundfos India, gave a real peek into how an inclusive culture can be built in industry. Mr. E. Vallavan, IAS, district collector, Puducherry, and secretary, local administration, excise, information and publicity, commissioner (excise) to the Government of Puducherry, introduced the importance of building the inclusive workforce, and highlighted the government’s efforts towards the same.

Grundfos has hired several people with mild and moderate intellectual and developmental disabilities in their organization. Some of the ideas shared included giving the new recruits ample time and opportunity to acclimatize themselves to the environment. In the Grundfos experience, this period was around two months, during which time the recruits performed some minor tasks. The panellists agreed that there were challenges, but it was a new opportunity, just like one tries out in business.

Ms. Chitra Shah, director, Satya Special School, and Mr. Karthikeyan Ganesan, director, Sristi Foundation spoke about the other side of the coin: skilling of people with IDDs so that they are employment-ready.

Mr. V. R. Raguraman, convenor of the CSR panel, CII Puducherry, proposed the vote of thanks.