Specialized in technology and digital transformation, Sopra Steria hires about fifty employees with disabilities in France every year. Consuelo Benicourt, who is in charge of equal opportunities in the international group, explains his approach.
How is your inclusion policy organized?
This ranges from hiring to keeping a job and funds created to make the daily lives of people with disabilities easier. Support also includes integrating all employees into the system through awareness and training.
How are these priorities translated?
In France, we employ about 50 people with disabilities a year, and 629 officially registered employees benefit from the support provided by professional medicine. We offer technical compensation tools to make their daily lives easier, such as software for reading or correcting dyslexia, or captioning tools for meetings. The organization of the schedule is also specific, and vehicles are offered to pick them up from home. Individual training also exists if a person has been absent for a long time in order to organize possible retraining if desired.
Do you have connections with adapted companies?
Yes, they are among our subcontractors. With some of them we have entered into springboard fixed-term contracts. Within six months, the person will work part of the time with us and part of the time in the relevant company as part of their training. Eventually, we may decide to integrate him into our teams.
In addition, given your field of activity, is recruiting at a fairly high level?
Basically we are recruiting bac + 5 but that is why we have a policy to increase access to higher education for young people with disabilities. Each year, we support about forty high school and college students through the HandiBourse program, where coaching complements financial aid. In addition, under the Handi’tutorat program, 50 high school students from specialized schools are followed each year by engineering students who are taught by staff themselves.
You insist on bringing in teams to support your system…
It’s even a key! When you join Sopra Steria, you must receive training that will enable you to play a role in relation to employees with disabilities. If you offer a coding site or tailored software available to them, you should be able to share their use of it with them. This is also reflected in the recruitment carried out directly through our organizations, bypassing the disability mission.
Source: Le Parisien
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