MANILA, Philippines – The largely untapped talent pool among PWAs is gaining recognition in the Philippines owing to pioneering employment strategies set in place by firms who have taken persons with different abilities into their fold.
At the recent Angels Walk for Autism held at the Mall of Asia Arena, Autism Society Philippines (ASP) national president Mona Veluz shared that in their organization alone, they have placed over 200 people with autism in various companies.
“Now it’s not out of charity anymore that they are hiring people with autism, it’s because of their unique sets of skills, like those that are in SM SaveMore. Our boys are valued because they have excellent spatial skills. They have a good sense of order so that is useful in managing stocks,” Veluz said.
In a related development, project manager of SM Cares’ program for people with disabilities (PWDs) Bien Mateo announced that SM will expand its employment program to more malls in the coming months: “We will expand and we will hire more people with autism in the coming months in more malls, even outside Metro Manila. Not only to set an example to other companies, but in recognition of the strengths of PWAs in the workplace that can become any company’s competitive advantage.”
Among experts and human resource specialists, jobs in information technology are highly recommended for those with autism; it is, apparently, “the perfect niche for autistic individuals to focus on.”
Worldwide findings show that 92 percent of consumers view companies hiring autistic people more favorably, according to a 2005 study published in the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation. In 2007, the American company Walgreen, which operates “as the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States opened a distribution center staffed nearly 40 percent by disabled employees.”
In following suit, the Walgreen hiring scheme became a model for other firms, including Procter & Gamble, Best Buy and Lowe’s.
Mortgage firm Freddie Mac started in 2013 its program of hiring paid finance interns for those diagnosed with autism. Stephanie Roemer, the firm’s diversity manager, stressed in an interview: “Historically, there seemed to be a certain perception of this population as being incapable of performing corporate level work. In reality (they) offer so much to an organization... willing to think outside of the box and view this cadre of talent as a ‘value add.’
”When Microsoft started a pilot program to employ autistic adults for coding, software programming and math jobs, the firm’s vice president of world operations Mary Ellen Smith explained: “It’s simple, Microsoft is stronger when we expand opportunity and we have a diverse workforce that represents our customers. People with autism bring strengths that we need at Microsoft; each individual is different, some have amazing ability to retain information, think at a level of detail and depth or excel in math or code.
It’s a talent pool that we want to continue to bring to Microsoft.” For Smith, the motivation to hire individuals with autism can also be personal: she has a 19-year-old son with autism.
In the Philippines, it took 17 years of continuing advocacy for ASP banking on generous support from SM Cares to convince local firms to adopt the practice of hiring PWDs, including those with autism. Slowly, with the Angels Walk for a Cause event held yearly at the Mall of Asia grounds to drumbeat about the capability of PWDs for gainful employment, the idea began to gain foothold in the country. From a sprinkling of families during the event’s fledgling years, this year’s attendance was a record-breaking 24,000 participants, up from 16,000 in 2016. Among this year’s participants is Matt Somera, who works in SaveMore as stocks attendant. He confided that he is happy to be earning his keep and is able to help other people in his job. When asked what he did with his first paycheck, Somera said he deposited it in his own bank account.
Also among the 24,000 participants in the ASP/SM Cares-spearheaded event were Mike Almendrala who works as an administrative assistant at the Philippine Information Agency and Yanna Aragon who serves as the Variable Resource Administrator at IBM Philippines – and such job titles show the depth of the talent pool the nation’s PWAs can turn up. An ecstatic Veluz enthused, “Now we are seeing more companies accepting diversity. There had been a spike for the past year because previously there were only a handful but now we have more than 200 people with autism gainfully employed in various companies.” Two hundred gainfully employed people with autism can no longer be considered a drop in the bucket – it took 17 years, after all, in a relentless pursuit of giving them a break, of leveling the playing field for them to share what they are capable of. Both ASP and SM will continue to push for accepting diversity in the talent pool and in the workplace.