DISABLED BUDDIES FIND THEIR NICHE AT HYPERMART

Sahril Adamuddin (left) and Mat Jamil Ramli are part of the 60 people with disability who are employed at Carrefour Malaysia.

KUALA LUMPUR, 2009/05/23: Twenty- five-year-old Mat Jamil Ramli spends his day at Carrefour creating press advertisements and leaflets on his computer.

Employed as a graphic designer, Mat Jamil would otherwise go unnoticed at the sprawling Carrefour head office floor in Subang, where hundreds of employees move around like bustling bees, but for the fact that the metre-tall lad uses his toes to type on his keyboard.

Born without hands, Mat Jamil counts himself lucky to have secured a job at Carrefour two years ago.

"Everyone here is friendly and helpful. It's like being part of a big family."

Sahril Adamuddin, 26, is Mat Jamil's lunch buddy, who sometimes helps the latter cut up his meat during meals. Wheelchair-bound Sahril works as a pricing clerk at Carrefour and, like Mat Jamil, he feels he is at the "right place".

Mat Jamil and Sahril are not the only people with disability (PWD) who work at Carrefour Malaysia. There are currently 60 PWD who make up two per cent of Carrefour's 3,423 workforce.

According to Carrefour human resource director Mohamad Fauzi Hassan, the company implemented the hiring policy two years ago when it employed 20 PWD at its stores nationwide.

The hypermarket hopes to hire about 400 PWD by 2012, making up five per cent of its expected 8,000 workforce.

Carrefour became part of the United Nations Development Programme's pilot project called Employment Model for PWD last year, under an agreement where UNDP provides job coaches for Carrefour to train the PWD.

Carrefour has also, on its own initiative, trained job coaches among its staff to cater to the hypermarket chain's expansion, Fauzi said.

These coaches are given special training, such as sign language and systematic instruction.

"To help them, the PWD are partnered with a Carrefour 'buddy' each. They are given on-the-job training under supervision until they are able to perform the tasks on their own."

He added that there were hardly any disciplinary problems among the PWD.

"They are enthusiastic and passionate about their work. Once, one of them fell ill but he insisted on coming to work. His parents, however, refused to allow him.

"So he made them come and explain to us that he was indeed ill. I told them they didn't have to come and that they only needed to call."

Fauzi said there were no restrictions as to where the PWD were placed in the hypermarket. They work in the head office as marketing executives, graphic designers, accounts executives and data entry clerks. At the store front, they are hired as clerks, security personnel and call centre and customer service representatives, among others.

While Carrefour's disabled personnel are independent, where they travel to and from work on their own, Carrefour is planning to provide accommodation and transportation in the future, through its Yayasan Carrefour.