Assessment of Relationship between HR Practices and Employee Empowerment Among Differently-Abled Employees in Services Sector in Coimbatore District

Abstract

India has made significant strides in recognizing and addressing the rights and needs of differently-abled individuals. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, of 2016 replaced the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, of 1995, broadening the scope and coverage. However, there exists a social stigma about the capabilities of the differently abled employees, while, on the other hand, such employees face several challenges in terms of infrastructure and accessibility, limited skill development opportunities and less employer awareness towards suitable work environments for differently-abled employees. Based on this premise, there arises a need to study how empowered are the differently abled employees working in various sectors. In any organization, HR practices determine the effectiveness of people management. An analysis of the HR Practices that actively engage differently-abled employees may be looked at as an indicator to understand the empowerment status of such employees. The objective of this article is to explore the association between HR Practices and Employee empowerment among the differently abled employees working in the services sector in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. To assess the relationship between these two criteria; the “canonical correlation” tool is applied. The result illustrates the correlation between HR practices and Employee Empowerment. There exists a strongly significant correlation between HR Practices and Employee Empowerment. The derived result portrays the direct relationship between HR Practices and the Empowerment of differently abled employees, with the Grievance Redressal Mechanism as a key indicator. Therefore, it may be vividly expressed that every organization must tailor its HR Practices to make the differently abled employees feel more empowered. It may be comprehensively stated that the stakeholders ought to collaborate and build a positive environment to create a more inclusive and equitable future for all, to achieve organizational success. The study has suggested significant measures like compatible software, mental wellness, skill-specific Training and exclusive PwD cells that could be implemented in the organizations for the increased performance and empowerment of differently-abled employees.