Press Releases

Budapest, October 14, 2013 12:00

Magyar Telekom was awarded the Deficiency-friendly workplace title rewarding its efforts to employ people living with deficiencies. Among others, the company also sets a good example by improving the social sensibility of its associates.

The Salva Vita Foundation introduced the Deficiency-friendly workplace title in 2010, to support matching people living with deficiencies searching for jobs and employers open to employ them. Employers committing themselves to continuously improving their practices related to recruiting, employing and retaining people living with deficiencies can apply for the title.
For many years Magyar Telekom has been paying special attention to integrating those living with deficiencies and numerous support actions, targeted services and sensibility programmes prove the company’s relevant objectives and results. However, the title was not awarded to Telekom based on past history but the assessment of its current practice and plans. The jury board appreciated the sensibility programmes of the company employing more than 7,000: preparing associates for consciously managing deficiencies and integrating those living with them.
The umbrella programme of the company’s sensibility improvement strategy is the „Have you tried it another way?” series, in the frame of which each year the company’s associates could experience how handicapped, seeing and hearing impaired people live – by involving relevant NGOs. By getting familiar with wheelchair sports and the basics of Braille writing system, meeting challenges with fully covered eyes or ear plugs associates could fully experience the situation of groups living with different deficiencies, the challenges they face in everyday life, even during the simplest activities. Experiencing deficiencies as a life situation helps associates in developing a prejudice-free attitude in the course of communicating with colleagues or customer service. This is a memorable experience and a complete attitude shift for any individual, changing social relationships in the broader sense.
Further plans of the company include eliminating all barriers from recruiting people living with deficiencies: optimizing the corporate website for reading out programmes developed for the visually impaired, providing signs for work place locations, providing sign language interpreter if needed and tailoring job advertisements for special needs. Commitments related to equal chances are continuously controlled and by assessing results further solution are explored for integrating those living with deficiencies.

Winning the award Magyar Telekom received the entitlement to use the Deficiency-friendly workplace logo.

„We are very proud of the award, the acknowledgement of our efforts. Further to the employment related problems of those living with deficiencies, we continuously work on improving the service offered to those living with deficiencies – educating our associates at customer service for example is an important task, and beyond the circle of our associates we already reached the level of social sensibility” - said Andrea Nagy, head of the Telekom HR competence center.
The efforts made by Magyar Telekom as responsible employer have already earned numerous awards: most recently in autumn this year the company ranked second in the large company category in the 2012 Aon Hewitt Best Hungarian Employer Survey. In 2011 at the 2nd Chances Conference the company was awarded the „Versatile organization TOP10” title. In November 2010 the company received the HR Oscar prize established by the Hungarian association of HR Advisors. In March 2010 the company also received the Golden Bridge prize awarded to the HR Team of the Year. Following the 2008 Family-friendly Workplace prize Magyar Telekom won again the Best Workplace title in 2009 based on the associates’ views and the Best Central-eastern European Workplace title in the summer of 2010. Magyar Telekom also holds the Healthy Workplace 2009 prize awarded by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham).