At a town hall meeting in the Hyderabad Wells Fargo office sits a group of men whose attention is focused not on the speaker onstage, but at their companion seated beside them. These four team members have hearing impairment, and when they attend town halls, a member of their team interprets for them. The same thing happens at team meetings, or other large gatherings.
When Irfan Mohammed, Vijay Takkellapati, Rajesh Vanga, and Venkatesh Yamala are with their team – Home Owners Insurance in Closing Support, which is part of Consumer Banking Retail – they’re able to converse with everyone in sign language. This is thanks to the intensive sign language training that the whole team had undergone upon joining Wells Fargo EGS a little over a year ago. Their training began with basic greetings, but progressed quickly to discussions about their process in Retail.
Upon their deployment to the production floor, they had difficulty adjusting to the processes they needed to follow and systems they needed to use. For a few of them, this was their first big corporate job; there were high expectations of the entire team. With the help of their trainers, subject matter experts, front line manager, and fellow teammates, in time they were able to overcome this hurdle.
When asked how he’s handling the workload today, Irfan proudly signed: “I do it myself.” The other three echoed his sentiments.
“I was worried about how they’d be able to understand the process. But after they joined and I got to know them, I realized they can do the work just well as any of us,” said one of their teammates.
“It’s truly inspiring, how positive they are. They were so happy once they had figured out the processes that were challenging them,” agreed one of the subject matter experts assigned to help.
Since joining, they have made friends with people outside of their team as well – in cabs on the way home, in the cafeteria, and just walking around the facility. And these team members pick up basic sign language to be able to connect with them.
“At a recent leadership visit, I was very happy when our leaders Ganesh and Siva greeted us in sign language,” signed Venkatesh. “It meant a lot.”
When they meet somebody new, they use their mobile phones’ text functionality, typing out notes to hold a conversation. They eagerly participate in engagement initiatives within their business; Rajesh was part of the dance team representing his line of business in a competition. “Because of them, I also started taking part in weekly floor engagement activities,” said Praveena Kosina.
At this year’s internal business event, Confluence 2019, Vijay was one of eight finalists of the Wells Fargo Talks stream in Hyderabad. Wells Fargo Talks is a platform that enables team members to share their personal stories face-to-face with team members in India and the Philippines. This year, Vijay shared his personal story on stage. He spoke about the support he has received that has helped him to get to where he is now.
“Oh yes, I was nervous,” he laughs while signing. “It was my first time public speaking.” Although he felt the attention was split between him and his interpreter, his story was received with a great deal of emotion and warmth.
One thing their success can be attributed to is that they are a very tightknit group. Facing similar challenges before and after joining has brought them closer. It has helped them immensely to have people they can converse with here at Wells Fargo, unlike with previous employers. Similarly, their other teammates had not worked with other people with diverse abilities either.
“Their thought processes involve a kind of thinking that’s very different, in a good way. Their ideas bring out the best in the rest of the team,” said Shalini, a fellow team member.
“Working with them gave me perspective about how blessed I am and what I can do to help make life better for others,” said Vamshidhar, another team member. “Having them around makes my life more meaningful.”
This team of four is proof that team members with diverse abilities are celebrated at Wells Fargo and can thrive, given the proper support.
As Josh Satuluri, head of Closing Support, said: “This team is an integral part of the Wells Fargo Consumer Banking Retail team. Their contribution to our process has been phenomenal – they’re truly living our values.”
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