A challenge that we enjoyed the most at BarrierBreak was discovering and defining our values. Values that could explain what we all stood for at BarrierBreak – something that could sum up everything that we did. And as Shilpi Kapoor, founder BarrierBreak says, “values should be aligned to our organizational growth but most importantly, we should be living by our values.”
Today, with an amazing team of talented and passionate people, BarrierBreak has grown over the years having opened 4 new offices and hiring over 200 dedicated employees. Though there was this unwritten rules of our values, we had never really sat down and written it out. Each of us was living these values, but as I said, it was an unwritten rule.
As we continue to grow, we needed to ensure that this was something we were discussing, sharing, living every day at BarrierBreak.
So how did we identify our values?
The core team and people from different teams spent a lovely morning brainstorming what we thought BarrierBreak represented.
Each one of us spoke about what BarrierBreak meant to us. Trust me when I say that this was a heart warming exercise. To hear what each of us felt, to see how BarrierBreak had touched each of our lives, was an amazing experience as the cumulative outcome made us realize the number of amazing things BarrierBreak does but never really spoke of. We mapped the ideas shared by every person and came up with the core values that every person at BarrierBreak lives by and influences our decision-making process.
We started to put down single words that each of us felt and experienced. This further was then grouped and discussed and finally, we came up with a few words that stood for BarrierBreak. We mapped the ideas shared by every person and came up with the core values that every person at BarrierBreak lives by and influences our decision-making process.
Our Values: We believe in I3ON
- We are Inclusive
- We are Innovative
- We act with Integrity
- We promote Ownership
- We Nurture our employees and stakeholders
How are we Inclusive?
When we say, ‘We are Inclusive’, it reflects our deliberate choice to focus on people having diverse needs. One would think, it only meant People with Disabilities. Yes, we obviously do that. Hiring people with disabilities as a part of our workforce and making them productive members of society was one of the basic principles on which BarrierBreak was founded.
At BarrierBreak, approx. 65-70% of our employees comprise of people with disabilities and the company has ensured that every employee gets the same opportunity and equal access to resources. As we employ people with disabilities in the workforce, we also understand their needs and see how we can create an enabling environment for them.
The services provided by BarrierBreak is making technology accessible and bringing inclusiveness into the e-space. Our aim is to assist organizations to make their technology accessible to all including people with disabilities.
But for us Inclusion, doesn’t start and end with Disability. 56% of our workforce comprises of women. We don’t look at the differences amongst people. We actually celebrate them.
BarrierBreak believes being inclusive requires practicing accessibility and inclusion across every aspect of an organization. And finally, making every single person in the organization accountable for it.
Are you wondering, who is responsible for building inclusion at BarrierBreak?
I can answer that! Everyone one of us is. The moment we step into BarrierBreak, accessibility and inclusion is instilled in us. We live it everyday!
And that’s absolutely true. Every person inside BarrierBreak is taught to ‘Think Accessibility First’. It’s a part of our DNA! And as an organization we live by our core values, one of them being – We are Inclusive!