How Uber is enabling career opportunities for people with disabilities in Brazil

Uber’s mission is to reimagine the way the world moves for the better. The more diverse we become, the more we can adapt and ultimately achieve our mission. To do that, we must reflect the incredible diversity of the people who connect on our platform. This requires us to evolve our thinking past what’s familiar and push us to recognize and challenge our own biases on how to assess capability when hiring. It also means meeting prospective talent where they’re at and removing systemic barriers to ensure underrepresented communities can access opportunities with us.

That’s where Program de Talentos: Exclusivo Para Pessoas Com Deficiência comes in, Uber’s first-ever talent program designed exclusively for people with disabilities (PwD) in Brazil. This population can face stigma and discrimination during hiring processes which has led to underrepresentation in many workplaces. Program de Talentos was built with our “Great minds don’t think alike” value in mind to change and challenge this stigma. The result? 33 people from a variety of diverse personal and professional backgrounds, who also happen to be people with disabilities, joined Uber in Brazil for a first-of-its-kind 12-month program to prepare them for an impactful career at Uber. Using Uber’s innovative Talent Acquisition Academy framework we set out to hire 20 people, but due to the impressive caliber of applicants, we accepted 33 people into our inaugural program. 

“Disability still has a lot of stigma attached to it,” shares Subana Paramuthevar, Inclusive Recruiting Program Manager. “According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities in Brazil is almost twice that of the general population. In addition, a number of people with disabilities who are employed are working in low-skilled and low-paying jobs. There are a number of factors leading to this, including stigma and discrimination, lack of accessibility in the workplace, and limited access to education and training. All too common, businesses unfortunately also lack understanding and knowledge of what accommodations are required for people with disabilities in the workplace. Program de Talentos helped us address these issues. We invested in employee accommodations and redesigned our hiring process with the PwD experience in mind.”

Program de Talentos is structured rotationally. It starts with a 2-month immersion onboarding where participants learn about all things Uber: products, approach, and values. Business leaders join to highlight their team’s operations and host fireside chats, and industry partners cultivate new skills with training on technical competencies and English. Then comes a 10-month rotation, where the cohort uses learnings from the prior 2 months and learning on the job in 2 different teams for 5 months each.

When the program wraps up, all participants will have the opportunity to join a best-fit Uber team. Long term, Uber’s Northstar goal is to ensure that we remove any and all barriers to give everyone around the world an opportunity to build a long-term career with us and drive our growth and innovation forward. 

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