Face Your Fear Workshop – A Report

Face Your Fear workshop was conducted on August 6^th, 2017. It was started at scheduled time with 14 participants and 2 HRs- Ms. Bhaveka Arora and Mr. Gurpreet Singh. Both of them hold atleast five years working experience in human resource departments. The workshop was hosted by Dixit Arora.

The introduction session started with introduction of the host along with introduction of The Indian Stammering Association (TISA). The HRs and participants were introduced thereafter. Later, Dr. Sachin Shrivastava, TISA’s founder, was taken on call with the people present in the workshop. He welcomed the HR guests with grace and advised the participants to use the opportunity to their fullest. Moreover, he educated them to view HR people as friends and not enemies.

Further, question and answer session invited questions from the participants. These were submitted by the participants prior to the conduction of workshop after discussion with the host. During this session, HRs answered all the queries, e.g.    Should we disclose our stuttering problem; if yes then whether it should be revealed upfront in the start of the interview or after attempting few questions? How to gauge situation and change the situation in one’s favour? And How stammering affects different kinds of roles like data analytics job, marketing/sales jobs, IT jobs, senior management roles ?, based on their experience and ethical practices followed in organizations.

Post Q & A session, mock interviews began. The two HRs randomly divided the population present in the conference room for initiating one-on-one interviews. Each interview lasted for at most 15 minutes, in which one-to-one feedback by the HR, was included. The feedback revolved around two parameters, participant’s resume and speech. Since HRs were not people who stutter (PWS), they were unable to provide feedback on secondary symptoms like facial distortions etc. All the participants had great learning experiences after this session.

The last session included common feedback by the HRs. It involved building persistent attitude for PWS. They advised whether a person is PWS or not, courage and patience during interview process is indispensable. They affirmed that ethically as well as logically correct practice to select an applicant through interview process is to judge him/her on the basis of his/her suitability for the job. The suitability is determined by applicant’s skillset, domain knowledge and commitment to the job. Hence, stuttering or stammering should pose no hindrance. In addition, genuine human resource people are keen observers and do not ask from the applicant whether they are PWS. Though applicant is always free to take the call and expose his/her stammering at the beginning of interview, if that helps the applicant to control his/her stammering.

In the end, participants started viewing HR people as their friend and not enemies. They reached out to them for personalised queries. I hope this change in perspective lasts all through their professional lives.

Report Prepared by: Aashima Gogia