Synopsis Top companies like Bharti Airtel, Vedanta, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, Siemens, Genpact and Tech Mahindra are taking more steps to increase diversity ratios, including recruiting women from campuses by targeting women-only colleges or colleges with a higher percentage of women, women leadership programmes, offering remote working options and flexibility. Representative Image India Inc may be recruiting more women from campuses for better gender diversity, but women are dropping out of the talent pipeline at mid-to-senior levels. Though there are three women for every 10 employees in India Inc, only one makes it to the leadership team of 10, a study by staffing firm CIEL HR exclusively for ET has revealed.
Top companies like Bharti Airtel , Vedanta , Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel , Siemens , Genpact and Tech Mahindra are taking more steps to increase diversity ratios, including recruiting women from campuses by targeting women-only colleges or colleges with a higher percentage of women, women leadership programmes, offering remote working options and flexibility. But such efforts have yet to impact the top echelons of these companies, according to the study. “…representation of women at executive leadership levels continues to remain low,” Aditya Mishra, chief executive of CIEL HR Services , told ET.
The study, which was conducted in January 2023, covered the workforce of 528 companies pan-India employing 1. 2 million people across IT, Business Process Management, startups, micro, small and medium enterprises, pharma, manufacturing, engineering, projects, construction, fast-moving consumer goods and electric vehicles. Vedanta is hiring more women from top institutes, including all-women campuses like Banasthali Vidyapith.
In addition, it is also going to colleges that have a greater percentage of women in the batch. “We definitely aim to hire more female candidates, be it at entry level or for senior leadership roles,” said Madhu Srivastava, CHRO, Vedanta, which is aiming for 50% women talent in its campus hiring programme without compromising on quality. Tata Steel has a scholarship programme ‘ Women of Mettle ’ that provides young female engineering students with manufacturing industry exposure.
There are also other initiatives like Women@Mines and Tejaswini for women in mining and other core jobs. Tata Steel is aiming for a 25% diverse workforce by 2025, a spokesperson said in an emailed response. Bharti Airtel , through its ‘Step In’ programme, has recruited 40 women from tier-2 and tier-3 cities who work remotely.
“This has equally helped us in expanding our existing talent pool and providing women with newer opportunities. We hope this will encourage more women to continue pursuing their careers at Airtel,” said Amrita Padda, chief people officer, Bharti Airtel. Larsen & Toubro has set a target to achieve 10% women in its workforce by 2026.
Through its lateral hiring channels, L&T has added about 1,900 women to the workforce, thereby “taking our overall women workforce to 7. 6%,” said C Jayakumar, head - corporate HR, L&T. L&T’s major intake is through engineering trainee hiring.
“This year was unique as we inducted two batches of GETs, inducting about 3,000 engineering trainees at Mumbai & Chennai campus, through a structured three-day orientation programme,” Jayakumar said. Women-specific initiatives at L&T include ‘Renew’ a talent acquisition portal designed for re-entry of women into the workforce post-maternity and child-rearing; ‘Winspire’ an initiative to celebrate and share the journey of women leaders; GROW (Get Ready to Own & Win) that provides opportunities to women employees to explore their leadership potential. Siemens India is hiring proportionally higher women this year to further improve its diversity metric.
“Our entry-level hiring aims to have 50% women representation,” said Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari, country head (people and organization), Siemens India. Tech Mahindra has various programmes such as COLORS, Mentoring Tables, Role Model Series, fAIM, Women Leaders to give women opportunities to develop their careers, said its global chief people officer Harshvendra Soin. The IT services provider’s target is to reach 37% women by 2025-26 from 34.
1% in FY22. Women at Genpact comprise 42% of total employees globally and 50% of its Board. “But for us, a very important milestone would be getting to a 50/50 gender split, across all levels of the organisation,” said a Genpact spokesperson.
Some of the initiatives at Genpact include gender diversity hiring targets, Women's Leadership Programme, and a mentorship-sponsorship programme - Pay it forward. Don’t miss out on ET Prime stories! Get your daily dose of business updates on WhatsApp. click here! Monday, 27 Feb, 2023 Experience Your Economic Times Newspaper, The Digital Way! Read Complete Print Edition » Front page Pure Politics Companies Brands & Companies More ECB will do Whatever it Takes to Return Inflation to 2% Goal The European Central Bank will do whatever it takes to get inflation back to its target of 2% and keep it there, ECB president Christine Lagarde said in an interview.
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