Some Companies That Boast Of High Women Participation
Emma Watson - "How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?"
Thought provoking statement! But how many are true believers in it? So let’s talk about facts and figures. Let's talk about some firms that are trying to bridge gender disparity and take steps to hire MORE female employees. Let's see how they are making a difference!
Top Five Firms with Female Workforce
IBM
IBM India Pvt Ltd that holds the number one slot in India with a total 1.3 lakh women employees is also the fourth largest employer in the IT industry. As an initiative, they send recruitment teams to suburban residential complexes for a woman-only hiring programme that seeks to bring experienced women back into the workforce. Kalpana Margabandhu, Director, IBM India Software Lab, who has switched jobs just once in a 25-year career, says - Once a company provides a safe work environment with need-based flexibility as well as a growth opportunity, women rarely feel the need to change jobs. Margabandhu has balanced a fast-track career with raising a family, and now heads the Women Leadership Council in IBM India. “Women who take a break for family reasons are valuable resources that can be hired back with focused mentoring and counselling,” says Margabandhu, who initiated a woman-only hiring programme, across age groups, to woo such women back to IBM.
At the global level - IBM is planning to launch a service to help the company's working moms ship breast milk home to their babies while they are on business trips."We are going to experiment with this and see how many women are interested," said Barbara Brickmeier, vice president of benefits at IBM, an American multinational technology and consulting corporation.
L’Oréal
L’Oréal the famous French cosmetic brand which firmly believes “You are worth it” also boasts of a female workforce that accounts 65 % globally. In 2014, L’Oreal USA became the first company to bag the EDGE Gender Equality certification. “With the certification, L’Oréal USA created a customized roadmap towards continued progress in gender equality, which includes a broader adoption of flexible work arrangements and continued development of leaders across both genders. At the global level, L’Oréal is in the process of certifying operations in seven other countries.”
One of the aspiring stories shared by a L’Oréal employee Ritu Mital – After complications in her pregnancy, she was worried as she has to be away from work for a longer time than planned, she was quite anxiousto be able to resume work on similar terms. L'Oreal didn't want to lose a valuable resource and agreed. Now in a bigger role as manager - sales planning, Mital gets to work flexible hours — coming in late, leaving early, and working from home when she needs to.
Marriott International Inc
Across the globe at Marriott, women comprise nearly 60 percent of management and hold many powerful jobs, such as president of a major operating division and global chief marketing and commercial officer. Arne M. Sorenson, President and CEO says - “Since the pioneering work of our co-founder Alice S. Marriott in 1927, we have continued to benefit from the leadership and talents of many women who have shaped our workplace and the growth of our company.”
- % of senior managers who are women: 39%
- % of promotions to manager, senior manager and corporate executive positions that went to women: 53%
- % of corporate executives with profit-and-loss responsibility who are women: 23%
- % of executives who report directly to the CEO who are women: 20%
- % of female workforce participating in mentoring: 4%
Marriott also encourages expectant mothers to join Marriott's confidential maternity program with a $1,000 medical expense incentive also support from trained labor and delivery nurses. Employees as a whole gain special benefits for loyalty, too: after 25 years, Marriott employees earn free access to Marriott hotels for the rest of their lives. While day-to-day benefits vary by location, many employees enjoy free snacks during the day, health coverage, and banking services. "People take an interest in your growth and development. As long as you put the effort in and show that you want to grow your career, the sky is the limit," says one employee
Tata Consultancy Services [TCS]
In 2014, TCS crossed the mark of one lakh employees accounting for one-third of the IT workforce as women. N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD, TCS says - We have a lot of female talent in India, especially in the technology space. It's great to see that the company has been able to attract them. From 10,000 to 1, 00,000, that is a growth of about 10x in 10 years”. Mentioning the other senior positions taken up by women N Chandrasekaran says - In the senior-most level, we have around 4-5 women. Our Deputy Head of HR, Ritu Anand, Vijaya Deepti, who heads our insurance product, Aarthi Subramanian takes care of governance across the board, Sukanya, who handles our travel and hospitality business, and Michelle Lemmens, who is the centre manager of our all-women BPO in Saudi Arabia. She asked for the job when she was in Australia, and she has done everything from recruiting the first associate to scaling it up to 300 associates in a year. It's a pretty remarkable thing to do!
Nupur Mallick the HR Head for the Uk and Ireland says – I decided to quit my job after stepping into motherhood in 2002, but when I approached N Chandrasekaran with the resignation letter - His reassuring smile was enough for me to take back my resignation," recalls Mallick. Nupur went on a one year leave and rejoined the organization.
Genpact
As reported in 2013 the firm has an employee count of 60,000 and in that, 40 percent of the staff has been occupied by the women professionals. Genpact, a hardcore believer of gender diversity, has 38 % of women employees at the global level. In the year 2015, as an initiative Genpact launched the biggest gender diversity initiatives till date; Genpact has rolled out an ambitious plan to hire women who have taken a mid-career break for any reason.
Diversity is connected positively with innovation. An increase in women has been linked to a group's effectiveness in solving difficult problems. Here at Genpact, we drive gender diversity even harder as a business-critical mission versus a 'nice-to-do'," said NV Tyagarajan, CEO and president at Genpact.
Some of the famous studies conducted across the globe highlight interesting facts-
- According to McKinsey, companies across all sectors with the most women on their boards of directors significantly and consistently outperform those with no female representation – by 41% in terms of return on equity and by 56% in terms of operating results
- Thomson Reuters examined the performance of companies with more than 30% women on their board compared with those with less than 10% women on their board and found that companies with greater numbers of women leaders fared better during periods of greater economic volatility
- Leeds University Business School reports that having, at least, one female director on the board appears to cut a company’s chances of going bust by about 20%.
- The Conference Board of Canada found that 91% of boards with three or more women directors explicitly take responsibility for verifying audit information compared with 74% of companies with all male directors.
There are women who make things better, there are women who change things, there are women who make things happen, who make a difference. I want to be one of those women - Vera Farmiga
Would you hire one?
