Harish Navuluru

This is a very important aspect of the growth of our country. Much as we talk about the talent crunch in the HR fraternity as a whole, we fail to recognize the aspect of increasing the number of women employees within our organizations. Have women been able to get a share in the corporate world ?

My take on this :

I personally believe that there is a lot of potential in women that needs to be harnessed. Some are right when they say there are only a handful of women who have made it big in the corporate world and that too by sacrificing much of personal life, and when we take an overall scenario we wont find many in the top management. But there is a reason behind it.

We would have to understand the evolution of the careers of women as we try to unravel this. When we hire freshers (both men and women) from college, they are at the same level. In fact, my experience tells me that some of the best performing employees have been women. Their families are happy and support them totally. Once the initial euphoria goes off, the family starts pestering most of the women for marriage. I have known hundreds of top-performing women leaving their jobs to go marry someone who is in a different city or a different country. In most of the cases, parents do not even bother about killing her career. In the sense, marrying her off into a family which may or may not support her career ambitions. Or maybe she would have to relocate to a place where a suitable employment is impossible for her based on her skills. What happens to her career then ? Its killed just when she is about to embark on the middle-tier of the corporate.

She either quits working altogether or takes up something which is below par to her ability. Considering that she survives till that stage to marry someone who supports her job/shift, after a year or two they would be facing the big question of starting a family. Once this happens, her priorities are totally changed as is wont with nature. First priority would be the baby. Best case scenario, she might lose 6-7 months of the peak-performing period of her career. Worst case scenario (am talking about complicated pregnancies), she might end up losing more than a year and half. When she rejoins back, would she be in the state of mind that she quit ? Absolutely NO. Because she has been out of touch not just with her work, but with the work culture too. Suddenly people also start treating her differently. Major responsibilities are many times not given to new-moms because people think they would need an easy job which is stress free. I am not saying it shouldn’t be done, in fact they deserve as much of a lee-way as the organization can afford at that stage. Consider a second baby and then imagine where her career would be ? In the meantime, where is her peer (male) who joined work with her as a fresher by now ? He is at least 2-3 notches above her in the hierarchy. Apart from all these also, there are many other socio-economic situations which play a part in defining the career of women. To say that inspite of all this, some women make it to the top of the organization hierarchy is an achievement, is an understatement. I personally salute their spirit and their multi-tasking abilities.

The only way we can ensure that women get their due share in the corporate world, is by having a definite percentage as target (of course based on merit) for hiring women to maintain a healthy female:male ratio on the floor. I have been fortunate to work with such companies which not only believed in this spirit, but did everything possible to achieve it too. I feel more such initiatives would ensure equal gender parity at work.

Some of the initiatives that might make a difference to retaining women employees would be :

1. Revamp the Maternity-leave policy:Most of the maternity leave policies we see in the Indian context offer 3-6 months of ML. Beyond which the employee would have to fend for herself. Culturally, we are a very different population. We are still not convinced about leaving our young ones in crèches for longer periods of time.Although we have seen a significant change in social behaviour regarding this with the advent of nuclear families where both spouses work. From an employers’ perspective, more needs to be done to give the cushion of a crèche at work. Having a crèche at work would add an immense value to the way the employer is perceived by the employee. It would also directly ensure that the organization does not lose a trained, experienced employee who can hit the ground running on her return.I am sure a mechanism of cost sharing between employer and employee can be evolved so that this would not become a burden on the employer alone during these cost-cutting days. For anyone who would argue on an austerity drive on this count, may be missing the point of a significant workforce whose engagement levels would be wholesome if such facilities are provided at the work-place.
2. Work-from-home/Flexi-timings Even as we debate about the productivity of women employees’ post their return from Maternity Leave, a Work-from-home/Flexi-timings as a wholesome policy would greatly motivate and help in retaining women employees. Just knowing that her organization has a policy where her needs are being addressed is a huge motivation. A loud and clear message goes to your work-force that your policies are people-centric.My experience with work-from-home/Flexi-timings when it was given to some women employees in not just teams that I managed but observed in other teams around me, has been amazing. When such an option is given to a woman employee, she ensures she does the task assigned to her in time, with the same commitment level that she displays while working in the office.
3. Clearly defined escalation mechanism to counter harassment at work A well defined escalation mechanism helps to minimize the occurrence of harassment at the workplace. The escalation process should be clearly spelt out, should provide for anonymous lodging of specific occurrence of harassment. Although there is a chance of this provision being mis-used, I am sure the percentage has been minimal in the few organizations where such mechanism exists.
   
4. Defining transparent policies The organization hierarchy too an important factor here. You cannot be having a boss-is-always-right type of hierarchy and work culture and expect everyone to be fair to their sub-ordinates.
   
5. Un-biased, process-oriented and objective Performance Management System
   
6. Responsive Human Resources team who believe in these principles. They should be willing to drive these policies home with enthusiasm. Many a good policy lies wasted when you do not have motivated and enthusiastic torch bearers from the HR team.

I am sure if some of these measures are in place, we would witness more women employees being able to break the so-called Glass Ceiling. Even if we are able to retain one percentage of women employees, we would have taken many steps in the right direction.

PS: Some portions of this article have been taken from my own contributions to a topic from http://hrlink.in/topics/have-women-found-their-due-share-in-the-corporate-world#PgTop