Gender-bender
The sure-shot way to increase your women headcount
Many women find it difficult to cope up with work once they have children. When Google saw this mass exodus happening in their company, a couple of years ago, they got alert.
They were smart enough to realize that, believe it or not, this skewed male-female ratio had strangely also begun to impact their bottom line. That's when Google went all out to woo its women employees back into their fold.
Studies suggest that the women employees boost productivity in every organization.
If you assume a situation where the number of women employees is almost equal to the number of males, the GDP of US would increase by 5%, Japan’s by 9% and India’s by 27%!
51% of women have stated that it is very difficult to move up the career ladder once they have children and 16% of the fathers agree.
42% of working mothers decreased the number of their working hours to care for their children and home and 28% fathers did the same.
Yet, the situation is far from rosy. Although its most often a desk-bound role, only 25% of IT positions are held by women. This is also reflected in college enrollments. The number of women students opting for a Computer Science course stands miserably at 14%.
Blue chip companies such as Apple and IBM have already started addressing this issue. They are devising special flex packages while giving them the option of working remotely.
Doing flexitime
Include details of such work models in your job postings.
Maternity issues
Recently, Flipkart, India's biggest e-commerce company started offering a 24-week extension of maternity leave, along with the option of flexible timing for the next four months with full pay. They also allow a career break of one year without pay, and other benefits, such as transport reimbursement, maternity tie-ups with hospital, parenting counseling, child care support and insurance benefits for all employees.
Hindustan Unilever offers five-year career breaks and part-time work policies to retain women employees and recruit more.
Dabur allowed its women to take extended maternity leave of 90 days.
The opportunities seem very appealing especially women who are on the look-out for building a career without compromising on their home responsibilities. If your organization would like to offer such opportunities, we can help you implement and track your programme's progress.
Get in touch with us today.
