Women shine in India Inc

A study to analyse and evaluate gender parity in corporate India  conducted by the Great Place to Work (GPTW) on behalf of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Indian Women Network (IWN)  throws up interesting facts.

Released yesterday at the CII-IWN Roundtable, the study titled Best Workplaces for Women, surveyed over 4.5 lakh women employees across 852 companies, to rate the state of pay parity and gender representation.“The study has reaffirmed our belief that increasing women participation in the workforce has to be a joint stakeholder effort,” says Vaishali Nigam Sinha, Chairperson of CII-IWN and Chief Sustainability Officer, ReNew Power, a power producer of renewable energy. Sinha tells us more:

What are the key findings of the study?
The Best Workplaces for Women reported higher employee retention, greater engagement and motivation, and willingness to give discretionary effort. On an average, it witnessed higher representation of women in senior leadership roles (average 26 per cent). These companies have taken steps to train and groom talent to create leaders, and have better gender pay parity than others.

Have you witnessed any changes in gender parity this year compared to the last three years in which you conducted this study?
The 2020 survey covered more industries, apart from the usual suspects IT & Finance. The biggest change is that the organisations have started consciously modifying their people practices to make them more gender-friendly. Eighty per cent of the best workplaces today have someone internally to promote inclusion, which is a big step forward. This is reflected in more and more organisations adopting policies and programmes to help working women. However, merely having policies is not enough. We need a paradigm shift in leadership and managerial styles. This implies a highly gender sensitised management, elimination of subconscious biases and stereotypes and a genuine spirit to allow women equal access to growth opportunities.

What are the salient features of the best workplaces for women?
These places identify talented women early, then nurture, groom and skill them for leadership roles. They run mentorship programmes for women employees. These places examine processes and policies to create equality and equity in pay, performanc e and promotions. Sixty-five percent of these have an equal-pay audit, transparent appraisals and salary structures, initiatives to proactively correct pay for outliers, audits and benchmarking studies to correct any gender pay gap. These places also provide supporting structures that acknowledge the individual contexts of employees, including psychological and emotional well-being, focus on stress management , mental health, etc.

Which industry tops the table?
The industries that see higher overall economic participation of women (apart from the conventional notfor- profit and educational ones), viz 24 per cent are professional services, media, healthcare IT, retail, and BFSI (Banking, financial services and insurance). We noticed an interesting trend in the manufacturing industry, normally considered a male bastion. Here, the Best Workplaces reported a 19 per cent participation of women whereas manufacturing industries reported just 9 per cent.

How much disparity is witnessed in pay and promotions?
We don’t have this in terms of exact numbers, but this is a consistent gap in most organisations we work with. Women report eight points lower feedback than their male counterparts on fair pay and six points lower feedback on fair promotions. India Inc. must acknowledge this problem. The next step should be to identify the root causes and address them.

The Trust Index survey says around 70 per cent women employees shared a positive experience for their workplace culture. What are the grouses of the remaining 30 per cent?
Dealing with bias and favouritism at the workplace, feeling of continuously having to prove your worth, and working extra harder for visibility. There’s lack of candid and objective feedback, with a clear direction for growth. Lack of a sponsor or guide at the workplace, who can help women grow or overcome typical challenges. Lack of supporting ecosystems for unconventional roles in core, field, and factory operations, and roles requiring travel. Safety, hygiene are also important concerns for women.

In a nutshell

The Best Workplaces for Women reported higher employee retention, greater engagement and motivation, to give discretionary effort. It witnessed higher representation of women in senior leadership roles (average 26 per cent). These companies have taken steps to train and groom talent to create leaders, and have better gender pay parity than others.