While organizations have been promoting gender diversity at their workplaces, more efforts are needed to support women employees in pursuing their career aspirations and rise up the leadership ladder
As India strives to promote gender equality amongst other sustainable development goals (SDGs), it is important that Corporate India facilitates developmental opportunities for women employees so that more of them can rise to leadership positions. Though there has been good increase in the number of women being appointed to CEO roles between 2018 and 2021, they represent very small percent of the total number of CEOs driving operations across various industries in India. This underscores the urgency of introducing women-centric initiatives and creating a holistic appraisal framework that can groom high-performing women employees into future leaders.
Implementing an inclusive employee benefits package
With most women employees balancing personal and professional roles simultaneously, there is a need to provide more flexibility at the workplace. While the COVID-19 pandemic has made work-from-home (WFH) a viable option, organizations need to provide a diverse range of benefits to their women employees with the aim of alleviating their struggles. This includes offering enhanced medical coverage that covers maternity-related expenses, counselling for mental health issues and even training programs that can inculcate leadership skills. Offering a comprehensive employee benefits package can go a long way in motivating more women employees to continue working and keep improving their skillsets in order to take up executive roles within the organization.
Reducing pay inequalities and addressing issues at the workplace
The need to remunerate employees fairly, and without any bias towards a particular gender, should be one of the top priorities for companies looking to truly inculcate gender diversity at the top. Paying women employees and leaders on par with their male counterparts needs to be pursued by corporates, especially considering the fact that the Indian constitution recognized the principle of ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ more than four decades ago. This should be complemented with equal development and work opportunities being provided, encouraging more women to step up to larger responsibilities and roles within the organization. Additionally, issues such as instances of sexual harassment or discrimination should be addressed immediately and efforts need to be made to establish a comfortable working environment for women employees. Any misstep or lack of intent in driving these changes could be detrimental to the objective of improving gender diversity at the workplace, eventually leading to the organization losing out on talented female employees who would have otherwise risen to higher levels.
Facilitating women employees to explore their talent spectrum
Despite the fact that women do excel in particular types of intelligence, they are often forced to stifle themselves and are often subjugated to lesser roles in many organizations. This could result from an organizational mindset issue or merely because of a lack of understanding regarding sex differences in human intelligence. It is therefore crucial to recognize the talent spectrum of women employees and offer them the necessary space to excel at the workplace. Stimulating emerging women leaders with relevant on-job opportunities, enrolling them for executive education programs and involving them in networking events should help towards this end.
Promoting and employing more women in top-level leadership roles
Dissecting the internal hiring and upgradation policy being adopted at any organization is the key to understanding why few women find themselves being employed at CXO-level positions. Any inherent prejudices should be done away with and emphasis should be put on implementing an appraisal mechanism that recognizes the all-round contribution being made by women employees. Having leaders who can advocate for rising female talent is another aspect that could provide the much-needed impetus for the company’s women workforce, thereby inspiring other women employees to follow suit. The ultimate aim is to foster the creation of a work environment where female voices are amplified rather than being stifled, with more women leaders being promoted to the top steps within an organization.
(The article has been curated by the Chief Human Resource Officer at Future Generali India Life Insurance, Reena Tyagi especially for BW People publication)