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    Burdened at home, fewer women want to return to work, finds a JobsForHer survey

    Synopsis

    Neha Bagaria, founder and chief executive, JobsForHer, further said, “With schools shut, no domestic help at home for many, and caregiving responsibilities for elderly parents, career has got deprioritised for many women.”

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    India's workforce participation rate of women returning to work after a career break sharply declined by a fourth in the last one year to May as the pandemic doubly burdened many of them. The impact has been worse in the second wave of the pandemic, according to a survey of more than 300 companies by JobsForHer, a job search portal for women.

    However, the hiring of women at the middle to senior level increased to 43% after the pandemic began from 18% earlier as several top companies made a conscious effort to make up for the shortfall in leadership roles, according to the findings of the survey shared exclusively with ET.

    Diversity experts said while many progressive organisations have enhanced efforts to increase the representation of women in the workforce after the pandemic led to a large-scale adoption of remote working, it has also widened already existing inequalities and challenges.

    “Women are bearing double or triple the burden at home now. A lot of women have quit the workplace, while others don’t want to return,” said Neha Bagaria, founder and chief executive, JobsForHer. “With schools shut, no domestic help at home for many, and caregiving responsibilities for elderly parents, career has got deprioritised for many women.”

    Experts said working women who earlier had a structure to their day with house helps, infrastructure of crèches and play schools are now under greater stress.

    “The Covid crisis has not only broken the back of many businesses, it has also rendered ineffective the many enablers women enjoyed in the workplace,” said Saundarya Rajesh, founder president, Avtar Group. “The flexibility, for which the woman once strove, has become a noose around her neck, especially when she is between jobs, reducing her chances of getting back,” she added.

    Some top companies are making an effort to fix this leaky talent pipeline of women on a career break.


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    “We acknowledge the additional pressures posed by the pandemic on the personal and professional lives of women and we are continuously working to see how our policies address the needs of a changing ecosystem,” said Richard Lobo, executive vice president and HR head, Infosys. “We have a robust program of assimilating women returning to work after a break and have not faced specific challenges,” he added.

    The company has launched a leadership development program for women, where high-performing senior project managers are empowered to accelerate their careers and aim for the top. “They get an opportunity to work closely with the leadership, explore their potential and showcase their mettle,” said Lobo.

    Similarly, diversified miner Vedanta has a focused programme on identification and structured anchoring of women by CEOs/CXOs to groom them as future leaders. “Currently there are 67 executive bodies with 30% gender diversity, and we aspire to increase the percentage by identifying women leaders in ‘deputy’ roles and groom them in 6-12 months to take up senior leadership positions,” said group CHRO Madhu Srivasatava.

    Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has specific policies and programmes that help women stay connected with the technological transformations and cultural shifts.

    “We have a series of initiatives to foster gender diversity. We have discussion circles to help women through major life stages, re-orientation programs to reconnect employees after long leave, and interactions with inspirational women leaders,” said Ritu Anand, Chief Leadership & Diversity Officer. “To equip mid-level managers to work with diverse teams we have several learning modules. Our special leadership development programs for high-performing women managers are helping us address their needs and aspirations,” she added.

    Digital payments company Phonepe hired about 300 people across various roles and functions between January and March, one third of whom were women. “With increased flexibility in working hours and work from home options, we believe that this number is only going to increase,” said Manmeet Sandhu, head of HR, PhonePe.

    “We aim to increase the representation of women in these leadership roles from 16% to 25% by December, with a target to reach 35% by the end of 2022,” said Sandhu.

    Tata Steel, which has set a target of 25% diversity by 2025, has improved the representation of women in the overall workforce. The steel major is taking active steps – such as agile working models and location agnostic roles - to onboard more women, not just in their offices but also on the shop floor.

    “We have experienced and heard that the challenges of the pandemic are many… It takes equal efforts from the employer and the family to create an enabling workplace for women resuming careers,” said a spokesperson.

    Diversity experts such as Saundarya of Avtar Group are of the view that it is important to reaffirm the business benefits of diversity to all corporations, especially to small and medium businesses. “Creating jobs for women and therefore putting money in their hands is a powerful route to ensuring increased consumer spending and therefore a huge fillip to the economy,” she said.



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