International Women's Day: How enterprises of today are promoting inclusive workplaces for the female workforce

The theme of this year’s International Woman’s Day is #BalanceforBetter, promoting the idea of a gender-balance world. Employment or mere access to employment avenues go a long way in the genesis of a world that is balanced and inclusive. For generations, women have struggled to make their way into the sprawling corporate corridors. However, that story is changing as women claim their share in the workforce of today. Furthermore, several leading enterprises have been supporting the ambition of women by coming up with favourable policies and initiatives for the female workforce. As we celebrate the International Women’s Day 2019, let’s discover the women-friendly initiatives and policies helmed by the leading enterprises in India:

 Cybage: 32% of women propelling the engineering force

Women in tech is a rarity but not for the technology consulting organization, Cybage. Determined to create a transparent, unbiased, capability-driven ecosystem in the workplace, the engineering force of Cybage flaunts 32% representation of women a number that has consistently and consciously increased year-on-year.

In addition to the limited representation of women in tech, another hard-hitting fact is a gender wage gap. However, Cybage attempts to rectify the same with a performance-driven appraisal system, ensuring equal pay for equal work. To further ensure proper work-life balance for women employees Cybage offers benefits such as close-by daycare facilities, flexible maternity leave policies, late-night transport services and the provision of additional shadow resources. Ensuring safety at the workplace, the company swears by a zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy in place with a special committee to ensure the enforcement of the same.

Cybage further aspires to achieve a 1:1 ratio in its workforce. However, the dream is difficult to achieve with only 29% of engineering graduates being females in India. Thus, to further the education of girls in the STEM field, the company actively works through its CSR arm, CybageKhushboo. CybageKhushboo has sponsored thousands of students for their higher education, specifically giving birth to a new generation of female engineers with an aim to reduce the gender gap at a country-level and achieve a balance for better.

 Satya MicroCapital: All-Women Managed Branches

Another field that largely snubs women workforce is banking and finance. However, India’s leading NBFC-MFI, Satya MicroCapital has 8 dedicated branches that are only managed by the women workforce. Furthermore, these branches are based in the hinterlands of India, in cities like Azamgarh, Varanasi, Balia, Gorakhpur, Sultanpur, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, and Chandauli.

The employees across all of these branches and various zonal business teams are women, including Entrepreneurship Development Officers (EDOs), Branch Heads and Assistant/Deputy Credit Managers, with each team member working in tandem to ensure quick and efficient decision-making and credit disbursements.

The all-women officers in the Easter Uttar Pradesh branches serve as catalysts for uplifting less-privileged women and households socio-economically. In addition, the network of branches and officers also play a crucial role in helping uplift economically backwards and vulnerable women across as many households as possible.

 Zoomcar: #SheDrives campaign to ease women’s access to personal mobility

Another populist stereotype insists upon claiming women to be bad drivers. However, Zoomcar is challenging the same stereotype, while easing women’s access to personal mobility. On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, the self-drive car rental company has launched a campaign titled #SheDrives. The campaign encourages more and more women drivers to hit the roads by helping them complete the entire spectrum of learning how to drive via their neighbourhood licensed driving school and helping them own a car by subscribing to one.

Inviting women to conquer the roads, Zoomcar is providing 10 women with 3 months’ free car subscription from ZAP Subscribe. And that’s not all! Those women who wish to subscribe to a car and have procured a driving license in the past 6 months can have their fee reimbursed from Zoomcar as well, simply by showing the receipt of the driving school.

 MG Motor: 31% of women in an Auto Major

Carmaker MG (Morris Garages) Motor India has, time and again, showcased its commitment towards diversity and community development. Right from top management to basic job titles, MG has given wings to women by hiring 31% women employees, more than any other auto major. At the corporate office of MG, 166 out of 400 workforce are women on the shop floor. From marketing to product engineering, women workers are charging several pivotal tasks at MG Motor India.

The enterprise has also partnered with PeopleStrong to increase the participation of female professionals across the board ahead of the launch of MG Hector, the brand’s first India-centric product, in Q2 2019. Currently, total women employees are 31% out of 1,200, compared with 26% earlier, and MG plans to take it to 1,500.

MG Motor India also signed MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with IIMPACT, an NGO engaged in providing quality education to the girl child through its learning centres in remote villages across the country. Under the programme, MG Motor India will adopt and support 30 learning centres run by the NGO across India.