Did You Know About These Initiatives by Companies for Women Employees?

By Ruchi Sharma

‘Diversity is a program, inclusion is a state of mind’: Indira Nooyi, Former Chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo

What is the first thing you look at when joining a new job? Probably the most common answer is ‘salary’ or maybe ‘work hours flexibility’, right? But as women we need to look carefully at many aspects like security and safety at work, underlying maternity benefits, health insurance status and much more. Gender inclusive policies at the workplace are the need of the hour and Indira Nooyi’s tweet above talks about just that! Employer branding initiatives include boosting existing employee experience which includes various perks that are not only training and leadership but other benefits too that lead to happy employees. Though many benefits offered by corporates to their employees include paid leaves and health insurance but when we as women think about it, we look at it a bit differently, right from work hours being part time or working remotely to telecommuting options, child care facilities, safety at work and better work environment, we need to take a look at it all. Gender inclusive practices like ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ and equal opportunities for leadership roles is another aspect of gender inclusivity we all need. 

Let us note some points we as women would love to see at our prospective or current workplace!

• Adequate work hours and safely dropping off home service offered by the company in case of occasional late working hours
• Equal pay for equal work, regardless of anything, if we are at same position as an ‘X’ person, we should be compensated same
• Options of flexible and remote working under special circumstances.
• Period Leaves (now that’s a must!)
• Equal opportunities for promotion and leadership opportunities
• Equality in every aspect- no looking down upon from anyone 
• Preferably child care facilities at work place

So, now that we know the initiatives we seek, let’s take a look at some of the initiatives taken by the companies to achieve gender diversity and also retain more women in the workforce! 

Companies in India Offering Period Leaves

Talking about periods is no longer a taboo. The painful starting days of the periods are something we all relate with. And finally recognizing the need of the hour, many companies have taken initiative to include period leaves for their women employees. Kudos to them, we really appreciate it. And we hope to see this become a common feature in all the workplaces soon. Here are the company’s names:

• Zomato
• Magzter
• Swiggy
• Byju
• IndutryArc
• IVIPANAN
• Matrubhumi
• Flymybiz
• Gozoop

Gender Diversity and Inclusion

Focusing on gender diversity and inclusion here are some organizational initiatives by some companies:

Tata Consultancy Service (TCS)

Nearly one third employees of TCS India are women. With focus on becoming an ‘equal employer’, they have their inclusion policy at place. They organisational initiatives also, include programs for working mothers as well.

Accenture

Focused on becoming an inclusive workplace where everyone has equal opportunity, their top board consists of 24% women and overall women employees are nearly 45% of the total workforce, they aim to achieve a gender balanced workforce by 2025. Their program Vaahini, a networking forum enabled by Accenture, is a pioneering network towards encouraging women in the workforce and more women in leadership. In their India units, life insurance benefits earlier were for spouses or family members now can be for any nominee. 

Larsen and Turbo (L&T)

India’s construction and engineering giant is focusing on gender balance and inclusion embracing ‘Winspire’ aimed at spreading awareness and acceptance of workplace gender balance and diversity. 

In addition, the government is also recognizing this and initiatives are being undertaken to enhance women representation in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). Other companies like Amazon, Zomato, Meta (formerly Facebook) etc. are also focused on gender diversity and inclusion. The corporates are also including csr company initiatives that go beyond work, for helping women outside their organisation as well.

Getting Women Back in Workforce:

Women were the worst hit during the pandemic and not only faced loss of jobs but also the burden of unpaid work related to household work and child & other caregiving responsibilities fell on their shoulders. Recognizing the need of the hour, many companies have come forward to encourage women back in the work force.  

• Amazon Rekindle Program
• Google Next Innings Program
• Microsoft Springboard
• IBM’s Tech Re-entry Program
• Accenture Return to Work Program
• PayPal Recharge India
• SimpliLearn Back To Work Program

Time to get back to your career if you had to leave out due to any reason, and above initiatives could help you with your new journey!

Maternity and Health Benefits for Women:

Health benefits like insurance etc. are really important for everyone, be it men or women. But for females it is even a step more as benefits related to child care and maternity is something that concerns them.

Nestle

Offering a pre and post maternity policy, they offer 26 weeks fully paid maternity leave and the right to return to the same or equivalent job or work from home too. Above that there are special travel entitlements for the mother, child and caregiver. They offer adoptive parent leave too that implies a leave for parents when they adopt a child. Recognizing the requirement of a conducive environment for breastfeeding for mother and child, Nestle is also committed to build mandatory breastfeeding rooms in all their facilities that have more than 50 women. Reasonable daily breaks for breastfeeding are there too. Working on the principle of attract, retain and develop, they focus on achieving gender diversity. It is also working towards equal pay for all employees.

Amazon India

In addition to insurance covers for all full-time employees regardless of their position, Amazon offers 26 weeks fully paid maternity leave and 12 weeks leave for mothers who adopt a child. ‘Ramp back program’ offers 8 weeks of flexibility and partial work hours for new parents and also a variety of time off options are available including leaves for personal time, personal emergencies etc. 

Accenture

Internationally, they offer a gender equal initiative- including health benefits, care for dependents (children, spouse, or elderly), 16 weeks paid maternity leave, 8 weeks paid time off for primary caregiver, 4 weeks for secondary caregiver, fertility and adoption support including reimbursement of adoption and surrogacy fees. Both father or mother are given the option to work locally after the return of birth of child or adoption, flexible work arrangements, paid leaves and life insurance too.

There are many companies who provide maternity leaves and extension of health insurance and other facilities to family members too for all their employees. ICICI offers 180 days leave for fertility treatment. Women employee security is also being addressed by the workplaces.

International Companies offering Initiatives for Women Employees

Internationally, there are many companies working towards it. According to Fortune, the top 3 places in the top 10 best workplaces for women in 2021 were Hilton Worldwide Inc., American Express and Bank of America. We hope to see many Indian companies in this list soon too! Some other international corporations that are focusing on how to celebrate diversity and inclusion in the workplace are IBM, Zensar, TCS, Pepsico, Bumble, Congnizant, Facebook, Uniliver, Hubspot and Visa.

Strengthening female presence in the workforce and creating a better work environment for women is one thing that every corporation needs to focus upon. Major IT, FMCG and consultancy companies are already working on it and we hope to see it everywhere soon!