Corporate Culture : Women In Leadership Pride Of India Inc!

IT WAS IN THE YEAR 2013, A LAW WAS PASSED, MAKING IT ESSENTIAL FOR CORPORATES TO HAVE AT LEAST ONE WOMAN ON THEIR BOARD, WHICH HAS MADE AN IMPACT TODAY

Overcoming all negative notions, the new generation women have proved themselves even in uncharted waters. Back in 2013, India passed legislation for any company that was listed on the stock exchanges, making it essential to have at least one woman in their board of directors. It was a landmark law, given that at the time, more than two-third publicly traded companies in India did not have women board members. It is well known that women, despite starting their careers with equal levels of intelligence, education and commitment, were not making it to senior management positions as much as their male counterparts did. While things today may appear differently, has there really been a shift in attitudes?

A panel discussion, chaired by Veena Swaroop, Director HR, Engineers India Ltd, delved deep into the issue of women in leadership. Burning topics, such as the presence of glass ceiling in organisations, merit versus reservation for career advancement, and the lessons for individuals as well as organisations to further the cause of women, were freely discussed. The panel consisted of noted members of the HR diaspora from various organisations, including Vishpala Reddy, VP, Market HR India, American Express; Seema Bangia, Head HR, Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd; Shalabh Mundra, Vice President, UltraTech Ready Mix Concrete Division, Aditya Birla Group; and Simin Askari, Vice President Corporate HR, DS Group

What made the session truly interesting were the probing questions Ms Swaroop asked to each panellist.

These included:

• How is diversity of thought due to women employees impacting organisations? We oft en hear that there is a glass ceiling. What do you think, is there really a glass ceiling?
• What initiatives have been taken at your organisation to facilitate women improvement?
• How do you perceive women employees vis-a-vis men employees?
• Statistics show that till the middle levels we have 40% women and if we reach higher levels, it comes down to 8 per cent. What can we do to retain women beyond the middle levels?
• What advice would you give to the audience on how they should help women rise in their career?

The discussion brought in a variety of views, describing both, the achievements as well as the pain-points, endeavours being pursued at different stages to support women, as well as areas that still needed intervention. Read on to know Ms Swaroop’s opening remarks, and answers by each panelist to her above-mentioned questions

Glass ceiling is not a physical reality, but rather a virtual one. Th e data and statistics prove that. The good news is that working women have now realised that if they start asking, begin to have an open mind, develop risk taking ability, then they will succeed. It is like a two-way course. As a result, there is a change happening

VEENA SWAROOP (VS)

• Corporate diversity is the force multiplier and a game changer for growing organisations. Diversity brings in different perspectives to the table. Girls are being encouraged to join the B-schools so that the classrooms would have more variety in thoughts. Having said that, why is this issue being researched so much around the world?
• We generally talk about it only in women’s conferences, are we not stereotyping this too? Stereotyping female roles starts right from childhood. This attitude needs to be contained. Women are not present in senior position in companies, because they began very late. Until my mother’s generation, women would not work outside households. Today, I find both husband and wife are working. So, things are changing, and I’m optimistic that the future will see many more women at top positions.
• I believe that we don’t need any bogus system or false criteria for rising in positions. Organisations work on bottom line results, so if there is a good performer, why would anyone want to deprive that performer of good assignments? Prior to the EIL, I was working in ONGC. The ONGC has 14% women - very high for a public sector company. Some of the women are the best process engineers, instrumentation engineers and commissioning engineers at ONGC. Their work speaks for them. So, women need to have the confidence in themselves.
• I think the public sector is a little better off . We have a written test where both the girls and boys perform to the best of their abilities. Very oft en we find an equal number of girls and an equal number of boys coming up. We identify the best performer who is going to take the organisation forward. Th e objective is: let the best person win, be it a boy or a girl. But to have this kind of a vision, the mindset of both the men and women need to change fast.

VISHPALA REDDY (VR)

• Organisations understand that diversity in no longer a legacy. There is a scientific proof as to why it is important to have diversity in teams. However, the difference is in terms of confidence levels. If you ask a male boss, “can you make it to the top?” research suggests, 76 per cent of them would say yes. But when the same question is asked to women, 50 per cent reply with “maybe”. When a new job is internally available, men would speak to their supervisor even if they possess only 70 per cent of the skills needed for the job. But woman will hesitate unless they have 100 percent skills needed for the job. Men will ask when they need an appraisal. Women will hesitate. So there’s a lot that women themselves can do. But the organisation and the leadership have a role to play too.
• Glass ceiling is not a physical reality, but rather a virtual one. Th e data and statistics prove that. Th e good news is that working women have now realised that if they start asking, begin to have an open mind, develop risk taking ability, then they will succeed. It is like a two-way course. As a result, there is a change happening.
• At American Express, we take diversity very seriously. We have a lot of onsite activities where we provide for our employees, including on site clinics, and pregnancy care programs. We have an extremely active Women Interest Network, which is spearheaded by senior members of the organizations. Th e network develops as well as projects women across the organization. We work on creating ‘readiness’ in our women employees for their potential, and for this purpose we don’t just have day or week-long programs, but also programs with longer gestation periods. We also connect women not just internally but at an external forum as well. Collaborations with other Ivy League organizations have helped them learn from each other’s best practices. We are providing many platforms to our high potential women employees, and I think it’s working for us.
• At American Express, we have been introducing our senior women leaders to the concept of sponsorship. Sponsorship is one step beyond mentoring. Th rough a mentoring set up, the women employees meet the sponsors once in a month or two. A sponsor is someone who can vouch for the work ethic and reputation of a colleague. A sponsor is interested in the individual’s work achievements. One cannot just go up to somebody and ask that person to be a sponsor. Sponsorship should be earned. Sponsorship happens if you are good and if you are working extremely hard. You will encourage that person to build a network around her and build relationships. Th ere are rules so that those who are sponsors and those who are getting sponsorships, have a role to play. It is not a one-way relationship. I think the concept of sponsorship is very important and we very oft en see our senior most women say that it is not enough to just have a boss or your direct supervisor as your sponsor, but you should be looking at multiple sponsors, who could be external to the organization or internal. But mostly it should be people who are in a position to influence. Often in talent conversations, that push makes a big difference. Th e one voice on the table who would say with conviction that this person can make a difference.
• From an organization’s standpoint, the key thing should be measurement. The diversity ratio at certain levels is more and at other levels it is less. It is really a business leader’s metrics and not an HR metric. More than just representation, the metrics can mean that a certain percentage of diversity is required for different roles. From an employee’s standpoint, it is not about differentiation between men and women. It is about creating an inclusive culture, and encouragement to women. We need to not only connect people, but also share their success stories as well as their challenges. We sometimes overlook simple things like that

Seema Bangia (SB)

• “Equal opportunities” is a common phrase in companies right now. But equal participation of women and men in decision making processes at all levels needs to become the norm. Mahindra & Mahindra is a large conglomerate with about 2.25 lakhs of people across sectors. I come from Mahindra Defence. It’s a male-dominated sector and I was one of the few women who joined the organisation back in the days but I believed HR processes remain constant wherever you go. In the last few years there has been an increase in women employees. We now have about 5% women, and this paradigm shift happened because of the organisation’s efforts.
• Our CMD is none other than a woman, Ms Anita Vikas. We encourage more women at the executive board level. But, we need to encourage more women also at mid managerial levels. I agree with my co-panellists who said it should be performance-centric rather than woman-centric. For that we need a conducive environment to be created. So that when women are performing, they are recognized for that performance
• People in many organisations have really gone out of their way to support the gender diversity initiative. A well-known car brand has once-a-week grocery market for employees on their campus. Some of these organisations are going overboard also. But at Mahindra, we have taken a very balanced approach. We have the usual things like extended maternity benefits, but other than that, every policy is the same for both genders.
• We also identify women employees who work very hard and have the urge to walk the extra mile. After we identify them, they go through a mentoring process by participating in various forums with which we have tie ups.
• As I said earlier, I think a lot of efforts and initiatives are being taken by the organisations and now it is up to the women employees to take that forward. Women should come out of their comfort zones and say that yes, we can do it. To give a specific example, we have hired a few women employees who like to work in a male dominated industry like ours. With the focus on ‘Make in India’ initiative, this is the time for women to evolve and walk that extra mile.

Women are not present in senior position in companies, because they began very late. Until my mother’s generation, women would not work outside households. Today, I find both husband and wife are working

We need to take a step forward. We need to understand that a woman may have issues at home which would affect her performance. It is important to not penalise them for that

SHALABH MUNDRA (SM)

Vice President, UltraTech Ready Mix Concrete Division
• Most women start out with great merits, but due to lack of support in the system or in their families they tend to go slow. This is happening in the sector where I am working. We have been working for last many years in cement, readymix concrete and construction sectors. While traditionally, it has been dominated by men, in the past decade itself, many women engineers and planners have joined the planning and design sections. We are also having women coming from different places working in construction sites and in tough and difficult environments. Going forward, the situation will become like China, where majority of the design and quality managers are women. The challenge for companies, however, is how do we initiate systems which nurture and support women.
• First of all, we try to get the right talent in the right position, irrespective of the gender. So, in case we have women for difficult jobs, we are creating systems so that the actual work becomes easier. When I talk about our businesses in apparel sector and retail, the percentage of women placed in these sectors is high. When it comes to manufacturing, the increase which is happening is slow. Although the sectors are different, there will be a gradual increase in the years to come
• We are focusing a lot on increasing recruitment of women in functions like HR, finance, corporate communications and also taking women from engineering colleges to work in factories and shop floors of our manufacturing facilities. In the cement industry, we have increased the diversity in our sales force and have more women working in sales, customer support, and some have graduated to become the in-charge of a city. So, we are gradually seeing the improvement happening.
• Apart from the fact that companies are doing a lot for women, women themselves need to step up. After working for 8 to 10 years, they tend to take it slow due to lack of support. So that is where they need to make great efforts. Lots of women were in that stage of life where they were under pressure or anxiety, but have risen to senior leadership positions despite those stresses. So this is one area which I feel would help women grow from middle level to senior leadership positions.
• One major point I would like to make is that organisations are supporting women in various ways, but women themselves need to become more determined to prolong their careers

SIMIN ASKARI (SA)


Vice President Corporate HR, DS Group
• When we talk about leadership qualities, most of them are masculine in nature. Women are stereotyped as emotional, non-aggressive and soft spoken. I see a lot of organisations trying to bring in more women in their workforce. There are now regulations in place which mandate the presence of women board members. But such reservation breeds discrimination and I am not in favour of it. In most Indian organisations, the scrutiny on the performance of women is probably a little harsher than that of men. Obviously, I am happy to see more women in companies, but that is not necessarily the end of this discussion. Organisations need to hire women not merely because they are women, and not merely for diverse views; it should be based on merit of doing a good job. I am waiting for a day when we are sitting around and talking about great leaders, some of whom just happen to be women.
• You could say that there is glass ceiling to a certain extent. But if you have the conviction, if you have the will, if you have the competence, there is nothing that is going to hold you back. We don’t see a lot of women in the leadership positions. It maybe because they are under a lot of societal pressure, a lot of restrictions, a lot of other responsibilities that they need to overcome and perform with these pressures. And, that probably restricts them from rising further.
• We have a decent number of women in the workforce, even in our manufacturing We have policies which are gender neutral but specific to women also. We find a lot of women in senior leadership positions as well and we definitely don’t discriminate based on gender.
• We need to take a step forward. We need to understand that a woman may have issues at home which would affect her performance. It is important to not penalise them for that. We have a group within our organisation who tries to counsel women if they have performance issues due to some problems at home, and how we can handle that. But the fact is that it is up to the women to be motivated enough, and try to hang in there in spite of the cultural mindset of the society.
• As HR leaders responsible for recruitment, we must make sure that we ask the right questions. If someone wants us to recruit only male candidates, then we need to ask them for the reasons behind such a requirement. Try and make sure that there is equal number of women to be evaluated for any particular role and then recruit the best man or woman, based on competence. If we do not even provide the opportunity, then we cannot expect diversity to happen.

By PRIYANSHI MATHUR