Odgers Berndtson, a leading international executive search firm, organised a round table dialogue of women Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) from prominent organisations to understand and discuss how gender diversity is adding value to their organisation and some common unconscious biases present in the workforce of corporate India today.
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Unconscious bias at workplace
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International Women’s Day this year, gave the perfect background to discuss how a woman’s professional journey can be impacted. Though India is considered a powerhouse of talent, we still cannot claim equal gender diversity in the best of organisations. Change can only be driven from the top. “At Schneider, we have positioned diversity, equity & inclusion as a leadership agenda. We have seen our women ratio increase by 15% in the last three years, and profitability has increased by 15 points. Though not completely, but gender balance has been one of the important contributing factors to the increased profitability & efficiency,” says Rachna Mukherjee, Chief Human Resources Officer, Schneider Electric, India & South Asia.
Talent Management & Unconscious Bias
Facing gender bias at the beginning of the recruitment process itself can be a challenge, especially for young mothers trying to get back to the workforce. “Thyssenkrupp is in an EMC industry/business and we face similar struggles to maybe the automotive industry, wherein to find women managers with the required technical background for remote locations is a challenge. We are also making efforts to sensitize team members during the hiring process. The kind of questions one asks while hiring candidates should be gender neutral. How a question can make an impression about the organisation, in the mind of a potential candidate, needs to be highlighted. A lot more can be done in this aspect to remove the unconscious biases,” says Shillpa Chabria, Director HR India, Thyssenkrupp Industries India.
“Unconscious bias is one of the biggest challenges we continue to face, especially in the industrial sector in India. It is seen in something as basic as language used in meetings, or in conversations while hiring candidates. When one is talking about hiring a leadership position, one always hears ‘him‘ and not ‘her‘. To train people to look at basic things such as language, is the starting point in the journey of gender inclusivity at the workplace,” says Priya Chakravarty, Senior VP – HR, Essar Capital.
There are steps being taken by organisations to block gender bias that can creep into processes. This begins with identifying the biases that might be at play which leaders are often unaware of. Having small group dialogues, role plays at work and choosing champions for the cause from within the team itself, are some of the steps taken by organisations to identify unconscious bias at the workplace.
“We are shifting to technology to ensure every job description is gender neutral. We use tools to automatically remove words that are commonly associated with men such as aggressive, high-flyer, energetic etc. so that women are not discouraged at the beginning of the application process itself,” says Dr. Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari, Executive VP & Country HR Head, Siemens India.
Having women in mid to senior management positions, creates a healthy talent pipeline for women to reach leadership roles. Finding women with the right skill set can be a challenge especially in sectors that can be called to be part of the old world economy. The 2020 Global BoardEx report in collaboration with Odgers Berndtson revealed that only 18% of board members were female in listed companies on the BSE Sensex. This compares to a global average of 27% amongst the 26 indexed companies. Mentorship programs, that help women opt for lucrative roles and get sufficient guidance to plan their career graph, have been steppingstones towards creating a talent pool of women for leadership positions.
“Unlimited is our philosophy and our approach to diversity & inclusion. We are committed to having consistent dialogues with our clients and actively engage with the broadest range of candidates so that we access the most diverse talent pool and recruit the best leadership talent,” says Dr. Prasad Medury, Managing Director, Odgers Berndtson India.
“Lodha firmly believes in meritocracy, and as an overarching culture code, we ensure that the group makes all efforts to hire, groom and retain talent. We hire the best talent and women civil engineers are encouraged to join Lodha in construction teams. But women GETs often face challenges in convincing their families who are mostly based in remote locations in Maharashtra and aren’t aware of the ways of working at our construction sites. A