The Second Innings

When the Tata Group announced its Second Career Internship Program (SCIP) on the International Women's Day last year, aimed to recruit women professionals who took long breaks to address their domestic front, not many eyebrows were raised. Businesses have been trying hard to retain women employees through a lot of options as in a country like India, it is fairly common for women to leave their career for family commitments. It took some time for the industry to realize that given Indian social set-up, the better thing to do is to allow them to take that break during the most important time of their livestypically from after the first child is born to she is 5-6 years old and then getting them back when they are ready mentally to get to work again.

Tata Group's SCIP initiative, however is not a job but an intermediary program aimed at developing alternative talent pools to facilitate career transitions. Women are inducted on the terms and conditions that they have worked within specified work years and domain areas. The domain areas could range from IT, engineering, marketing, sales, retail, hospitality and several other corporate functions. Rajesh Dahiya, Vice President, Group Human Resources, Tata Sons says, The total number of applications we received for this program were 1988. There were also more than 20,000 touch points in terms of e-mails, calls, website hits and SMSes. The total shortlisted candidates for the program reached 98 out of which 34 were selected who later joined the group. The selection process will be completed by 15th September 2009. The company also aims to stretch the SCIP to reach all other geographies in which the Tata Group has its presence. However, as there is no placement guarantee at the end of the project, women at Tata Group have the option of exploring full time employment in their respective group companies. SCIP will be carried as an ongoing program which harnesses alternate talent pool, setting an example for the industry to appreciate and accept this medium of hiring.

IT Industry Leads

For the IT industry, the issue is not social. It is a clear question of losing a significant number of talented professionals. The industry is at the forefront of recruiting women employees. According to NASSCOM, the percentage of women in the IT industry has grown from 26% in FY 2007 to 30% in FY 2009. What is more significant is that the spread of women across functions is becoming more secular. Traditionally, some functions like HR, PR and marketing had higher percentage of women, whereas some areas like finance and technology were the traditional male bastions. The NASSCOM data shows that while the share of women employees in HR functions has dipped from 33% in FY 2006 to 27% in 2008, the number of women employees in finance and technical domain rose from 8% to 12% and 30% to 33% respectively, in the same period.

So it was not surprising that the IT industry was one of the first ones to think of getting the women back after the career breaks. The credit for first on-the-ground efforts of pursuing this objective goes toand no prize for guessing this oneIBM, undoubtedly the leader in aggressively pursuing diversity goals in all its forms, and gender diversity in particular. Under Aegis of its Indian Womens Leadership Council (IWLC), started way back in March 2005, IBM initiated the Bringing Women Back to Work more than two years back. The program entails developing an infrastructure to encourage and motivate candidates to resume work. All employees who join after taking a break are taken through an accelerated learning program to help them learn faster to meet with the current job requirements. Senior IBM leaders might act as mentors to these women who have joined after a break to guide them to be productive at the workplace. This initiative is leveraged to attract talent across the organization for multiple roles, which was initially piloted for the global delivery organization. What separates IBM from many others is that it is not just good intent but it has clear measures on all these targets. So, recruiting agencies have clear targets on the minimum target of such women hired.

Wipro also has initiated a second career options for women. The company has designed a program that addresses specific needs of women employees at different stages of their career. The maternity policy has an in-built flexibility. An option to extend the maternity leave duration for an additional six months is used by 2/3rd of their employees on maternity leave. Crche facilities close to most offices have enabled women to be at ease at work while good care is taken of infants. Sabbaticals are also offered to these women not only to spend quality time with their kids but to also fulfill their higher education, which in turn leads them to come back and take a higher job responsibility. The mantra of the company is that working with cutting edge technologies and looking after the young can go hand in hand. Sunita Rebecca Cherian, General Manager, Talent Engagement and Development, Wipro Technologies says The support Wipro offers to its women employees is irrespective of when they need a break. Slight changes to policies and such programs may be all it takes for the company to enable a capable and ambitious women talent and thats good news for the industry.

However, major challenge faced during these internship programs is to find suitable matches among the applicants/interns, keeping in view the flexible working hours promised, the number of projects assigned, and the minimum travel time required. At Tata Group, each intern is provided with an assignment guide, a project guide, and a reporting contact person. The total package/compensation for each intern at Tata Group is Rs. 4 lakhs where each one of them has to work at least for 500 hours over a six month period. These interns also have the opportunity to explore work options in senior levels since most of them work at a junior or a middle management level. This would ensure that women not only join the corporate sector but also transition into leadership positions in their organizations. But for this, organizations need to be well prepared to invest a good amount of time and money for the development of its women personnel.