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.