WOMEN SPECIAL................ Tata Steel Pushes for Gender Diversity

WOMEN SPECIAL  Tata  Steel Pushes for Gender Diversity   BRIDGING THE GENDER GAP Co seeks to increase female staff to 18% from the current 9% in four years and build a gender-diverse leadership  pipeline Tata Steel wants to double the proportion of women it employs and build a gender-diverse leadership pipeline. The company, which has 36,900 workers, wants to increase female staff to 18% from the current 9% in four years. The programme is driven by the need to make sure that the company doesn't miss out on the economic opportunity of getting more women into the workforce, something that has played a key role in China's success. The representation of women is poor in India's traditional industrial sector. The diversity thrust includes setting up a gender intelligence cell, incentives for identifying high-potential women candidates, flexible hours and enhanced maternity leave. Changes in the performance and rating system are aimed at making sure women who have been away on maternity leave do not lose seniority. “If a bellwether like Tata Steel is stating upfront measures to improve gender diversity, many other companies in hardcore manufacturing, who today look  at women as dif ficult to engage, will start looking at women as a crucial talent pool,“ said Saundarya Rajesh, founder and president at Avtar Career Creators & Flexi Careers India.“One of the key reasons China has made the kind of GDP growth is because it has brought women into every  conceivable industry.“ The gender intelligence cell will help women equip  themselves for senior management roles. “The objective is to make sure that women have enough opportunities for leadership,“ said Suresh Dutt Tripathi, vice president, human resource management at Tata Steel. “We want to make sure that we do not miss out on a major part of the talent pool.“ The company has leadership development programmes for junior, middle and senior managers to help them get to the next level. Maternity leave has been raised to 18 weeks of paid leave from the statutory 12 weeks. Another eight weeks will be granted depending on the requirement. Also, a mother will get an hour's leave everyday to go home and take care of the child until he or she is five years old. Women taking a break to have a baby will be rated on their past contribution. “Women should not feel left behind due to breaks they have to take due to the  key life stage of maternity. We want to make sure that the break does not affect  her seniority and position,“ said Tripathi. In addition to this, the company has initiated gender sensitisation programmes for men and women across all levels. “There are a lot of women who are willing to take up work in male-dominated areas and if we do not realise that now, going forward there will be a lot of difficulty,“ Tripathi said. The company is currently talking to state and central governments for changes  in the law to allow women employees to work beyond 7 pm. A few years ago, Tata Steel had launched Tejaswini, a pioneering project aimed at giving technical training to women, including the operation of earth-moving equipment, breaking gender stereotypes. Rica Bhattacharyya ET10NOV15