Cos Introduce Initiatives for Women in Tech Roles
Last year, 12 female
undergraduate students across two institutes in Bengaluru were nominated to be
part of a pilot project at Dell. These young women -from the University
Visvesvaraya College of Engineering and RV College of Engineering -weren't
necessarily class toppers, but students their institutes thought could benefit
from the practical knowledge and training, something that Dell was ready to
provide.
Employees at Dell worked
with these students on the `Girl Student Outreach Programme' over a course of
25 weeks, educating them on the skills required to work in the IT industry,
encouraging them to work on networking skills and inculcating confidence in
them. The participants were taken through basic programming languages and
worked on a project on computing, networking and storage.
Dell is just one of the
companies seeking to correct a problem that's becoming more prevalent -that of
dwindling numbers of women in the technology field. With not enough women
opting for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education,
and many women employees dropping out of the workforce mid-career to focus on
family-related commitments, technology companies in India are facing a severe
crunch of female talent.
However, companies such as
Accenture, VMware, Intel, Intuit and Pitney Bowes are among those battling this
trend, not only by hiring more female talent, but also by introducing unique
initiatives in this area.
In October last year,
Pitney Bowes introduced `PB Code Inspire', a three-month hackathon specifically
conducted for women from colleges across India.
“Over 2,000 students
participated in the coding challenge, and we selected the top five winners, who
were given job offers.Female talent in technology needs to be identified and
encouraged right at the college level,“ said Manish Choudhary, managing
director, India and SVP, innovation, Pitney Bowes.
The hackathon will now be
an ongoing annual initiative, and this year will reach double the number of
colleges and participants compared to last year, he said.
While Dell and Pitney Bowes
are focusing on developing female talent in technology at an early level,
Accenture, Intel and VMware are providing employee guidance and backing to further
their careers.
Last year, Accenture's
Delivery Centers for Technology in India rolled out the `High-Tech Women'
programme, which aims to see more women make the journey as technical
architects and take part in leadership roles. Women in Accenture's Delivery
Centers for Technology are now getting organisational commitment, investment
and backing to advance their careers. Under the mentoring programme, each of
Accenture's technology leaders spends 18 months serving as a mentor to two
women who are at mid-career levels. Currently, the company has about 1,100
women enrolled in the programme.
Bhaskar Ghosh, group chief
executive of Accenture Technology Services, says the organisation has also
pledged to grow the percentage of new women hires to at least 40% worldwide by
2017. Currently, women account for 33% of the workforce. Intel India, too,
facilitates the professional growth of existing talent.It runs the `Protégé
Sponsorship Initiative', which aims to create development opportunities for
select senior technical women employees by mapping each of them to a senior
leader as sponsors.
“These sponsors act as
their advocates and undertake targeted interventions that include influencing
their job scope, creating networking opportu nities and ongoing coaching.
Around 15 senior technical women employees have already been part of this
initiative,“ said Nivruti Rai, general manager, Intel India.
Recently, VMware partnered
with global non-profit Women Who Code (WWCode) to empower women to succeed in
technology. The WWCode Bangalore chapter has held hack nights, educational
seminars, study groups and presentations.
“There are currently 823
women that are connected through the network, all working to support one
another in their professional endeavours. By partnering with WWCode, VMware
hopes to promote innovation that is driven by diversity and ensure that women
are empowered to grow in their careers,“ said Shwetha Lakshman Rao, MTS-3 at
VMware and city director-Women Who Code Bangalore.
At product and software
firm Intuit, the Intuit Women's Network (IWN) delivers programmes that offer
development opportunities for members to build strong leadership capabilities.
“IWN also enables women to
submit research papers, and participation of women leaders as speakers in the Grace
Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in India (GHCI) -the country's largest
gathering of women technologists,“ said Somnath Baishya, director and head-HR,
Intuit India.
And then, of course,
there's the issue of women dropping out of the workforce to focus on major life
events such a motherhood.Taking cognisance of the talent that drops out,
companies are rolling out programmes for mothers looking to return to work.
In 2015, Intuit rolled out
`Intuit Again' -a programme aimed at providing an opportunity for women
technologists who have taken a break in their careers to come back to work. The
six-month training programme helps train and sharpen participants' professional
skills. Out of 11 women interns last year, five were recruited and placed in software
engineering, business development and system engineering roles. This year, the
firm is recruiting 10 interns from the programme.
At Accenture, the Women's
Alumni Network -launched on International Women's Day last year -is available
for those who have been on a career break for two to three years. The company
has revamped its re-hiring process, making the process simpler for women
alumni.
Similarly, Intel runs the
`Home to Office' programme, started two years back, to enable women
professionals to resume their career after a break necessitated by life events
such as motherhood, family relocation, etc.
|
Brinda
Dasgupta & Varuni Khosla
|
ET13MAY16
No comments:
Post a Comment