WORKING MOTHER’S SPECIAL… When the Child’s in Office, So is the Mother

WORKING MOTHER’S SPECIAL…

When the Child’s in Office, So is the Mother 

From 21-34 years, women make up 34% of the workforce. From 35-49 years, their share halves as family takes precedence. Increasingly, crèches in offices are helping women put career on par with family

When it comes to daycare facilities in India, demand far outstrips supply. The dual-income family has become the norm, and working parents worry who will take care of their kids when they’re out. Help is hard to come by, as are relatives to babysit. Even as more and more private daycare agencies open up in the metros, India Inc hasn’t kept up. Few companies offer any kind of crèche or childcare facilities today, even though it’s clear that employees would rather leave their wards with office-certified minders, or have them close at hand (especially if the kids are young). Companies need to pay more attention to this. Saundarya Rajesh, founder of sourcing agency Avtar Career Creators, says 1.5 million women professionals have left the workforce in the last 20 years, to care for kids or, in some cases, an elder in the family. Most never return. Companies already grappling with fewer women managers who can be promoted can ill-afford a further dent in the talent pool. Leena Nair, executive director (HR) at Hindustan Unilever, says while there is no dearth of talented women at the entry-level or even the five-year mark, companies face a challenge in appointing women to the top teams, from among those who’ve worked for 14-15 years. “At this stage, there are just not enough women as they’ve fallen off the workforce,” says Nair. “This is where we need to provide help, to both women and men, many of whom have working wives.” Adds Rohit Thakur, HR head at Microsoft: “Companies can pre-empt the element of their female talent not joining back by simply offering facilities like daycare.” Indeed, in a 2012 survey by Avtar, workingwomen respondents rated daycare as a ‘career enabler’. Many companies do realise this, and either have onsite crèche facilities or tie-ups with external vendors. Most companies report that male employees now want it too. A professionally-managed daycare facility might be a small trade-off for an organisation to retain its talent. Standard Chartered Bank
    Madhavi Shringarpure’s decision to adopt a child has everything to do with the fact that her company, Standard Chartered Bank, offers a daycare facility. Married for 15 years, Shringarpure had been trying for a baby for some time. She later decided to adopt, but put her plans on hold for a few years because she was not sure how, with a busy job, she would take care of a child. It was the bank’s move to its new premises in Mumbai’s Goregaon neighbourhood, and it starting an on-site crèche, that gave Shringarpure the green light. “I decided to go ahead and adopt because Standard Chartered was going to look after my baby,” she jokes. Her daughter, now 5, has been attending daycare since she was 18 months. With her daughter looked after, Shringarpure has thrown herself into her work. It’s as if she’s making up for lost time, having cut back on work, even declined promotions, when she was trying for a child earlier (and undergoing various kinds of treatment). “I can concentrate on whatever I lost earlier.” Five years ago, when Standard Chartered started daycare facilities at four of its offices, it was the company’s way of reaching out to its women employees taking a break after pregnancy. “You can find women at senior levels if you’ve preserved talent at the middle levels,” says Rajashree Nambiar, diversity and inclusion champion for India. “If you help a mother tide over the middle years of marriage and child-rearing, there’s no stopping her.” An internal survey showed the biggest concern among women employees was a lack of infrastructure for working mothers. The daycare facility is a huge draw. “Now, women are signing up the moment they’re expecting,” says Nambiar. But more importantly, “returning mothers are coming back to work more confidently.”
Madhavi Shringarpure, 45
Manager, Financial Crimes Intelligence Operations, Standard Chartered in Mumbai
The Decision
Decided to adopt because “StanChart was going to look after my baby”. Her daughter (not pictured), 5, has been coming here since she was 18 months old
The Experience I can concentrate on whatever I lost earlier. I’m taking fewer breaks and my productivity has gone up
Standard Chartered
Daycare centres : 4
(3 in Mumbai, 1 in Gurgaon)
Age group: 6 mths-8 yrs in Mumbai; up to 11 yrs in Gurgaon
No of children: 45-50 across centres No of caretakers: 25 (teachers included) Ernst & Young
    When Monika Wadhwa’s daughter Tisya was born a little less than two years ago, the senior manager with Ernst & Young considered quitting her job to take care of the baby. Wadhwa’s set-up at home was common to that of most Indian nuclear families—it was just the Gurgaon-based couple and their infant, and not much family around. “I was in a fix about how I would manage,” says Wadhwa, whose work requires her to travel around the city, meeting clients. “But our office had recently opened a daycare centre. So, I decided to try it out.” “I found it difficult to leave my daughter at an external facility,” says Wadhwa. “Now, I can see her whenever I want. The arrangement was particularly helpful when she was an infant and needed me the most.” Wadhwa also feels reassured by the fact that if there is an emergency, and she is out on a call or meeting, one of her colleagues can just drop by the crèche and take care of the problem. “It’s comforting to know that if I’m not available, my daughter is in a safe environment, with people I know,” she says. Work-wise, the facility has been a boon for Wadhwa. “I have managed all my work and even my promotions with all this,” she adds, this being her second year as a senior manager. “Consulting is a highly demanding job, with 24-hour pressures. If it were not for daycare, I would have had to either slow down or take a break from my career. With my daughter taken care off, I have been able to keep pace at work” And, as Sandeep Kohli, national HR director, puts it: “We are constantly seeking to enhance the diversity in our workforce and introduce measures which we believe will help our people manage work-life balance more effectively.” Monika Wadhwa, 32 Senior Manager, Ernst & Young in Gurgaon
The Decision
If not for the daycare centre, Wadhwa would have had to quit her job to take care of her daughter. Tisya, now near 1, has been in daycare since she was a few months old
The Experience
“Consulting is a highly demanding job, with 24-hour pressures. If it were not for daycare, I would have had to either slow down or take a break from my career IBM
    IBM employee Chitra Iyenger’s son Samarth and the company’s daycare facility in Bangalore were born about the same time six years ago, and have grown up together. When he was two, Iyenger began dropping her son off at the centre for the day. “It’s fine to have help at home to take care of your child, but an external institution is always better,” she says. IBM has 12 daycare centres across India, run by empanelled vendors, and they accept kids from 6 months to 8 years. “It’s so professionally run that if I need an update on Samarth, I simply reach out to the minders.” With Iyenger’s neurosurgeon husband always on call, daycare has been the best option for young Samarth. Iyenger finds it is for her, too. IBM lets her work from home. But teaming that with daycare lets her be more productive, Iyenger feels, having recently been promoted to a bigger global role as talent partner for growth markets. “My work is much more demanding now, but daycare and flexible timings have helped me through this whole journey of my career,” says Iyenger, who has become an advocate for the facility and convinced many other mothers to return to work after childbirth. “We need to look beyond freshers when attracting talented women,” says Anupama Ambe, chairperson of IBM’s Indian women leadership council. “Not having daycare becomes a deterrent for mid-career women. Our facility tells women employees they need not step away when they have kids.” Still, daycare is just a part of IBM’s philosophy of retention for high-potential women. The company’s ‘gender diversity ambassadors’, through counselling and handbooks, prepare expectant mothers for the big changes to come in their lives and encourage them to have frank chats with their managers about this. “The idea is to provide a support system through the critical years of child-rearing, and also have a healthy dialogue about this within the organisation,” adds Ambe. “It’s unfair to expect your boss will suddenly be able to manage without you, but at the same time, you should not feel you are forcing the organisation to compromise.”
Chitra Iyenger, 39
Talent Partner (Growth Markets), IBM, in Bangalore
The Decision
“You want to be a mother but at the same time, you don’t want to let go of your career.” Her son Samarth, 6, has been attending daycare since he was two
The Experience
“Few organisations offer daycare. But there is a business case for doing this, and can be a good way to retain employees” Hindustan Unilever
    Ten years ago, when Sangeetha Rajalakshmi’s daughter was born, the general manager, HR, at Hindustan Unilever managed to find minders at home for her little girl. By the time her son Samar came along, four years ago, the idea of company-run crèches had become a reality, with HUL itself offering one at its Mumbai campus. “One of the things we were conscious of when our daughter was growing up is that intelligent supervision is better than the TV,” says Rajalakshmi. “So even though we had able help at home, we wanted our daughter to go to a private daycare.” With Samar, Rajalakshmi says she became one of the foundingstalwarts of HUL’s daycare centre, becoming one of the first five or six mothers to opt for it. Samar comes to the facility after school, and spends the rest of the day there till his mother is done with her work. Daycare is just one part of HUL’s fairly robust programme to create a more gender-balanced organisation. Besides various ‘agile’ practices like daycare, flexi-timings and a sixmonth maternity leave, HUL has specific initiatives like job sharing and ‘career by choice’, with the latter aimed at bringing back talented women who quit the workforce. Some 20-25 projects in the company involve women who want to work part-time, but haven’t come back into the workforce yet. “For the last 10 years, we at HUL have been trying to get a good gender balance,” says Leena Nair, executive director (HR). “One of the learnings was that all women are not the same; some are ‘career primary’, while others are more family-oriented. So, it’s important to have a bouquet of options, and employees can pick what makes sense for them.” It makes a huge difference to Rajalakshmi to know her son is just around the corner from her office—it helps her “switch off” as a mother when she is at work and become the seasoned senior professional her job requires her to be. “The daycare has been the biggest blessing,” she says. “I can contribute [to work] without worrying about my child.”
Sangeetha Rajalakshmi, 37
General Manager-HR, HUL in Mumbai
The Decision
Feels intelligent supervision is better than TV. In spite of having help at home, she put both her kids into daycare. Her son Samar, 4, has been coming to HUL’s facility since he was 18 months
The Experience “The daycare has been a blessing. I can contribute [to work] without worrying about my child”
HUL
Daycare centres : One apiece in Bangalore and Mumbai Age group. 6 mths to 8 yrs
No of children: 60 (Capacity of 80)
No of caretakers: 30

Labonita Ghosh