Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

Citi, err new moms never sleep. Just to give the new mothers a respite, <keyword id="6404166" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Citi-Bank">Citi Bank</keyword> is offering its women employees in India a childcare allowance over and above their salaries worth up to Rs 1.32 lakh a year for spending on daycare services of their choice, in what is seen as an unprecedented employee benefit across <keyword id="46431" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-Inc">India Inc</keyword> and is aimed at making it easier for new mothers to pursue their careers uninterrupted. 
In a news report by The Economic Times, Citi will, starting this financial year, pay its women employees in India a fixed quarterly childcare allowance of Rs 33,000 for up to four years after their return from maternity leave, which they can use for financing daycare services of their choice. Employees can avail this facility for two children. 
 
 This isn’t a typical benefit provided by other companies. While firms such as <keyword id="6361649" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Goldman-Sachs">Goldman Sachs</keyword>, HSBC and <keyword id="6365619" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hindustan-UniLever">Hindustan Unilever</keyword> run their own creches or have tie-ups with creche providers, Citi's move will be especially helpful for women employees in non-metro cities where firms typically don't run creche services or have subsidised corporate tie-ups . 
 "As we work towards nurturing young women leaders at Citi, we realise three factors impact their professional career growth in some manner - marriage, mobility and motherhood," Sarab PreSingh, head (recruitment, learning and talent) at <keyword id="134205" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Citi-India">Citi India</keyword> told the ET. 
 
 
"What's happening across the corporate world and with us as well is that women at the entry level account for around 40% (of workforce), but as one goes up the experience curve the percentage of women employees reduces," added Singh. 
HR experts believe this would be leading light in the industry. 
 "Organisations are waking up to the fact that the age group of 27-35 is the critical age group where women are dropping out and they need to be protected. They don't have many women reaching the levels of AVPs and VPs and that explains such policies," Saundarya Rajesh, founder and <keyword id="2540" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="President">president</keyword> of <keyword id="247598" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Avtar-Career-Creators">Avtar Career Creators</keyword> and <keyword id="2884296" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flexi-Careers">Flexi Careers</keyword>, who works on diversity and inclusion issues told the ET. 
 
The financial daily said, in the past few years, Citi has made largescale changes to its maternity benefits and flexible working arrangements for women employees. It has introduced a flexible maternity policy, which allowed women employees to avail their maternity leave of 180 days in three different options. Women officers could either avail of leave for a continuous period of six months or exercise flexibility in the leave duration by opting for leave in tranches. 
 
The bank also made sure that new mothers kept their performance ratings during their maternity leave period. The bank's performance management system rates women employees only for the actual period of work and in line with prior two years' performance records. "This increases our budget outlay, but we believe returning mothers will find value in the new policy," Singh said. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Citibank provides a smashing new
childcare policy that all mothers will be super happy about

To keep more women employees across all levels, <keyword id="436047" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Ecommerce">eCommerce</keyword> company <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> has rolled out an unprecedented <keyword id="2928409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="maternity-benefits-package">maternity benefits package</keyword> to attract females, reported the Economic Times. 

	Flipkart, which is about to hire more women candidates, particularly in leadership roles, has announced that it will offer six-month paid leave along with four months of flexible working option with salary to mothers. 
 

	Moreover, the eCommerce firm will also offer an extended maternity leave up to one year of career break without pay, after which female employees can return to avail their jobs. 
 As per the new package, women will get a transport reimbursement benefit of Rs 600 per day during the last two months of <keyword id="6357793" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="pregnancy">pregnancy</keyword>. They are also entitled to a reserved parking slot for 2 months before and after child delivery. 

	The online retailer is also working on a proposal to pay 50% of day care charges at high-standard facilities for children up to 4 years of age. 
 Such a maternity leave package is not common in <keyword id="46431" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="India-Inc">India Inc</keyword>, where most employers offer three months of paid statutory maternity leave. 

	"Flipkart needs to be able to attract more women talent," Deepali Tamhane, senior director, product management, Flipkart, told ET in an exclusive interaction. 
 

	"Big growth is happening in e-commerce in women's segment. In India we are at the cusp of that. The sooner the company gets prepared for that we will have a very strong position in keeping our leadership slot," she said. 
 

	Meanwhile, there are no women yet on the Flipkart board of directors, but the company is looking to add a significant percentage of women representatives on the board, a Flipkart official said. 
 According to a report released by <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>, with Forrester Consulting, eCommerce market in India is likely to have a 100-million customer base, of which women will be the major contributors. 

	Few companies in India, mostly in the banking sector, offer such benefits. No company has put this all together into such an extensive maternity benefits package. 
 "An Indian company making sure that women talent are given the support they deserve during the most vulnerable period of childbirth and childcare is really one of its kind," said <keyword id="247599" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Saundarya-Rajesh">Saundarya Rajesh</keyword>, founder and president at <keyword id="2836889" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Avtar-Career-Creators-FLEXI">Avtar Career Creators &amp; FLEXI</keyword> Careers India, who works in the area of re-engaging second career women. About 48% women executives under 30 years of age drop out of the workplace due to <keyword id="18248" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Motherhood">motherhood</keyword> and related reasons, says Rajesh. The cost of replacing these women is higher compared to what can be achieved if they were retained. 
	 
	(Image: Indiatimes)

Flipkart is trying its best to retain women employees. Here’s how!

The information technology services and consulting <keyword id="6556311" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Major">major</keyword> <keyword id="6370971" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Accenture">Accenture</keyword> India has set an example for other IT conglomerates. In first-of-its-kind initiative, it has extended maternity leave benefits to five months of paid leave from 12 weeks. 
 Not only this, <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Women">women</keyword> employees will also be entitled to an additional maternity leave of four weeks paid leave if there is an illness directly related to mother’s pregnancy. The policy will be in effect from May 1. 
 In an exclusive interview to Economic Times, Managing Director, Human Resources for Accenture in India, <keyword id="2836888" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Parag-Pande">Parag Pande</keyword> said the benefits are for both, full-time and part-time employees. 
"We are focused on hiring, retaining and advancing women at every level. Extending maternity leave will help women in our workforce continue to pursue their career goals while raising a family," Pande told the financial daily. 
 
Moreover, if employees want additional time beyond the maternity leave but do not have enough accrued vacation leave can apply for unpaid leave of absence for a further 12 weeks, taking the total permissible leave period to nine months. 
 
Under its new recruiting goal, Accenture further plans to have women comprise at least 40% of their new global hires by the end of fiscal 2017. Presently, 1,15,000 women comprise 36% of their global workforce in 30 countries. 
 
The company also offers a slew of programmes like career guidance for new parents, parents at work programme to assist women employees during maternity to remain in the workforce, etc. 
"The many programmes we offer will enable women in our company to make a smoother transition back to the workforce after having a child. These initiatives will go a long way in helping us continue to recruiting and retaining the best talent," Pande told ET. 
 Maternity is a key period where a sizeable amount of women, majority in the age group of 28 and 35 years, choose to stop working, which leads to draining pipeline of high potential women professionals at <keyword id="1009187" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-middle">the middle</keyword> of the pyramid. 
 Presently, only few organisations, mostly in the global banking and <keyword id="6354241" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Financial-Services">financial services</keyword> space in India offer such benefits and most of the other major companies in the IT space in India like Infosys, Capgemini, Microsoft, <keyword id="30331" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="HCL-Technologies">HCL Technologies</keyword>, among others, offer three months of paid statutory maternity leave. 
 Also as mandated, in most companies, women employees are entitled to take an additional one month of paid extended maternity leave in case of any complications. Almost 48% women under the age group of 30 drop out of the workplace citing, says Saundarya Rajesh, founder and <keyword id="2540" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="President">president</keyword> of <keyword id="2836889" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Avtar-Career-Creators-FLEXI">Avtar Career Creators &amp; FLEXI</keyword> Careers India, who works in the area of re-engaging second career women. 
 
She adds among the highest percentage of women who seek re-entry at the mid-career level are those who have already worked in IT industry, which hires among the largest numbers of women in the Indian workplace, probably second only to the BFSI sector. 
But IT-ITeSBPO also loses approximately 18% women each year to short or medium-term breaks in career. 
 
The cost of replacing these women, who quit workplace primarily citing "personal reasons" seek to return to the workforce about 18-20 months after their break. 
Due to this, the cost of replacing these women as well as retraining them is higher compared to what can be achieved if they were retained. 
 
"Companies would save thousands of rupees if they are able to create a support structure to retain these women. A robust maternity benefit policy can play a crucial role not only for diversity and inclusion but for organisations to be sustainable," Saundarya told ET.

​Accenture has planned a Mother’s Day gift for all its female employees. Know what

&#xa0; A recent survey conducted by ProEves revealed that <keyword id="46431" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="India-Inc">India Inc</keyword> has less than 20% participation of women in workforce and this has remained the same for the past three years. This highlighted the fact that even in this age, gender diversity agenda for many multi-national and Indian companies in the country is still not increasing. 
 Similar studies were conducted by Catalyst in 2015 and Community Business in 2014, and all of them showed similar results. In fact, the percentage has been the same for the past five years. The survey was conducted among 47 leading companies like <keyword id="73803" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reckitt-Benckiser">Reckitt Benckiser</keyword>, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Nestle+India&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Nestle India</a>, Colgate-Palmolive (India), Sanofi, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Britannia+Industries&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Britannia Industries</a>, Whirlpool, Flipkart, Convergys, InMobi, Novartis, Mars International, Honeywell India, Mondelez India Foods, Marico, Castrol India, among others. 
 
At top managerial level the percentage is as low as 12-13%. However, at junior levels, 21% companies have representation of above 35%. This puts some light on the leaking pipeline from the middle to senior positions. Compared to the US, India is at half the women participation across all employee groups. 
 "There is a big discrepancy in policies and implementation. Companies could really do a lot more in softer aspects of inclusion and that can happen when leaders begin walking the talk," <keyword id="247599" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Saundarya-Rajesh">Saundarya Rajesh</keyword>, founder-president of AVTAR Career Creators and <keyword id="780114" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="FLEXI-Careers-India">FLEXI Careers India</keyword> told ET. 
 
The survey also shows that goals on diversity are stated by about 61% of the companies but only one-third of them have reached their number target and have no target association on inclusion for leaders, a reflection that many companies have the intent but are shying away from real numbers. 
 “Another reason for the gap is that lot of things employees think are important are not what women think, a childcare and parental support organization that works with individuals and companies to provide verified childcare support and drive. ProEves also runs a <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword> community of women called ‘Happy Moms raise Happy Kids’ which acts as a support group” <keyword id="3703996" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ketika-kapoor">Ketika Kapoor</keyword>, coFounder of ProEves told ET. 
 
According to a survey conducted by ProEves, lack of flexibility proved to be the second biggest reason for leaving the cooperate world by moms. "This is really a paradox and companies have to concentrate on their culture to achieve real flexibility," said Rajesh. 
 
Thw percentage of women working in white collar jobs has dropeed down from 25.5% in 2002-03 to 22-23% at present. Whereas the gender diversity ratio is around 15% now. 
 
There is definitely a positive intent and genuine recognition of the benefits of genuine diversity . However, there exists larger issues to be looked at like child care support system, commuting, infrastructure that are to be looked into. 
 
(image: pinterest)

India Inc has hardly made any progress in filling the gender gap. These are the statistics 

In a male dominated sector, Vedanta is leading by example by employing women in key areas that too at leadership levels. 
 
Vendanta’ Odisha unit has an all-women team who are in-charge of metals and mining projects. 
 
Many women in Vendanta have gotten into revenue generating functions and have contributed immensely to the company’s growth story. 
 
Vendanta’s Anil Agarwal said he was proud to have, arguably, the highest number of women in senior management as benchmarked against its peers. 
 
Saundarya Rajesh, founder president of AVTAR Career Creators &amp; FLEXI Careers India, told ET, "The business case for gender inclusion has long been proven...the sheer fact that a leader like Vedanta is saying that this is possible will itself send out a strong signal." 
 
A slew of research reports, including one from UNDP, show a direct correlation between greater gender diversity and higher GDP. 
 
Reportedly, women make up 5% of Vedanta's top management, 9% of senior management and about 10% at other levels. 
 
It is said that Vendanta will increase this number to 15% over next two years. 
 
"When hiring for leadership roles, our mandate to search firms is to focus on giving us a balanced slate of talent, which includes a good number of women candidates," Madhu Srivastava, head of talent acquisition at Vedanta, told ET.

You Searched For "Avtar Career Creators" and got 5 results

Citibank provides a smashing new childcare policy that all mothers will be super happy about

BI India Bureau

Flipkart is trying its best to retain women employees. Here’s how!

BI India Bureau

Accenture has planned a Mother’s Day gift for all its female employees. Know what

BI India Bureau

India Inc has hardly made any progress in filling the gender gap. These are the statistics

BI India Bureau

Vedanta is realising women power! To increase women headcount in key roles by 15%

BI India Bureau

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides

You Searched For "Avtar Career Creators" and got 5 results

Citibank provides a smashing new childcare policy that all mothers will be super happy about

BI India Bureau

Flipkart is trying its best to retain women employees. Here’s how!

BI India Bureau

​Accenture has planned a Mother’s Day gift for all its female employees. Know what

BI India Bureau

India Inc has hardly made any progress in filling the gender gap. These are the statistics

BI India Bureau

Vedanta is realising women power! To increase women headcount in key roles by 15%

BI India Bureau

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides

Accenture has planned a Mother’s Day gift for all its female employees. Know what