Opinion: Lack of diversity in the workplace

Companies always ask when hiring: Will there be further “growth”? They now need to ask: Will this advance “social justice”?

Arun Sinha

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is proud to be one of the largest employers of women in technology. About 35 percent of its 600,000 employees are women. It has also been consciously promoting women into leadership positions. About 30 percent of its business development and delivery managers are women. But is this the general picture in the industry? No.

According to UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), the percentage of women in Indian industry dropped from 32% in 2016 to 23% in 2018. This increased to 25% in 2019, still 7% lower than in 2016. This is almost the same as in Pakistan and Arab countries where the high walls of orthodoxy hinder women’s education and employment. In Bangladesh, women make up 57 percent of the workforce; in China, 64 percent. Women in India lag far behind in industrial employment. Why?

behind

First, few women are employed in certain sectors such as manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, construction and engineering. The traditional thinking among employers in these sectors is that their jobs are too physically demanding for women to perform. This means that a large number of industrial employment fields are closed to women. In 2018, only 9% of Swiss power and manufacturing company ABB’s workforce in India were women.

Second, Indian companies lack a firm commitment to inclusive growth. Their vision is limited to their own growth. If men from advantaged communities have better cultural ancestry, education, urban exposure and language skills to supply their businesses with sufficiently satisfactory goods and services, why would they seek out women from the same communities or from disadvantaged communities? male and female? The mentality seems to be like this.

This is a blind attitude. Women and lower castes are historically disadvantaged. The goal of the state is to create social and gender equality. Governments, political parties, the judiciary, social reform movements, NGOs, the media, and enlightened citizens are all working to help the country achieve this goal. The industry must join this collective effort. They must include the development of women and lower castes as part of their business development. A society without social discrimination is a peaceful, happy and stable society. Building such a society is in everyone’s interest, including businesses. They have to keep this long view in mind.

Third, the management levers of the business are in the hands of the upper caste. According to “The State of Jobs in India” published in 2018 by Azim Premji University’s Center for Sustainable Development, most professionals and senior managers come from upper castes. Most of the lower rank employees are from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Women are also not the first choice for leadership positions, according to several studies. This cannot be called inclusive growth.

Recruitment policy

The first step businesses need to take is to redesign their hiring policies. The goal of the policy should be that of the state: growth with social justice. When recruiting, companies always ask: Will there be further “business growth”? They now need to ask the second question: Will it promote “social justice”? We do not recommend quotas. We are simply asking businesses to balance the cause of business growth with the cause of social justice. It requires a very fine balance. But there is no escaping it. It’s in their interest. This is in the national interest.

One of the fundamental principles of the hiring policy should be that the manager of the hiring team is free from any bias. Businesses should host advocacy sessions for their managers to dismantle their prejudices and chauvinism and lead them on a path of social justice growth as enlightened leaders. They should also hold awareness campaigns for male employees so that female and lower caste employees recruited by recruiting teams can feel comfortable working in a hospitable atmosphere. They should create platforms and regularly organize programs and conversations to tear down walls of prejudice and create a culture of inclusion in the workplace. When employees imbibe an inclusive culture, they can also influence how that culture develops in their families and in society.

equal advantage

The second step businesses need to take is to bring employees from historically disadvantaged communities into leadership positions alongside employees from advanced communities. Women and people of lower castes are mistakenly believed to lack the ability to lead teams. In fact, they grew up in a more challenging environment than higher-caste male employees and thus developed their creative and practical problem-solving skills. Their out-of-the-box solutions will blow your mind.

The third step companies need to take is to promote diversity at the top. Businesses can move faster on the road to a fair society when people from underrepresented groups are placed in positions where they can influence company policy. company law,

In 2013, all public companies must have at least one female director. Data shows that more than two-thirds of companies still have no female directors. Even where women are appointed to directorships, they are not placed on key board committees. Therefore, they do not exert any influence in corporate governance.

When calls were made to extend private sector job quotas in the early 2000s, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) came up with a voluntary affirmative action scheme. CII has four agendas for its members: Education, Employability, Employment and Entrepreneurship. They will allocate funds for the education and skills of young people from socially disadvantaged communities. These agendas have proven to be merely an extension of their corporate social responsibility. These companies have not used them to transform internal governance, management and human capital policies. That’s despite numerous global studies showing that a more diverse workforce is more innovative, productive and customer-friendly, and can significantly boost a company’s growth.