Research from all corners of the world has been pointing to the fact that women are dynamic leaders of change, galvanizing both men and women to get involved, claim their rights, strengthen their communities, and protect the planet. At Great Place to Work® Institute India, we have time and again, focused the lens on India Inc. to see how they optimize this talent pool to create a great workplace culture for women.
To inch forward in our vision of Making India a Great Place to Work For All™, India’s Top 175 Best Workplaces™ for Women is a celebration of organizations and their cultures to understand what separates them from the Rest, what creates those incisive differentiators that attract more women to work for them and develop leaders out of them.
At the heart of it, there are 4 essential factors –
- Acknowledge the Uniqueness and Differences: Along with greater awareness and acknowledgement of the challenges women encounter in workplaces, the Best Workplaces understand the nature of benefits and promote holistic wellbeing that would truly serve women well beyond the superficial appeal.
- Provide support and care at the workplace: The need for adequate work-life balance has taken a front seat in recent times and the Best Workplaces are frontrunners in driving the same. Outside of work, employees value the investment of resources in various realms of their lives, including caregiving, the pursuit of interests, taking care of one’s health, and the like.
- Gear towards a Learning-based Economy: It is essential to have active conversations with them to personalize their learning & development programs, and not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. There is a need to look at various meaningful opportunities for different employee groups, to get the best out of each one’s potential.
- Create a sense of Fairness: Last but not the least, this has been a consistent differentiator for Best Workplaces – providing a fair and transparent experience. People managers are playing a key role in creating an unbiased, equitable, and supportive work environment.
The women in the workforce are gradually but surely, finding their seat at the table, exerting their influence, and narrowing the gender gap in workplace experience. To attract, engage, and retain the younger generation of womanhood, fairness, and genuine care, addressing their unique needs while involving them in the decision-making process would be the key drivers.
Every year, more than 10,000 organizations from over 60 countries partner with Great Place to Work® Institute for assessment, benchmarking, and planning actions to strengthen their workplace culture. Great Place to Work® Institute’s methodology, derived from 30 years of studying best workplaces across the globe, is recognised as rigorous and objective and considered the gold standard for defining great workplaces across business, academia, and government organizations.
(The author is Ms. Kanul Goenka, Project Manager Consulting, Great Place to Work® Institute and the views expressed in this article are her own)
