Women at Workspace – A Home away from Home

With more and more women donning the roles of men and leaving homes for work, we see a hallmark rise of women in IT sector in India. Women are competing in the spaces which were earlier occupied by men. A lot of women have taken up leadership positions in the current IT scene. They have become exemplary role models for a lot of young women today.

Even with this the count of women making it to the top are significantly lesser in comparison to their male counterparts in the IT companies. Most often, it is because women have to play multiple roles in their lives and they drop out from their careers unable to cope with social pressure and domestic priorities. The IT industry in India is fairly young and women are still groping with underlying issues such as dominion of the male workforce, inequalities in pay structure and security at workplace.

What can be done differently to address these issues at workplace by the employer and retain women workforce who are also an integral part that contribute to a company’s success? These problems if tackled properly will make women feel more welcome at their work place and part of the technology industry.

If we were to put things into perspective, a flexible approach can be adopted while considering the women employees in general. Companies need to encourage a work culture that is conducive for the growth and participation of women. Alter their policies and regulations to suit the women staff or employees to make them feel respected in their workplace. The policies should not be merely set for the sake of rules, the policy makers should have rationale behind it.

Experience and expertise should be recognized and preserved from being underutilized. Organizations can appreciate female role models within itself who have moved up to the next level so that the other women in the organization can take a cue from them and build on their expertise. Organizations should keep check on any prejudiced behavior on basis of gender, educating the managers and employees on regular intervals to overcome this.

Companies having offices in multiple cities can shape their transfer policies for women in case they have to relocate to the place of spouse’s work. The companies can introduce work from home policies where women can be allowed to work from the ease of their homes when they have persuasive demands. This will help in preventing unnecessary drop outs and resignations. Moreover, unreasonable stress at work may lead to family relationship strains, which in turn will affect work efficiency.

Most women take a break from their careers after child birth and get ready to take up roles after a certain period. In such scenarios, they can be allowed to take a sabbatical from their jobs to care for young children. During this phase, they can be given assistance to advance their skills to further improve their knowledge and can make a “comfortable come back” to their jobs.

All this can happen only with involvement from our male friends in the industry, peer groups can be formulated within the organization to help each other at work.

This would also be ideal situation for the employer as well as there is always a shortage of talent here. Embracing this kind of work culture helps them manage, retain and make maximize the utilization of the women resources in the industry. Successfully, cutting down the loss of time and money invested in training these women employees.