Gender gap is closing fast across India’s top IT companies

Companies like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Mphasis and Mindtree have at least three women in 10 employees as of December 31, 2021, their HR heads told ET. Most of them are now chasing a target of 45-50% for female employees in their total headcount in the coming quarters, with several initiatives lined up, like increased campus and lateral hiring, building leadership pipelines and skilling focused on women.

Professional services firm Aon's recent survey tracking 20 top IT services companies, shared exclusively with ET, also confirms the trend of companies looking to increase the number of female employees from the existing 30% to 45% in less than 24 months. Already, the number of women in these 20 companies is more than the India Inc average of 26%, said Jang Bahadur Singh, Aon’s IT/ITeS lead - human capital solutions practice.

The ball has already started rolling. For instance, Tech Mahindra improved the gender diversity ratio by 5% in the last two quarters, chief people officer Harshvendra Soin told ET. Women now account for 34.2% of its headcount of about 150,000. “The internal target is to achieve 50% woman representation in the total workforce in the coming years,” said Soin.



Wipro had 36.3% women among its employee base of 231,000. The company is now aiming to hire 50% women during its campus recruitments.

“Over the last 18 months, we have improved ethnic diversity in our senior leadership, by 20 percentage points, and gender diversity in the leadership has nearly doubled,” said Sunita Rebecca Cherian, Wipro’s chief culture officer.

At Wipro, the chief executive serves as the executive sponsor of its inclusion & diversity council that not only focuses on gender, but also geographies and ethnicity diversity. “I&D is a key point of agenda for our board reviews,” said Cherian.

The largest IT services company in India, TCS, has consistently averaged between 34% and 40% female hires over the last four years. It currently employs more than 201,000 women, or 36.5% of the total workforce.

“TCS is committed to being an equal opportunity employer, creating platforms and avenues to bring more women into our workforce,” said Ritu Anand, chief leadership and diversity officer.

Reasons for pushing diversity are clear. “We need to think like the people whose lives we are trying to improve. That’s why diversity of representation and ‘Diversity of the Mind’ is so critical to our strategy,” she said.

Rival Infosys is close to 40% women in the workforce at the end of the December quarter, a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Mphasis currently has a 65:35 men to women ratio in the workforce. “With our flagship initiatives and programmes, to encourage and include more women in the workplace, we are aiming to definitely increase the number many-fold in the coming quarters,” chief HR officer Srikanth Karra said.

“While 50% of women are being hired from the campuses, the number is not similar when it comes to hiring at mid-levels. Hence, there is a specific focus towards hiring across levels,” said Rosalee Kombial, VP - people function, Mindtree.

Besides the entry level, Mindtree is focusing on hiring more women at managerial positions and is building sponsorship networks for women.