BPOs open more doors to women

NEW DELHI: Move over Penelope Cruz, BPOs are giving a more relevant meaning to the phrase ‘Woman on Top’. Anxious to be fair to the fairer sex, BPOs in India are implementing innovative ideas to hike the ratio of woman employees in their workforce.

Doing the rounds are measures like training women to get into senior management positions, giving higher monetary incentives for women referrals and higher perks for placement agencies to draw women candidates to interviews.

IBM Daksh, which employs 20,000 professionals in India, is taking a cue from its parent IBM, and focusing on a `diversity program’. IBM Daksh will look at putting women in senior positions over the next quarter, says DP Singh, VP — Strategic HR, IBM Daksh Business Process Services.

“The message is all about an inclusive leadership that does not lower the quality or qualification criteria for clinching a job. For instance, compared to a standard rate offered to placement agencies for a candidate, we pay 1% higher in case of women candidates,” adds Anita Guha, Diversity Lead, IBM India.

Similarly, against an average Rs 5,000 incentive for successful referrals, employees referring successful woman candidates get Rs 6,000. Genpact’s president and CEO Pramod Bhasin admits that industry’s healthy mix of male and female workers in associate and middle management does not reflect in senior staff.

“Genpact is planning to restart the practice of setting targets for various businesses on what ratio to hit for women leaders,” he says. HP Global e-Business is also striving to increase ratio of women at mid and senior levels. “We have been able to raise the percentage of mid and senior level women staff in the last few months,” says Sanjay Singh, director, India Business Centres, HP Global.