BENGALURU: With 35.7% of women workforce, the country’s largest IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services has been witnessing higher attrition among its female employees.
The company’s chief human resource officer (CHRO) Milind Lakkad in its annual report said the higher attrition among women in FY2023 is a setback to “our efforts to promote gender diversity but we are doubling down on it.”He termed this higher attrition as “unusual”. This comes at a time when the firm has asked its employees to work from the office for at least three days a week.
Though the company didn’t provide specific details of women attrition rate, in the previous quarter it announced that attrition on an LTM (last twelve months) basis continued to trend down and was at 20.1%.
Since March 2020, a majority of IT employees are working from home.
“As IT firms aim to increase women workforce by 10-12% in 2023-24, they must recognise and address the unique challenges faced by women and implement inclusive measures that foster an empowering environment where they can contribute their full potential,” said Yeshab Giri, chief commercial officer, Staffing & Randstad Technologies, Randstad India.
“Organisations need to be more sensitive towards changing socio-economic patterns in our community. There are many roles for which organisations can allow women to work from home, either permanently or with a greater flexibility,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, MD and CEO of CIEL HR Services.
However, as per Kamal Karanth, co-founder of staffing firm Xpheno, women participation in tech workforce has grown since the pandemic. Top 5 Indian IT services bellwethers have registered a 44% growth in women workforce since the pandemic. The comparative male workforce growth for the period was 40%. Karanth said the top 5 IT service enterprises alone have added a net of 1.65 lakh women professionals to the tech sector since 2020.
“Despite significant growth in volume, women workforce participation has stayed at the 35% average mark. The percentage of women professionals in the Top 5 Bellwethers cohort moved from 34.8% in FY2020 to 35.4% in FY2023. The one-third mark looks like a comfortable spot for enterprises to stay in. It’s time for enterprises to raise their aspirations on women participation by a couple of percentage points above 35%,” he added.
Chief HR officer terms high attrition as ‘unusual’
Company’s chief human resource officer Milind Lakkad in its annual report said higher attrition among women in FY23 is a setback to “our efforts to promote gender diversity but we are doubling down on it.”He termed this higher attrition as “unusual”. This comes at a time when the firm has asked its employees to work from office for at least 3 days a week