India Inc faces skewed gender representation at CXO level

Companies expect more female employees at the mid-level, but this is not getting reflected in the diversity ratio at the top level as only 5 percent see a rise in number of women at the CXO level.

According to a TimesJobs Study on gender diversity in India, around 40 percent organisations anticipate more female employees, while just 5 percent expect a rise in women leaders in CXO positions.

The TimesJobs study titled 'State of Diversity in India Inc' noted that nearly 35 percent of organisations out of the 860 surveyed are focused on increasing representation of women at senior levels, but due to looming challenges, only 5 percent actually feel they will achieve any gains.

A further 30 percent of companies planning to increase women's representation at the middle level are far more optimistic in making a positive impact.

"Many organisations still suffer from diversity issues as massive HR potential is lost due to stringent work timings causing a lack of female talent, primarily at senior levels," Times Business Solutions Head of Strategy Nilanjan Roy said.

Roy further noted that this imbalance can be overcome with flexible women-centric policies and a consistent employer branding strategy.

As per the report, 65 percent employers feel gender diversity is 'moderately' represented in the workforce and 25 percent say it is 'significantly' represented while the rest (10 percent) state that their workforce has no representation on gender diversity whatsoever.

The study said 55 percent organisations admit that there is still a compensation gap between women and men in their organisations and they are taking measures to amend this by offering intangible benefits to women -- including flexible hours, targeted opportunities for development, training programmes and support networks in their organisations.

In addition, as part of future gender diversity and inclusion programmes, nearly 40 percent of organisations have assigned gender targets for recruitments/promotions while 30 percent will put in place rigorous recruitment or selection processes. Twenty percent aim to design jobs keeping in mind the flexibility and other training needs of women employees.