Women mentorship: What Kotak is doing

A 2010 World Economic Forum report from 20 countries found that 59 percent of the company’s survey had mentoring programmes for all employees and 28 percent have women specific programmes.

A catalyst survey that tracked 4,000 high-potential men and women from the US, Europe and Asia between 1996 and 2007 shows that more women than men reported having mentors. However, men received more promotions and got higher salary increases per promotion 21 percent versus 2 percent for women.
The catalyst study says mentoring is important but to make it to the top, someone needs to be pulling you up or sponsoring you. Traditionally high-potential women tend to be over-mentored and under-sponsored relative to their male peers. This happens for a variety of reasons starting with the tendency to favour those who are in one’s own image when all other factors like skills, competency etc are equal.
In India, the situation is a little different. An entire generation of women leaders in the financial sector seems to have benefited from a gender agnostic approach to the mentoring and sponsorship. Nonetheless there is a move now globally to formalise an even-handed process, which ensures that both men and women have access to a common pool of higher ranking mentors and sponsors.
CNBC-TV18's special show What woman really wants will address what organizations in the banking and financial services space are doing to make the pipeline of women leaders in their organizations more robust.
Here is a look at the work structure at Kotak Mahindra Bank.