India Inc: Women got only 37 out of every 100 new jobs created in FY19

They form less than ten per cent of the workforce in many companies

When furniture retail giant IKEA decided to set shop in Hyderabad, the company was clear it has to be a gender equal unit. “They wanted to hire 50 per cent women for each and every role that was available for that store,” said Ameesha Prabhu, chief executive officer for TRRAIN, a non-profit trust, one of the organizations which helped IKEA recruit 150 women to fill those positions.

A similar gender equal policy seems to be missing at most Indian companies, reducing the share of women in new hires to less than half. Women got only 37 of every 100 new jobs created in financial year 2019, shows an analysis of listed company disclosures. This, however, is an improvement from less than 25 employees hired for every 100 new jobs in financial year 2018, though men still seem significantly more likely to fill up new positions. In FY19, these companies created 1.15 Lakh new jobs combined. (See chart 1)

 

Business Standard collected the data from hundreds of annual reports across periods, as part of a yearly check on representation of marginalized groups and discrimination among companies forming part of the S&P BSE 100 index. The analysis looked at 77 companies for whom continuous data is available over the last three years. Some companies include permanent employees, and others include contract and other employees when counting the number of total employees. Using a constant sample across the years is expected to provide a broad idea of the hiring trend.

Kalpana Tatavarti, founder for Parity Consulting and Training says it is advisable to hire 50:50, to change the under representation of women in India’s workforce. “Some organizations at the forefront of gender inclusion are focusing on hiring 50 per cent at entry level, these are few and far between,” she said. The share of women employees in the workforce for companies continues to be abysmal at 22.51 per cent for financial year 2019, a marginal improvement from 21.73 per cent seen in financial year 2018. This representation is lower than 10 per cent for 47 of the 77 companies in the sample size. (See chart 2)

Lack of a strong diversity policy, limited pool of candidates and socio-cultural factors all together keep women participation in the workforce low. B S Nagesh, founder for TRRAIN points out more girls needs to enrol in engineering colleges, to ensure more women contribute to the manufacturing industry. “In the service and IT (Information Techonology) industry, a lot of women are joining at the entry level, however, in the manufacturing industry; the pool is shrunk right at the entry level recruitment itself.” TRRAIN along with UNDP and Ikea Foundation under the Disha Program helped train women to join IKEA in India.

Deepa Krishnan, Head- Marketing, Digital & Loyalty, Tata Starbucks summed up impediments for women workforce into the acronym 3M- marriage, maternity and mobility. Concerns over mobility may have also transitioned to the recruiter’s mind. “Mindsets and biases of managers in these sectors that it will be difficult for women to work in the remote corners where their factories are located add a further barrier to the few women who choose to make careers there,” Tatavarti added, referring to sectors like heavy engineering, manufacturing, real estate and oil and gas.

Despite India’s economic growth, the country’s women representation in its labour force is lower than some of the world’s poorer countries. According to World Bank data, women representation in India’s overall workforce was at 21.79%, lower than countries which have a lower gross domestic product on a purchasing power parity basis than India including Pakistan, Sudan and Bangladesh (See Chart 3).

Tatavarti suspects India’s well-meaning policies including its Maternity Act and the Sexual Harassment Act may actually have affected willingness to hire women, since the law has not come with a corresponding shift in attitudes among those doing the hiring. It is not uncommon to hear managers say "it is better to not hire women; this sounds like too much hassle,” Tatavarti, whose organisation helps companies build an inclusive workforce, said.

This is part two of a four-part series on inclusion and India Inc.