How to make your company more gender balanced in 5 Simple Ways

We’re talking about your company that has a surprisingly low number of women. India ranks second from the bottom in the world’s G20 countries, when it comes to participation of women in the workforce, beating only Saudi Arabia- a country that doesn’t even allow its women to drive. At a miserable 5 percent of women in its boardrooms, India is at the bottom among the BRICS nations.

Let alone the top G20 economies of the world, even if you see India’s overall ranking, it is still 124^th in the world’s 136 countries, and the 12 countries that it has left behind are all countries in extreme social and political abyss- like Pakistan, Egypt and Syria.

When greater inclusion of women is a priority for companies world over, here’s five things according to an Entrepreneur.com article, that Indian companies can do to build a diverse organization with truly inclusive policies, so that the talents of 48.5 percent of its population do not go untapped:

1.       Take a Closer look at your Company’s Policies:

According to the UNC study, many organizations have actual or perceived gaps in how men and women are recruited and developed. Ensure you aren’t doing anything wrong at the technical level, by first computing number of women in executive roles to get a grasp on the gap. Depending on the stat that surfaces, ensure that there is equality in the payscale, whether enough women are participating in training, mentoring or other career-development activities. And the best way to address the gap is by directly surveying your employees, whether they sense a difference in treatment of men and women.

2.       Fill up the Crevices

If you do discover real or perceived gaps in recruiting and retaining women, start restructuring urgently.  For eg: if the deficiency is identified in career-development activities, consider setting up a special mentoring program for female executives. And ofcourse, if a pay scale related disparity crops up, by all means, make amends immediately.

3. Offer workplace flexibility.

In all probabilities, your women employees are multi-tasking superhumans that handle  child care and elder care duties on the home front along with their professional responsibilities, so flexibility in working would really be doing them a solid. Most sufficiently experienced women executives would be at a phase in their lives where they have myriad additional responsibilities, thus, if you want these women on board, consider offering on-site day care, job sharing, part-time work options, flexible hours or telecommuting.

4. Cast a wider net:

If you just don’t have enough qualified women applicants, maybe you aren’t looking in the right places. Tap likely bastions of qualified and talented women- like - women’s organizations in the area, women’s colleges and placement cells. You may even advertise specifically on women’s employment websites, through targeted advertising plans. And most importantly, focus on procuring referrals of women your employees know personally or professionally.

5. Weigh promoting current female employees.

Create a pipeline of women leaders from your existing pool of employees. Encourage them to take up executive roles, and provide them the necessary training through workshops and seminars and other programs, to make them able enough to step up to the plate.

This will also fix the overall image and perception towards your company, and women observing the company on the outside, with aspirations to join will feel more optimistic about seeing themselves on the top.

Original Source: Entrepreneur.com

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