SBI employees might get an option to work from home

Arundhati Bhattacharya, the Chairperson of State Bank of India, and the first woman to head the bank in 208 years, is currently listed as the 36th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. Under her leadership, the bank announced that it would allow women employees to take a sabbatical of two years for children’s education and taking care of the elderly. Today, she is seen as one of the most powerful women in the country and rightly so.

According to a recent report by the Times of India, the Bank is currently figuring out technological ways in which it can allow women employees to work from home, on some occasions. According to Bhattacharya, while the bank’s 38-40% of recruits are women, due to a high dropout rate, the women account for just of 20% of the workforce.

The same report also says that currently, 45,132 employees working for the bank are women and the total staff strength of SBI is 2,22,033. Some of the common reasons for the women dropping out were looking after children, relocation or to look after the elderly. Bhattacharya told the Times of India, "We try to accommodate staff where transfers are concerned, but right now we are not able to provide flexible timings. We are looking at whether it is technologically possible to allow working from home."

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This problem is not exclusive to the field of finance; women across the world, working in various professions face similar issues. If SBI is successful in this attempt, it will set an example for various other organizations in the country to work in this direction. Bhattacharya’s efforts to ensure better female-employee retention, is an important step for the women in the country.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/SBI-studies-if-women-can-work-from-home/articleshow/45517179.cms