Indian Top IT Companies like Accenture, Cisco, HCL Tech, Dell, Uber, and Flipkart are boosting women in tech. The companies are reaching out to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, using inclusive AI hiring, offering mentoring, caregiving support, and returnship programs to reduce gender disparities in their workforce.
When ET spoke with HR heads they emphasized hiring more women from STEM backgrounds for diverse perspectives, enhancing employee engagement, productivity, and problem-solving. Diverse viewpoints from STEM women bring fresh approaches to business challenges.
Both Flipkart and Dell are working to reach out to women students and provide opportunities for women from low- and mid-socioeconomic Program under which the company brings female STEM graduates from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities who are going to graduate but are not employed yet, to the workplace for a year.
“The objective is to equip the future generation with the skills and learnings to make them eligible for job opportunities in the corporate sector,” said Santosh TK, director of talent acquisition, Dell Technologies.
Female representation at the senior leadership level has increased by 24% in the past five years at HCLTech, which runs the #SheTheFuture campaign to highlight the achievements of women in STEM fields.
“By sharing these stories, we inspire and pave the way for a new era where more girls aspire to pursue careers in STEM. When women embrace technology, it’s not just good for women, it’s good for clients, culture, collaboration, business, humanity, and progress,” said a company spokesperson.
According to Rinku Kaul, human resources lead – Advanced Technology Centers in India (ATCI), Accenture aims to reach 50% female employment by 2025. At present, 47% of Accenture's nearly 300,000+ employees in India are women, and almost 26% of the firm's leadership roles are women.
At Cisco, the Engineering India Leadership Program - also known as the Shark Tank - builds technical leadership skills of its participants.
Over 350 coders and technical alumni have successfully graduated from the programme.
“Through this program, senior technical talent mentors and promotes engineers, empowering them to achieve success within our company,” Sirisha Palepu, director - people and communities, Cisco India & SAARC, told ET.
The tech firm also has Code With Cisco, which aims to attract diverse emerging talent on a national scale.
“We are also piloting various initiatives in India utilising our assessment tools and a coding and recruiting platform to assess technical capabilities and promote inclusive skill-based hiring,” Palepu said.
Cos pushing for more women techies: Highlights
Initiatives in place : Reaching out to tier 2 and tier 3 cities for talent, inclusive and skill-based hiring practices powered by AI, mentoring and career development initiatives, caregiving support structures, and returnship programmes
Who's doing it : Accenture, Cisco, HCL Tech, Dell, Uber, Flipkart
Why this matter : Better diversity leads to better productivity and problem-solving capabilities; different viewpoints bring fresh approaches to business challenges.
