• Flexible working has become an accepted norm; formal second career programs are gaining speed

• 100% of all surveyed organizations focus on gender, followed by 83% focusing on Generations as an element of inclusion

MUMBAI, 16th SEPTEMBER 2019 (GPN) : India’s best employers for women are racing to balance the workplace gender ratio by the year 2027 revealed the fourth edition of Working Mother and Avtar 100 Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) 2019. The study reveals that companies are progressively increasing women’s employment rates in their workplaces, by implementing cutting edge practices, whereby a perfect 50-50 gender balance is statistically attainable by the Best companies, in the next eight years. Flexible working, which was a much sought-after, fought-for enabler, has become a norm in all these companies, while the potential of second career women (women on career breaks) has been recognized with 53% of companies having formal returning recruitment tracks.

Over the four years, since the inception of the BCWI, women’s representation in the 100 Best companies for women has continued to increase. According to the study, women’s representation rose from 31% in 2018 to 33% in 2019, which was at 25% in 2016 among, the 100 Best Companies that together employ over 4.9 lakh (half a million) women professionals in the current year, 2019. As per the projections, these companies will get to a 50-50 gender balance by 2027.  Further, women leading business roles is currently at 16% and all set to grow to 25% by 2025.

Conducted by Avtar – India’s first diversity advocate and workplace inclusion expert in partnership with Working Mother Media, a celebrated gender-parity champion in the United States, the study further revealed that emotional well-being and phase back programs for returning mothers have contributed to steady increase in Maternity retention rate in India Inc., which is at an unprecedented 93% in 2019 compared to 88% in 2018. As an indication that companies are strategic about diversity initiatives, the study found that 49% of organizations have employed Diversity Coaches for senior leaders on Diversity & Inclusion.

This year’s BCWI also covered a range of Diversity & Inclusion practices across various diversity strands amongst companies to provide deeper insights about the overall inclusion in corporate India. Titled as Most Inclusive Companies Index (MICI) 2019, the study covered critical parameters in the inclusion of five strands of diversity – Persons with Disabilities (PwD), LGBTQ, Generations, Culture and of course, Gender.

As per the MICI findings, all companies identify gender as the basic foundation of diversity – 100% of all companies are invested in this essential aspect of inclusion. The study also found that more companies are increasingly focusing on Generations (83%), followed by PwD (58%), Culture & Nativity (39%), LGBTQ (23%) and socio-economic diversity (7%). The study found that in 61% of companies, business managers have D&I goals as part of their KRAs and in 6% of companies, the CEOs drive the D&I agenda.

Commenting on the findings, Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President, AVTAR Group, said “It is extremely heartening to note that a milestone, originally envisaged as taking several decades to achieve in India, is now less than a decade away. The vanguard leadership of the organizations participating in the Best Companies initiative has ensured that it is possible for every company in India to achieve a 50-50 gender balance, which was previously seen as an unsurmountable challenge. By utilizing data about effectiveness of measures, companies are now very strategic about gender inclusion, which has translated into rapid results. The women are delighted and so are we! The year on year progress of companies, who have put themselves on a fast-track, via innovative practices and deep commitment is exemplary. Evidence of top Leadership keenly driving inclusion is seen in organizations’ increased focus on other dimensions of diversity including Generations, Persons with Disabilities (PwD) and LGBTQ.”

Adding to this, Ms. Subha V. Barry, President – Working Mother Media, said “Each year, we look forward to celebrating the 100 Best Companies in India by shining a spotlight on the work they are doing on behalf of women throughout the country. Much progress has been made. We are also excited to launch the Most Inclusive Companies Index in partnership with Avtar. We applaud these organization’s diversity and inclusion efforts, and by setting a high bar, we hope other organizations will follow their lead so we can work toward a more inclusive world.”

The winning companies who were chosen to the 2019 Working Mother & Avtar Top 10 Best Companies for Women in India listing, ALPHABETICALLY are Accenture Solutions Private Ltd., Barclays in India, Credit Suisse, Deloitte in India, EY, IBM India Private Limited, KPMG, PepsiCo India Holdings Limited, Shell India Markets Pvt Ltd and Tech Mahindra.

In MICI, the following companies emerged as Champions of Inclusion for their outstanding efforts towards inclusion (in ALPHABETICAL order) – Accenture Solutions Private Ltd., ANZ Support Services India Pvt. Ltd., Encore Capital Group, EY, IBM India Private Limited, Infosys Limited and Wipro Limited.

For the complete study and list of 100 Best Companies for Women in India, please visit:

https://avtarinc.com/best-companies/best-companies-for-women

And, for the complete list of companies on the Most Inclusive Companies Index, please visit:

https://avtarinc.com/best-companies/most-inclusive-companies-index

Key Findings of 2019 Avtar & Working Mother Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI):

• Women’s hiring, as of 2019, is the highest in the Professional Services & Consulting Industry at 44%, followed by BFSI Sector at 41% and IT at 36%. BFSI Sector is poised to continue hiring women, the hiring rate is likely to go up to 42%, by 2020.
• Substantiating the higher employability of women and their retention potential, the attrition rates of women are lower than that of men at all levels in the corporate hierarchy in 2019 – 100 Best. At the corporate executive level, the attrition rates of men are almost double that of women. The attrition figures are as follows:

Level in 2019 – 100 Best	Average attrition rate of women	Average attrition rate of men
Non-manager	30.7	38.37
Manager	12.16	14.72
Senior Manager	6.26	8.83
Corporate Executive	3.66	7

• 
  80% of the 2019 Top 10 and 53% (up 2% from 2018) of the 2019 – 100 Best have formal programmes for returning women/second career women. When the study launched in 2016, only 30% of the 100 Best companies had programmes to hire returning women. In 2017, 40% had formal second career programmes, which rose to 51% in 2018. Going by the trends, by 2025, all the 100 Best Companies will have formal programmes to identify and hire second career women (women returning after breaks), which shows the rising conviction in corporate India in the talent potential of women on career breaks.
• The maternity retention rate at the 2019 – 100 Best is 93%. This has moved up from 88% in 2018. Over 62% of the 2019 – 100 Best (up from 49% in 2018) provide formal support for returning mothers to counter postpartum depression – this correlates positively with the high maternity retention rate. 74% of the 2019 – 100 Best and all of the 2019 Top 10 have formal structured reintegration programmes for returning mothers – phaseback programmes. The average phase-back period was 4 months. This is validation of the fact that the best companies are intentionally investing in the emotional well-being of returning mothers.
• 97% of the 2019-100 Best companies provide fully paid paternity leave, this is up from 92% in 2018. This is also a reaffirmation of these companies promoting a male ally culture and ensure that their male employees have the option of paid leave for important life events like birth of a child. This is in a context, when the country is yet to have a formal policy around paid paternity leave.
• 77% of the 2019 – 100 Best (12% up from 69% in 2017) sponsor professional courses for their employees (both men and women) – an intentional effort by organizations to nurture career aspirations of employees. 53% of these beneficiaries are women – also indicative of the fact that women in the 100 Best want to intentionally invest in their careers.
• Mentoring, rated as one of the most critical enablers for women, has become a common practice in the 100 Best. 92% of 2019-100 Best provide this, this is up from 75% in 2016.

Similarly career sponsorship, which was offered by only 45% in 2016, is being offered by 62% in 2019. In 2016, 56% of the 100 Best offered management and leadership training, this has risen to 99% in 2019 – indicating a clear rise in the number of companies invested in sharpening the professional acumen of their employees. While only 16% of 100 Best offered child care support, today 74% of the 100 Best companies offer near site child care support (tie-ups with child care facilities near company premises), the remaining offer on-site child care support. The 2016-19 growth chart is a testimony to the increasing commitment of 00 Best companies to the cause of gender inclusion.

• Gender pay parity is of utmost importance to 2019-100 Best. 86% of these companies have mechanisms to measure and benchmark gender pay equity, showing that 100 Best companies consider pay parity as a very important pre-requisite for gender inclusion. While in 2016, 14% of Top 10% earners in the 100 Best were women, this stands at 16% in 2019.
• As per the 2019 Monster Salary Index, women in India earn 19% lesser than their male counterparts and this wage gap has reduced just by 1% from 20% in 2018. Against such a context, it is important to note that majority of 2019-100 Best companies are very serious about pay parity and they have all check mechanisms in place to notify themselves of disparity and resolve grievances.
• 49% of the 2019-100 Best companies have employed diversity coaches to coach their senior leaders (CXO levels and above) on diversity and inclusion. This is an indication that the 100 Best Companies are very serious about their pursuit of ensuring leadership conviction for D&I and want their diversity initiatives to be driven top-down.
• Prevention of workplace sexual harassment is very important to 2019-100 Best. Apart from ensuring they meet all legal requirements, they raise awareness through various methods – 89% have e-learning programmes on POSH. All of the 100 Best companies have whistle blower policies for employees to report cases of sexual harassment.
• All of the 100 Best companies have formal structured processes around flexible working (This has been the trends since 2016). Companies offering remote work as a flexi-work option have gone up from 60% in 2016 to 77% in 2019, which is a laudable trend. Remote work offers the flexibility to professionals to work remotely/from home, a huge career enabler for women professionals.

Key Findings from 2019 Avtar & Working Mother Most Inclusive Companies Index (MICI) 2019:

Diversity and Inclusion Awareness and Training

• All Champions and exemplars conduct diversity and inclusion awareness programmes. AT 86% of Champions, this is part of new hire induction programs. All Champions and 78% Exemplars conduct regular employee focus groups/critical conversations to gather feedback on diversity & inclusion issues
• 84% of companies on MICI have conducted implicit bias training in the past – 92% have conducted training for their hiring managers to eliminate biases in the recruitment cycle.
• All Champions and 78% exemplars have conducted implicit bias training in the past. 
• All Champions and 89% Exemplars also conducted training for their hiring managers to eliminate biases in the recruitment cycle.
• 2% of companies on MICI conduct communication campaigns on inclusion of diversity strands of LGBTQ and PwD. 
• 86% of Champions and 67% Exemplars conduct communication campaigns on inclusion of diversity strands of LGBTQ and PwD.
• 92% of companies on MICI – All Champions train their hiring managers to be culturally sensitive and competent – 89% of Exemplars do so.

Infrastructural Inclusion

• 92% of companies on MICI have custom built solutions and infrastructure to enable processes such as work from home, remote access and support systems for PwD employees.
• All Champions and 89% exemplars have custom built solutions and infrastructure to enable processes such as work from home, remote access and support systems for PwD employees. All champions and 50% of exemplars have custom designed transportation facilities for PwD employees
• 88% of companies on MICI conduct infrastructural audit of offices and facilities to ensure inclusion, specifically of PwD employees.
• All Champions and 83% Exemplars conduct infrastructural audit of offices and facilities to ensure inclusion, specifically of PwD employees.

LGBTQ Friendly Measures

• 56% of companies on MICI have LGBTQ networks for their employees.
• 86% of champions have LGBTQ networks for their employees – 44% of Exemplars do this.
• 36% of companies on MICI engage social media to reach out to LGBTQ talent pool.
• 43% of Champions and 33% Exemplars engage social media to reach out to LGBTQ talent pool.
• 44% of companies on MICI have gender neutral bathrooms for inclusion of LGBTQ Community.
• 86% of Champions and 28% of Exemplars have gender neutral bathrooms for inclusion of LGBTQ Community.

Measures for inclusion and parity

• 64% of companies on MICI conduct annual compensation audits related to gender, or other under-represented groups.
• 71% Champions and 61% Exemplars conduct annual compensation audits related to gender, or other under-represented groups.
• All companies on MICI have a formal policy to address grievances associated with gender or diversity & inclusion issues.

About Avtar: 

Avtar, set up in 2000, is India’s first diversity advocate & workplace inclusion expert. Renowned for its extensive work in the space of Diversity & Inclusion and more specifically, women’s workforce participation, it is the country’s largest provider of second career opportunities for women and is also the earliest to begin working on diversity audits and measurement. Lead by the visionary Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Avtar has ventured into areas of women’s empowerment and career creation, which are firsts to India, such as – 1) Creating a marketplace for second career women to meet potential employers, 2) Developing a comprehensive set of career enablers which companies can implement in their workspaces, 3) Spearheading original research that has provided cutting edge insights to organizations 4) Re-Skilling, Up-skilling and Counselling of women to pursue sustainable career paths and 5) Building career intentionality amongst under privileged girl children. Over its 18 years of existence, Avtar has helped charter Diversity & Inclusion plans for several organisations in the IT, FMCG and Financial sectors in the country.

About Working Mother Media: 

Working Mother is a role model, mentor and advocate for the U.S.’s more than 24 million mothers who are devoted to their families and committed to their careers. Working Mother is a celebrated gender parity champion in the United States. With their website, magazine, research, social networks, video, and powerful events, Working Mother provides its readers with the community, solutions and strategies they need to thrive. Their annual list of the Working Mother 100 Best Companies celebrates its 33rd anniversary this year. It is one of the most prestigious lists in the U.S. and sets the standards for work life practices for U.S. companies. It continues to raise awareness of the issues women face in the workplace and encourages the development of programs to address those issues.