HR Value to Organisations and India Economy

I consider myself privileged to be a key member of the SHRM Network and one of the Top 10 HR Influencer recognised by SHRM .

 My observation after attending HR Conferences - 

At the risk of sounding tad bit skeptical -  Where is the voice of  key stakeholders in HR Conferences -  #GigWorkers, #Women Leaders who face gender discrimination, #LGBT,  #Employees who are your Brand Ambassadors, GenZ, Millennials, Techies, Learners,  #People with different abilities et al ? 

For whom we in HR design policies , programs , practices ? For whom we in HR buy HR technology ?  Employee Experience, People are our Best Assets sound empty words, unless  diverse voices of key stakeholders are also included . HR Conferences serve as great Echo Chambers in a way,  providing great,  hi touch , human experience for All -  Sponsors, Vendors, Startups, Delegates, Speakers  ! 

My big idea to SHRM is to invite and focus on SMEs for SHRM Annual Conference in October 2019 . SMEs are the ones who need HR Advisory and Consulting and Insights from HR , HRTech Conferences most for Productivity gains .  In an Economic paper , interesting insight came up that One Quarter of GDP is Persuasion.  

One can establish value of SHRM Contribution and Impact on SMEs , if we ensure survey data is collected from SME sector prior to SHRM Event and Post the intervention.  

Such an intervention with SME Focus would be embraced and welcomed by Modi Government. MSME is regarded to be Growth Engine of Indian Economy. 

HR tech adoption results in time, cost, productivity gains for organisations: Report

In very simple economic terms, Capital and Technology investments Lead to Productivity gains, which lead to Jobs growth , which further enables MSMEs to export more, demand and consumption of goods and services rises enabling firms and Economy to grow for further leading to a virtuous economic cycle .   

( Source - A Guest Lecture by Subramanian Kri , Chief Economic Advisor, India ) 

How a Superior HR Tech drives Experience, Productivity and Performance

Economic Survey 2019: The curious case of Indian firms starting small & staying small

The Economic Survey says even Mexico does far better on this dimension than India.

Comparing employment and productivity with firm age in three countries: U.S., Mexico and India (Hseih and Klenow, 2014)the Survey found that the average employment level for 40-year old enterprises in the U.S. was more than seven times that of the employment when the enterprise is newly set up. 

A similar tale unfolds with productivity as well when we compare these three countries for the effect of aging of firms on productivity. The average productivity level for 40-year old enterprises in the U.S. was more than four times that of the productivity of an enterprise that is newly set up. In contrast, the average productivity level for 40-year old firms in India was only 60 per cent greater than the productivity of an enterprise that is newly set up. Thus, once they survive for forty year .. 

Read the ETB Report on MSME in detail here https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/sme-sector/economic-survey-2019-the-curious-case-of-indian-firms-starting-small-staying-small/articleshow/70069672.cms 

I believe , MSME sector is where HR Startups, HRTech Startups, HR Consultants and HR Advisory can add most value and maximum Impact.

Nourishing dwarfs to become giants for MSME growth: Economic Survey 2019

I will be at SHRM Annual 2019 Conference , Look forward to meeting HR Friends, Best minds in the Industry and getting exposed to new ideas and insights at the Event. 

Gender Diversity in Organizations - 2

My experience with mentoring young women suggests that women pay the motherhood penalty. Do you agree?

Women in the Workplace, a survey conducted by LeanIn.org and McKinsey, notes that women are less likely to advance than men, hold fewer roles leading to top management positions, and are a century away from gender parity in the C-suite.

We are a century away from achieving Gender Pay Parity too. Imagine!

Women will get equal pay in 118 years according to World Economic Forum . Almost no progress on wage equality around the globe in past seven years, according to report

The Unconscious Bias

Dell discovered the unconscious bias in its male employees when it conducted one-to-one closed room interactions with them under a program called Men Advocating Real Change. The fact that many were not even aware of it was a clincher.  “There are more men in corporate leadership and if they don’t want it or drive gender diversity, this change will never happen.”

Every Men and Women should read book Own it by Aparna Jain to learn more about unconscious bias against women at workplace and stories of Indian women at workplace.

India is categorized as the “Under the 30% representation of women at workplace”

In Corporate world,

At entry level – we have 30% Women representation

By the time women reach Mid-Level – the figure drops to 15%

And at Senior Level, CEOs, and CXOs – Women representation is mere 4-5%

The pipeline of talent dries upwards and not many women can be seen in the C-suite.

What happens from entry to senior level that Women drop out of Workforce significantly?

Let us examine …..

We get married

We go on Maternity Break

We have babies

We take sabbatical

We have homes to take care of

We put Career as Second priority because Indian Women and Sacrifices is synonymous, you know

So essentially corporate world penalizes Women to have babies and to take care of homes and husbands,

Instead of Making the Workplaces Flexible, and offering Flexi-work options to both Men and Women.

Instead of offering Paternity leave, so that Men share responsibilities of babies, companies have expectations from Women not to produce babies at all. Ridiculous!

Facebook and Apple – 2 Companies and their Leaders I admire, Sheryl Sandberg and Steve Jobs.  Apple said in its diversity report that its workforce was 70% male, while Facebook reported its workforce was 69% male.

These 2 companies rolled out policy to encourage Women to Freeze their Eggs.

Facebook will pay up to $20,000 while Apple provides perks in effort to attract more women

The idea of freezing eggs was first proposed for cancer patients as chemotherapy can damage a woman’s eggs.

But companies want Diversity Targets to be met at all levels , so instead of making our Workplaces  Inclusive for Women,  let’s ask  Women to freeze eggs so that they don’t quit jobs for making  babies at peak time in their careers.

Research Findings

55% organizations admit that there is still a compensation gap between #women & men - Times Job Survey

Women still don’t change jobs for High Compensation but Men do  – research

Women feel they are less supported than men at home, (McKinsey). We don’t need a research study for that. Women experience it day in day out!

Women negotiate less than Men. Women don’t negotiate for compensation even when they are deserving – research

So, Working Women must learn to negotiate tactics and enroll in a negotiation course.

You know what, it doesn’t end there. So Women who learn to negotiate are not liked by colleagues at workplace - Another Research study

Damn if you do, damned if you don’t.

Diversity and Inclusion go hand in hand.

“You can get high diversity ratios but if your culture is not right then you can’t get those diverse opinions.” 

You need to make a gender inclusive culture at workplace.

So it all boils down to Culture.

Gender Diversity in Organization - 1

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and comedy for those who think – Charlie Chaplin

I can’t help feeling both tragic and comic when I think of Gender Diversity in organizations. When I started writing on the topic – lot of thoughts emerged in my mind. Advancing Women in Corporations and Society is my passion, this is close to my heart.

However, I wasn’t sure which side should I represent – an optimistic view that says that we have done a lot for Women in organizations or pessimistic view that believes that much hasn’t been achieved for women at workplace. Or there could be a 3^rd view – Realist. To see things as they are?

Recently, I attended Vipasana in the Himalayas, and there I learnt to observe reality as it is. So I will try to make an attempt to present views of a realist to you, of course with my own biases. My hobby is reading, I come across lot of research articles on women. I will share those research findings with you.

I consider myself a feminist. A Feminist is someone who believes in Women having Equal rights as Men at workplace, at home, in societies. So if you believe that Women should have equal rights and fight for it, you are a Feminist.

I come from an organization which has an established reputation for celebrating diversity. Our CEO is a woman, Ginny Rometty (IBM) –which says a lot about how much we value & celebrate gender diversity at work.

But the figures can worry across sectors and organizations and few can boast of the gender ethic as I see it. Look at these:

• ´  Around 40% organizations anticipate more female employees at the mid-level in their workforce, however; only 5% see a rise in number of women at CXO levels reveals the latest Times Jobs study on gender diversity in India

TimesJob survey reveal that

• ´  40% organizations are 'doing' diversity to access wide talent pool

• 25% are diverse to improve business performance

• 20% surveyed organizations said they are doing it to enhance corporate reputation/brand image

• 10% are doing it for better corporate governance

• 5% are doing it out of compulsion as they are pressurized to take it up by internal and external stakeholders

Across the world, governments and organizations are waking up to the prudence of building diverse and inclusive workplaces. In India, there is still more reason to celebrate and promote women’s hiring, as it can lead to a sizeable additional economic growth and could add $700 billion to the country’s GDP in 2025 (McKinsey Global Institute, 2015).

The report titled, The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in India, claims that this economic impact could translate into incremental GDP growth of 1.4 per cent per year for the country. Bridging gender gap would also add $12 trillion to global GDP in 2025.

For every 100 girls that even enrol for education, just about 47 or so reach the high-school level. And then, when you talk of graduation and post-graduation, the number drops to may be 15, 16. And then, not just that, it’s also believed that, even out of the workforce-ready women, about 75 to 78 per cent do not join the organized workforce.” -

There are several business benefits of gender diversity, hence many executives root for a more diverse workforce. Such teams, as per the Gallup study, perform better than single gender ones by enabling different viewpoints, ideas, and market insights. These together lead to better problem solving and superior performance. Diverse teams help companies to serve a growing diverse customer base better.

The business case of gender diversity is borne out by the fact that organizations which have higher level of women leadership, had 30 per cent higher return in equity and 34 per cent higher total return to shareholders. Not only this, across the consumer industry 70 to 80 per cent of all bank transactions are influenced by women. Women, even those without independent financial resources, influence purchase decisions, and since a large part of consumer class is women; who could understand them the best?

But of course women! The economics of all these cumulative reasons has lately led to the belief that woman talent must form an integral part of the workforce. Clearly, a large population with such veto power cannot be ignored!

Despite strong evidence on the business case of gender diversity, we are far off from assimilating women into our workforce especially   after maternity break.

Research suggests that women pay the motherhood penalty. Do you agree?

While most leaders are stressing the importance of gender diversity across various forums, Times Job study   reveals that there still lies a yawning gap, between aspiration and reality, which needs to be addressed by India Inc. for it to truly realize the potential of diversity.