India Inc set ambitious gender diversity targets for the current year, but was falling short at the last count. Women employees constituted 26% of the India Inc workforce across sectors while companies had planned to increase their number to 31.4% this year, shows a survey of 775 companies across sectors, carried out by Aon, and shared exclusively with ET.
Top sectors which have the very best share of girls staff are ITES, software program services, retail, {and professional} providers together with consulting. Data for the survey was collated between December 2021 and January 2022.
This year’s report showed that 98 percent of companies in India Inc are offering programs to identify women employees with high potential. This has increased by 32 percent as compared to 66 percent of companies in 2016, indicating a steady increase in intent amongst employers. Apart from focusing on providing enablers for work-life integration (like child-care and flexible work support), companies are increasingly focusing on skill-building for women and creating a more gender balanced talent pipeline. Demonstrating this intent, 97 percent of the 100 Best Companies use a gender lens for succession planning.