Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT exporter, has become one of the largest employers of women in the world and is weaving diversity and inclusion into organisational ethos through women-friendly policies and initiatives. When all over the world, workforce trends are changing and markets are becoming increasingly competitive, TCS has enjoys an edge with rising female workforce in the organization.

Developing and sustaining a healthy mix of talent is one of the ways in which businesses can respond effectively to such challenges. With over 100,000 women employees, Tata Consultancy Services is one of the largest women employers in the world. This success is due to several initiatives that weave diversity and inclusion into the ethos of the organisation.

Here are some measures taken by TCS to make it a women-friendly organization:

Mentoring programmes for junior women employees: Through Network to Win (nWin), mentors are assigned to small groups of junior women employees to provide guidance on professional and personal aspects. Career aspirations, work-life balance, organisational culture, life stage changes, leadership development, safety and wellbeing, etc., are addressed through discussion circles, formal and informal networking, coffee chats, virtual live chats and panel discussions.

Discussion circles to help women through lifestyle stages: Women sometimes take a step back from their careers or quit their jobs when they get married or have children. Mentoring and counselling can help them deal with challenges in maintaining work-life balance. It also encourages them to strive towards moving up the ladder. The provision of subsidised child-care and support groups for working parents help ease their responsibilities, allowing them to integrate both work and life.

Reorientation programmes to re-connect employees after long leave: Employees (both men and women) undergo a formal reorientation session after they return from long leave (more than 90 days) to help them pick up from where they left off. The sessions cover new policies, process improvements and other changes that help employees seamlessly reintegrate into the system. If necessary, senior advisors also handhold them for a period of 3-4 months.

Encouraging a flat hierarchy and open discussions: As a part of the Be Inspired initiative, profiles of inspirational women leaders are shared every week through the company’s internal social networking platform. Here, employees can connect with senior women leaders and know more about their journey. Panel discussions with senior leaders — both within and outside TCS — on subjects relevant to diversity are a regular feature across various geographies.

Grooming high-potential women for leadership roles: ‘iExcel’ is a special programme which grooms high potential women in middle and senior levels to become leaders. Covering aspects like Business Finance, Customer Partnership and Sales, Business Strategy, Executive Presence and Power Messaging, the programme allows participants to interact with top leaders within and outside TCS, who also act as role models and mentors.

Global managers learn to manage diversity: TCS has developed a special learning module for mid-level managers, both men and women, to equip them with the skills required to motivate and work effectively with a diverse team. This module — called Managing Diverse Teams (MDT) — was launched on the company’s internal development portal.

Day care tie-ups: To support women in the workforce, TCS has been undertaking day care tie-ups to provide good childcare facilities in and around office areas at subsidised prices. A virtual support group called ‘workplace parents’ has been formed to engage working parents through workshops on child psychology and parenting.

Million women mentors – encouraging more women in stem in the community:  TCS is a founding sponsor of Million Women Mentors (MWM), an initiative led by STEMconnector and in partnership with the National Girls Collaborative Project, NPower and MentorNet. Working together, the goal is to increase interest in Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) education and careers in girls and women, with a special focus on minorities and underserved populations.