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In an exclusive interaction with ETHRWorld, Komal Somani, Whole-Time Director and CHRO ESDS Software Solutions, discusses the reasons why a 50:50 gender ratio is necessary for organisations to prosper, how to bring down attrition levels, and the strategies, policies and practices employed to bring about the ideal gender parity. By 2027, ESDS oftware aspires to reach a 50 percent gender diversity ratio.

Highlights

1. Women offer more stability to an employer or an organisation, and they have a much lesser attrition rate than men; in most cases they are more loyal; they don't switch or change jobs frequently, and prove to be good allies for long term associations.

2. The good characteristics and qualities of men can only be leveraged and balanced out with the help of the characteristics of women, to make an organisation prosper.

3. Apart from routine leadership programmes for all employees, there are special leadership programmes for high potential women employees. These women employees are assigned mentors, and a key KRA of this mentor is to level-up the assigned female employees to leadership roles.

4. Top performers would leave if they don't get the edge or the accelerated growth they seek, as a result of their fast learning and better performing capabilities, where the company’s Green Corridor initiative helps reduce regrettable attrition

 

Komal Somani, Whole-Time Director and CHRO, ESDS Software Solutions

 

ESDS Software Solutions, a player in the cloud-computing and managed cloud services space, is headquartered in Nashik, Maharashtra. The company has five offices in India at Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Nashik, and one office in Dubai, UAE.

The total staff strength of the organisation is over 1,100 employees currently, with the maximum workforce- over 700 employees operating from its Nashik office, 100 employees each working from Bengaluru, Delhi and Kolkata offices respectively, and the remaining working out of its Mumbai and Dubai offices. 

Currently, the overall gender ratio at the organisation is 25 percent. A total of 22 women hold leadership positions from the managerial till the CXO levels at the organisation, excluding two women who are the Board members.

In an exclusive interaction with ETHRWorld, Komal Somani, Whole-Time Director and CHRO, ESDS Software Solutions, discusses the reasons why a 50:50 gender ratio is necessary for organisations to prosper, how to bring down attrition levels, and the strategies, policies and practices employed to bring about the ideal gender parity.

By 2027, ESDS Software aspires to reach a 50 percent gender diversity ratio.

Why a 50:50 gender diversity

"No domination from either of the genders is good for an institution, neither from males nor females, and it is all about striking the right balance,"
says Somani.

Some of the reasons she openly discusses, why the organisation is looking forward to creating a 50-50 gender balance in the organisation, are summarised as under.

1. As per her experience and understanding of corporate governance and human nature, Somani says men are bigger risk-takers, and women on the other hand are the ones who mitigate risks.

2. Women are softer and more empathetic, and have a more collaborative approach and style of working vis-a-vis men.

3. Women offer more stability to an employer or an organisation, and they have a much lesser attrition rate than men; in most cases, they are more loyal, they don't switch or change jobs frequently, and prove to be good allies for long term associations.

Elaborating, Somani shares attrition rates for women versus men at ESDS Software which are 3.66 percent and 7.78 percent respectively.

4. She says that women are able to handle similar, repetitive jobs and work very well, as compared to men.

5. The good characteristics and qualities of men can only be leveraged and balanced out with the help of the characteristics of women, to make an organisation prosper.

As a first step to the 50:50 goal, by 2024 ESDS Software aspires to have 30 percent women in its workforce and has a step-by-step approach and strategy in place to achieve it.

 

Strategies and practices

1. Managers and recruiters are being trained to remove all types of unconscious biases during all their recruiting processes.

Firstly, to this end, the names and gender of candidates' resumes and applications are removed manually before sending them to the hiring managers to eliminate unconscious bias towards women while gauging a profile.

Secondly, the organisation is trying to give women more and fair chances, and making conscious efforts in avoiding any prejudice or preconceived notions with regard to their capabilities.

This, Somani explains with an example, say, if a female candidate has recently given birth, and the role she is applying for requires some amount of travelling, the recruiting managers are trained to not be prejudiced or judge the woman if she will be able to juggle work with her infant child, and deprive a deserving female candidate of the opportunity.

2. ESDS software has launched a special referral bonus for referring women candidates.

This referral bonus gives the referee employee 10 percent more of the regular referral amount, if she or he refers a female candidate to the company instead of a male candidate.

This initiative was launched in 2020, and in the previous financial year (FY 2022-23), 10 women were hired through this, and in the FY 2023-24, 34 women have been hired through this.

3. The organisation is actively working on its returnship programme for women, called ‘Returnship Rhapsody’, launched in 2021 for inviting ex-women employees back to work, even after a gap of 3 to 4 years, if they want to.

"Reasonable amount of motivation, training and hand-holding is done to help them settle and till they bounce back,"
says Somani.

A total of 52 women have been hired or brought back through this initiative since its inception.

4. From FY 2024-25, the company also plans to go to more all-women colleges and hire from such institutions to increase its female workforce population.

“We have shortlisted a few colleges from where we will hire starting from June 2024 onwards- post completion of the academic season,”
Somani says.

Cummins College of Engineering for Women in Pune is one of the colleges ESDS plans to hire from this financial year.

5. Apart from routine leadership programmes for all employees, there are special leadership programmes for high potential women employees.

These women employees are assigned mentors, and a key KRA of this mentor is to level-up the assigned female employees to leadership roles.

Currently, leadership training is being given to 132 candidates at ESDS, out of which 33 are women, receiving special training through the mentorship initiative.

Already 19 women have become leaders at different levels as a result of being trained through this special initiative for women.

While executing all these initiatives, Somani claims that the quality of the talent hired is not compromised, even if more attention is being put deliberately on female candidates.

"All these policies are about giving them more and fair opportunities and chances, but there is no special or soft corner for women as such, and quality of the talent is not compromised with,"
says Somani

 

Overall hiring numbers

A total of 336 new candidates have been hired at ESDS in the current financial year (2023-24) through various sources.

Out of this, 123 are freshers, and within the freshers 42 are women (29 percent).

In the previous financial year (2022-23), a total of 455 new candidates were hired. Out of this, 228 were freshers and within this, 65 were women (23 percent).

 

Controlling attrition

The attrition rate for FY 2023-24 at ESDS is at 11.44 percent -- 3.66 percent for women and 7.78 percent for men.

Attrition at the organisation has gone down since the last FY (2022-23), when it was 28.49 percent.

 

Internal job transfers

A total of 20 employees have undergone internal job transfers, or have been hired through IJPs this FY (2023-24).

 

Green Corridor

The reason Somani attributes to a fairly low and manageable attrition at the organisation is to one of its practices, called 'Green Corridor'.

This initiative is based on a performance versus potential matrix, and is designed to fast-track the career path of high-performing and high-potential employees.

"This helps immensely in retaining them, as they are provided the fast growth and better opportunities that such candidates might seek outside and leave us sooner, if not provided,"
says Somani.

She adds how top performers would leave if they don't get the edge or the accelerated growth they seek, as a result of their fast learning and better performing capabilities, where this particular initiative helps. 

The Green Corridor is a self-appraisal portal where candidates can do their appraisal for themselves, if they feel they are out-performing and seek a growth or a promotion.

An interview panel is in place that takes their interview to test if they are ready for the next level or promotion, and are provided that growth opportunity if they are able to clear it.

If not, they are given feedback on the areas where they need to improve, and they can come back again through the Green Corridor portal, and take the interview again when they are ready.

The medium or the mid-level performers are given guidance and training to pull them up to the level of top performers, so that they can avail the Green Corridor. 

The low- performers are given ample chances and a number of months, and also are helped with training and guidance to perform and become better over a period of time. 

Somani shared that a total of 43 employees having high potential and high performance have availed the Green Corridor platform in the current FY (2023-24).