A total of 25 companies in the USA are listed in the top 100 companies in the world with high D&I scores. In recent Interaction, the CHRO of Federal Bank discussed policies toward D&I in the workplace. Where does Transgender stand in the Economy of India?
So far in India, Diversity and Inclusion has been mostly on paper and is seen only in Multi-National Companies in Banking, Automobile, etc. sector. Though many efforts have been made, the diversity and inclusion programs are mostly on paper, and their implementation is seen as way more delayed than drafting its policies.
In an interaction with the Economic Times HR world, The CHRO of Federal Bank, Ajith Kumar KK, has mentioned that they have achieved around 41% women in their workforce. This is how they are achieving their D&I agenda. Though it seems like gender equality is just a part of Diversity and Inclusion, they have been making woman-friendly policies like Maternity Leave, Child Care Programs, and Back to Work policies. These are among the major steps to implement Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace by Federal Bank.
Ajith Kumar also added that they had been continuously acting to have a more diverse workforce, and that is what the result says. With around 12,800 employees at present in Federal Bank, 5240 are women. He also added that they have been working on upskilling employees, making changes in their recruiting policies aiming to attain broader geographical reach in India.
Among many policies for resuming work after maternity leaves, Federal Bank has Maternity Connect Program with a Maternity Work Buddy that informs the mothers about all the activities in the workplace when they are on maternity leave, also offering expectant mother Footrest and back support, Dedicated parking slots. Beyond that, they have a program for hiring and retaining a maximum number of women.
The report here is about gender diversity implemented in the company, which is yet to have non-discriminatory policies for physically challenged, Transgender, and many more sections of the society. Even though these seem baby steps toward the giant step of diversifying the workplace, the Federal bank has set a good example for small industries to draft woman-friendly policies and take the initiative in making the workplace diversified.
Among Fortune 500, the list of top companies with a diversified workplace is
- Accenture,
- Coca-Cola
- Sodexo
- Microsoft
- Johnson and Johnson
- Mastercard
- Kaiser Permanente
- Ernst & Young
- Marriot International
- Novartis
As per Ranking on the Overall D&I index, there is no Indian Company listed in the top 100. Is that an indication that India is sensitive to change? Indeed, it is high time we make some changes in our workplace to make it more inclusive. Though the concept of D&I is new, still many companies are working on Gender-based Diversity. Physically challenged and Mentally Challenged candidates stand nowhere to be considered, for that matter, even transgenders.
As per the NHRC data in 2018, 96% of transgender were not allowed job opportunities, whereas 92% of transgender are deprived of any kind of economic activities in India. Now out of 6% of transgender employed work in the private sector and NGOs, if NGOs are not considered, the figure can be around 2-3% of transgender employed in our society. Now wondering how many were eligible or are qualified ones? 89% of respondents of the survey said that qualified are even barred from opportunities. The education rate is around 40% which means 6/10 trans in India cannot attend school as they face a lot of discrimination. The most surprising matter here is the total population; as per the census of 2011, the total population of trans sums up to 4.88 lacs which is not even half a million. Now that is why we say it is alarming as even a defined CATEGORY of Gender is facing discrimination.
Coming back to a diversified workplace, GAP INC Tops the table with 86 overall D&I scores, followed by Royal Bank of Canada with 81 and Accenture Plc with 80.25 overall scores. As far as the country-wise report is concerned, a total of 25 companies in the USA are ranked in the top 100 Diversified companies in the world, and there is a total of 29 countries on the list.
Wrapping Up
So, seeing how Federal Bank is nailing its Diversity and Inclusion policy, it is seen that only women have been gradually coming in the mainstream. Transgender, people with Dyslexia, Autism etc. need to be included in the mainstream to implement Diversity and Inclusion in the truest sense.