The Karnataka IT-BT minister, Priyank Kharge has expressed their concern over the rising attrition rate among women in the technical industry.
Spiked Attrition Among Women Employees
Some estimates suggest a 30-40% attrition rate among women employees in IT companies since December 2022, while the industry average currently stands at 15%, Kharge highlighted in a tweet on 27 June.
Not only that, there has been a decline of 1-1.5 percentage points in the overall representation of women in the tech workforce, Kharge highlighted.
Moving ahead, he further emphasized that the high attrition rate among women employees is worrisome and expressed his concern regarding the impact of women leaving the tech workforce.
It is noteworthy here that the increasing number of women employees, particularly from the IT sector, resigning after being called back to the office by their respective companies.
While expressing the concerns, Mr. Kharge said that his ministry was keen on finding out the reasons why women in large numbers were quitting.
In this regard, he further asked his officials to reach out to several leading IT firms to find out.
According to him, this trend does not augur well for society, families, economy, and the government.
He further said, “The State government is willing to offer any assistance to tech women to help them continue to stay at work. Are they facing challenges at work once they return from maternity leave, or do they require additional training or skill upgradation? We just want to know why they leave.’‘
Adding, double-income homes create a domino effect and boost economic growth in general.
“If lakhs of women quit jobs and stay home, the economy will also suffer, in addition to their households. Women are an integral part of our tech force, and we want to ensure that they stay,’‘ the minister said.
TCS Shared The Same Fate
At the start of this month, India’s largest technology company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) also revealed that attrition rates among its women employees have surpassed those among men.
Basically, this development has raised concerns about the potential impact of the end of work-from-home arrangements.
In this regard, the Chief Human Resources Officer at TCS, Milind Lakkad said, “Historically, the attrition among women employees — who constitute over 35 per cent of our workforce of over 600,000 — has been lower or similar to that of men.”
According to Lakkad, the domestic arrangements reset during the pandemic might have prevented some women from returning to the office even after normalcy was restored.
He said that the company is actively working on reversing this trend, recognizing the setback to TCS’s efforts to promote gender diversity.
It seems that the overall attrition peaked in the middle of the previous fiscal year but decreased to over 20 per cent by the end of March.
What Is The Solution?
In order to address this issue, TCS has implemented focused leadership development programs such as ‘iExcel.’
In its annual report, TCS highlighted that this flagship executive leadership development program for women has already completed 22 editions, benefiting 1,450 women leaders.
Further, the quality of women candidates in the leadership pool, as nearly a quarter of the fulfilled internal leadership positions in FY23 were occupied by women, despite constituting only 14 percent of the applicant pool, Lakkad noted.
The IT major’s ‘Rebegin’ initiative, aimed at experienced women professionals re-entering the workforce after a break, received nearly 14,000 job applications during the same fiscal year.
When it comes to the senior management, TCS reported that out of the approximately 30,000 employees classified in this category, over 13 percent were women, as stated in the annual report.
Besides this, the company has also introduced a policy on flexible work arrangements to provide necessary support and flexibility for caregivers of young children, expectant women employees, and persons with disabilities.
This all seems to be TCS’s plan as it has been urging employees to return to office work recently to strengthen the organizational culture.
