Big 4 take major leap in woman friendly policies

1. Big 4 Take Major Leap in
Woman-Friendly Policies
A severe talent crunch has pushed these companies to not
only extend the maternity leave benefit, but also introduce
a slew of other initiatives to retain the valuable resource

2. Contd…
Even as the labour ministry is busy putting the amended Maternity Benefit Act together
that would entitle working women in private sectors to 26 weeks of maternity leave from
the existing 12, the big four consulting firms have already taken a leap. While Deloitte has
declared 26 weeks of maternity leave for its woman employees, PricewaterhouseCoopers,
EY and KPMG are in the process of finalising such policies.A severe crunch of woman
employees at the top has pushed these companies to not only extend the maternity leave
benefit, but also in introducing a slew of other initiatives to retain the valuable resource.
EY has decided to rate male and female employees on two separate bell curves from this
year. “This would ensure that there is no un conscious bias as rating of women would be
equated with men. Also, we will have the same number of promotions for women as there
are for men,“ said HR director Sandeep Kohli.
To be piloted for the first time in India, EY is also working out a programme called
`Maternal Coaching', where all the women at the leadership and senior positions will be
trained to coach other women in their teams before and after maternity leave on not
quitting the job.

3. Contd…
PwC is planning to retain women who leave for maternity with an `umbilical cord' of up to
seven years or so. This would allow women on maternity leave to be on the rolls of the
company without actively working and without pay. “Though this is in the pipeline, we
intend to offer all the training and updates to the women who go on maternity leave so
that they are connected with our firm,“ said chief people officer Jagjit Singh.
Deloitte is shortly introducing campaigns like “Bringing Women Back to Work“ and “Men as
Champions“ at all its offices in India. The existing agile or flexi-work policies at Deloitte and
KPMG are being made even more woman friendly.
Meanwhile, only a handful of other companies have announced a six month maternity
leave for women. Microsoft India is one of the recent ones to do so. Typically, at the
consulting firms, the ratio of female employees is healthier at the entry level at about
3050%, but gets skewed with women comprising only 10-15% at the top. “Our new
maternity policy is yet to be announced and we should be ready in a week or so. We are
looking to align our policy to the current market benchmarks,“ said Shalini Pillay, head of
people, performance & culture at KPMG India. The company is targeting to increase the
percentage of women in the top leadership to 20% in the next two years from the current
15%.

4. Contd…
This month, Deloitte introduced a programme called DMom, where it supports women on
maternity to the extent of 26 paid weeks, instead of the standard 12. “We also allow for
work from home options for a month thereafter. Further, in their last month before
childbirth, we support them by reimbursing their cab fares to their workplace, thus
providing them extra care,“ said SV Nathan, senior director and chief talent officer at
Deloitte India. “Career progression at critical levels like that of senior managers and above
coincides with the time when many of them are settling into or starting families. We are
working across several dimensions to help provide the required enabling work
environment which will allow our women to make the most of the opportunities,“ said
Pillai.
While hiring, whether through employee referrals or external consultants, higher
incentives are declared for female referrals. Interviewers and people managers are
sensitised to diversity hiring and trained on what is called `unconscious bias' to avoid
personal biases while making hiring decisions.
“The talent shortage of women in leadership is due to a pipeline that was not built for the
future, and one that was leaking along the way. But now we are building a strong pipeline
and things will improve in some years,“ said Deloitte's Nathan.

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