Profitability, growth and shareholder value are no longer the only yardsticks on which CEOs are being assessed. A growing tribe of India Inc leaders and CXOs is now being evaluated and rewarded on how well they attract, nurture and groom women managers into leadership positions.
Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik and his leadership team have diversity on their performance scorecard, so does Accenture India Country Managing Director Avinash Vashistha. P&G India Managing Director Shantanu Khosla along with his leadership team is accountable for career progression of women in his company. At IBM India, Shanker Annaswamy, managing director, has diversity as a key result area (KRA) that cascades down to his leadership team.
Career progression of women is no longer just an HR responsibility. It is now a CEO function. "Companies are putting diversity as a key result area for the CEO and for other business leaders," says Vikram Chhachhi, executive vice-president of DHR International, a Chicago-based search firm.
Adds Roopa Kudva, managing director and CEO of Crisil, "The word diversity was not in the vocabulary of companies when I started out 25 years ago. Today it is on the agenda of management and boards."
The change is being led by a bunch of MNCs that have graduated from looking at gender diversity as a 'good to do' thing to a business imperative and strategy. "At Microsoft offices in many countries, it is proven that when there is more focus on women, there is a positive impact on business. We take diversity very seriously globally," says Joji Gill, senior director-HR, Microsoft.
Accountability at Every Level
At P&G India, there is leadership accountability of diversity at every level, and at every function - even in manufacturing and sales. The entire leadership team has diversity on its scorecard. Says Sonali Roychowdhury, country HR manager, "The company tracks the success of high-potential women. If there is a big skew, the leadership team intervenes."
P&G has 30% women across levels and half of its leadership team is women. At Accenture India, gender diversity is part of the CXO and leader scorecard. "Each of our leaders from top down is measured on gender diversity," says Rekha M Menon, lead for geographic services for India & ASEAN and human capital & diversity for India. "The three large buckets of gender diversity in the company are attracting more women, retaining and engaging these women, and growing the high potentials," she says.
The company has formally linked mid-level women to leaders who are two levels higher. "Each leader has two-three women whose career she/he is actively guiding. It's evangelism from the leadership," Menon says.
These leaders are accountable for not just numbers, but also have to explain attrition of women and there is accountability in succession slates and for more women in leadership roles. "At some organisations, a part of the bonus for senior leaders depends on how many women have been hired or groomed into leadership roles. Have you as a CEO ensured a certain percentage of diversity?" Chhachhi says. At manufacturing group Cummins India, a 'buy-in' into women's careers at the top has resulted in the percentage of women increasing to 24% in 2011 from 4% in 2004. "Diversity is a work-in-progress at Cummins India. It is part of the KRAs for all business leaders to get more women on board," says Nagarajan Balanaga, VP-HR at Cummins India. From no women in the leadership team 18 months ago, the company now has four women in the 20-member leadership team.
"The KRA around diversity works in three ways - hiring, retaining woman talent and providing conducive environment. Before the KRAs came into place, we used to lose more women than men. Now the attrition numbers are the same for both," Balanaga says. When a CEO or CXO drives it, the message is driven home faster and stronger. "This ensures a continuous focus to bring in more women into the workforce. It also has a trickledown effect and sensitises people managers to the importance of diversity in teams," says an IBM spokesperson.
Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik and his leadership team have diversity on their performance scorecard, so does Accenture India Country Managing Director Avinash Vashistha. P&G India Managing Director Shantanu Khosla along with his leadership team is accountable for career progression of women in his company. At IBM India, Shanker Annaswamy, managing director, has diversity as a key result area (KRA) that cascades down to his leadership team.
Career progression of women is no longer just an HR responsibility. It is now a CEO function. "Companies are putting diversity as a key result area for the CEO and for other business leaders," says Vikram Chhachhi, executive vice-president of DHR International, a Chicago-based search firm.
Adds Roopa Kudva, managing director and CEO of Crisil, "The word diversity was not in the vocabulary of companies when I started out 25 years ago. Today it is on the agenda of management and boards."
The change is being led by a bunch of MNCs that have graduated from looking at gender diversity as a 'good to do' thing to a business imperative and strategy. "At Microsoft offices in many countries, it is proven that when there is more focus on women, there is a positive impact on business. We take diversity very seriously globally," says Joji Gill, senior director-HR, Microsoft.
Accountability at Every Level
At P&G India, there is leadership accountability of diversity at every level, and at every function - even in manufacturing and sales. The entire leadership team has diversity on its scorecard. Says Sonali Roychowdhury, country HR manager, "The company tracks the success of high-potential women. If there is a big skew, the leadership team intervenes."
P&G has 30% women across levels and half of its leadership team is women. At Accenture India, gender diversity is part of the CXO and leader scorecard. "Each of our leaders from top down is measured on gender diversity," says Rekha M Menon, lead for geographic services for India & ASEAN and human capital & diversity for India. "The three large buckets of gender diversity in the company are attracting more women, retaining and engaging these women, and growing the high potentials," she says.
The company has formally linked mid-level women to leaders who are two levels higher. "Each leader has two-three women whose career she/he is actively guiding. It's evangelism from the leadership," Menon says.
These leaders are accountable for not just numbers, but also have to explain attrition of women and there is accountability in succession slates and for more women in leadership roles. "At some organisations, a part of the bonus for senior leaders depends on how many women have been hired or groomed into leadership roles. Have you as a CEO ensured a certain percentage of diversity?" Chhachhi says. At manufacturing group Cummins India, a 'buy-in' into women's careers at the top has resulted in the percentage of women increasing to 24% in 2011 from 4% in 2004. "Diversity is a work-in-progress at Cummins India. It is part of the KRAs for all business leaders to get more women on board," says Nagarajan Balanaga, VP-HR at Cummins India. From no women in the leadership team 18 months ago, the company now has four women in the 20-member leadership team.
"The KRA around diversity works in three ways - hiring, retaining woman talent and providing conducive environment. Before the KRAs came into place, we used to lose more women than men. Now the attrition numbers are the same for both," Balanaga says. When a CEO or CXO drives it, the message is driven home faster and stronger. "This ensures a continuous focus to bring in more women into the workforce. It also has a trickledown effect and sensitises people managers to the importance of diversity in teams," says an IBM spokesperson.
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