4 things an organization can do for women relaunching their career

Explore more opportunities under ReLaunch program, visit: Relaunch (eaton.com)

Gender diversity is increasingly gaining prominence in India. A diverse and equitable culture can help companies engender trust in the community while also reaping tangible benefits like increased productivity and profitability. Within this, gender diversity is now becoming a key focus area for companies in India as they try to create an environment of equal opportunity.

As per World Bank data, women made up just 21 percent of India's labour force in 2019, compared with a global average of 48 percent. Women’s career graphs are starkly different from those of their male counterparts. It has been observed that a large number of Indian women drop out of the corporate workforce to raise children, care for elderly family members, and sometimes for some personal commitments. After a career break, women have competing priorities to consider and unique needs to be met. Many of the women who do manage to get a job need to compromise both in terms of pay and profile. Thus, it is integral for organisations to institute policies that can encourage women who have taken career breaks to return to work.

Some of the initiatives that Eaton has can taken to empower women looking to get back to work include:

1. Dedicated programs: Companies can launch dedicated programs to enable women to re-enter the workforce without having to compromise on profile or pay. Recognising the benefits of such programs, Eaton has introduced ReLaunch. This is a career transition program for female professionals in India who have taken a break in their careers and are now looking to restart their professional journey. The program aims to help women continue their quest for excellence, providing them full-time job opportunities in various domains at Eaton in India.
   
   
2. Mentorship: Inarguably, getting back to work in today’s dynamic and fast-paced environment can be challenging. For women who are getting back to work after a gap, the environment can be quite different from the one that prevailed at the time they took the break. Assigning mentors to women who return to work after a long break can be an ideal way to ease them into the new environment and encourage them to thrive. Mentors can handhold them in the initial few months and then help them chalk an ideal career path within the organisation.
   
   
3. Upskilling opportunities: Women employees should be encouraged to seek more knowledge, upskills, and recognise their full potential. Thus, organisations should present their women employees with the relevant upskilling opportunities so that they can re-join work on an equal footing and be able to harness their leadership skills through the right programs.
   
   To empower the women at Eaton, we have launched ABHA, a special program for women in leadership. It includes a powerful framework for women leaders to tap their potential and utilize it to the fullest. The program focuses on self-awareness and evaluation, building capability and confidence as key aspects of development. This powerful framework enables women leaders to learn from various perspectives and thus become more impactful. Deployed in form of a series of workshops, external trainings, sessions on grooming, networking and experience sharing and active learning projects, ABHA ensures a 360degree learning for all participants, to enhance their leadership capabilities. In addition to this, we have introduced women-related ERGS (Employee Resource Groups) called WAVE across our global operations with the goal of improving gender diversity. This focus group discussions at WAVE ERG helps women to horn their leadership skills and learn from each other.
   
   
4. Infrastructure support: A majority of the women in India, and globally, leave the workforce to start their family and take care of their children. With many unable to afford external care like nannies and day care, women are forced to stay at home to take care of their children. Companies can provide adequate infrastructure like creche and day care to encourage women to rejoin the workforce. If women have a secure place to leave their children, then they will definitely feel empowered to get back to working. Eaton also supports employees with daycare facilities or reimburses a defined amount with children between 0 to 6 years of age.

Women Second Career program is a career transition program at Eaton India for women professionals who have taken a break in their career, providing them an opportunity to excel again in the professional world and help build Eaton’s diverse talent pool. 

It is time that women with children and family commitments no longer need to sit on the fringes of professional workforce. Through the measures discussed above, organisations can enable women to take the leap and join the workforce after taking a gap. Eaton’s ReLaunch program aims to help women continue their quest for excellence, providing them full-time job opportunities in various domains at Eaton in India.