As per the DivHersity Benchmarking 2020-21 report published by JobsForHer, about half of Indian companies have been hiring women returnees. Most of these returnees had dropped out of corporate jobs at the junior and middle levels.
Furthermore, the report disclosed that hiring had declined by 20 per cent since 2019 while 65 per cent of large enterprises had launched initiatives solely dedicated to working towards the return of such women employees.
Returnee programs in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as startups, have dropped to 40 per cent. Around 54 per cent of firms that deployed returnee programs claimed that women returnees were thriving in their roles along with 56 per cent finding a rise in application number from them.
Over half of the companies observed that their recruiters were now more sensitized towards accommodating women returning to the workplace.
The founder and CEO of JobsForHer, Neha Bagaria, stated, “An increasing number of organizations, both large and small, are realizing that there is an urgent need to boost the percentage of women in the workforce. It is, therefore, heartening to note that several companies are leveraging learning and development (L&D) and returnee programs.”
The CEO added that the diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs were ensuring to make companies allow professionals to thrive in their professional journeys. “There is still a long way to go to achieve an optimal playing field for women, but organizations are geared up and moving in the right direction”, she continued.
