Flexible HR Policies Attract Women Employees To IT

India''s booming IT and IT-enabled services industry is a favourite destination of job-seeking women, whose employment in the industry is set to rise dramatically to 45 per cent in 2010 from the current 30 per cent, says an industry survey. A survey by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the representative organisation of the Indian software firms, says this is due to the inclusive human resource policies of Indian IT firms, which recruit, train, retain and promote women employees as a strategic business plan. As the IT-ITeS sector moves up the value chain, more women are joining the industry. The male-female ratio is expected to improve to 65:35 by this year-end from 76:24 in 2005.

Even as the industry braces up to achieve this healthy gender ratio, the job trend indicates more and more educated young women, including housewives, are joining the industry due to its progressive and flexible HR policies,he added. For empowering the women workforce and creating conducive environment to grow equally at their workplace, we have commissioned Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to conduct a fresh study on the status of women employees in the IT industry and avenues for their growth in the value chain,Karnik told about 300 women delegates participating in the Nasscom-IT Women Leadership Summit 2007.

The study, expected to be completed in the next five-six weeks, will focus on additional measures to be taken by the industry to empower women employees and create opportunities to absorb more of them increasingly.