[24]7.ai hired over three thousand two hundred women employees during the year, taking the overall number of women in its workforce to over one-third.
To commemorate International Women’s Day, 2023, it has also launched ‘Shakti EmpowHer,’ an informal women’s network that focuses on mentoring, supporting, and creating a stronger voice for women across the organisation.
The company’s equitable and inclusive policies and initiatives have been lauded by the industry. [24[7.ai has been certified among the ‘TOP 50 Best workplaces for women,2022’ by Great Place to work, a global authority on workplace culture. It has just won the ‘DivHERsity award’ for ‘Top 3 Companies by employee voice’ and ’Top 20 Most Innovative DivHERsity Programs’. The DivHERsity awards recognise companies that have shown consistent commitment to improving women’s participation in the workplace. It also won the UNWEP award for Leadership commitment toward gender diversity.
The company’s initiatives promote gender diversity and focus on building a strong employer brand. These include:
Shakti
A holistic program that aims at greater awareness, sensitization, and conversations on gender diversity with focused measures to provide equal opportunities for women across the 3 key pillars of Hiring, Development, and Retention of women. 737 women employees have undergone development programs in the last 12 months under this initiative.
Hiring Initiatives for talent outreach and attraction
Women-focussed hiring drives: [24]7.ai has focussed on women-only hiring drives under the Shakti initiative. It has partnered with several channel partners, such as Aspire for Her, women NGOs, and women-only colleges, to extend outreach to women candidates in tier 2&3 cities and offer them jobs. Women employees participate in the recruitment and interview process to enable greater sensitivity and comfort for candidates while hiring.
Initiatives for Development of women employees
Building a leadership pipeline of women leaders with Womenable – This unique mentoring and development program is designed to create a pipeline of women leaders for mid and senior-level leadership roles.
Association with Global bodies – To facilitate a global exchange of ideas and perspectives, [24]7.ai constantly engages with client leaders as well as leaders from forums such as UN WEP(UN Women’s Empowerment Principles) and Great Place to Work. The 1st of the UN WEP Dialogue series was recently hosted at the [24]7.ai office, which was attended by over 50+ industry leaders and over 150+ participants.
Virtual Global Mobility Program – This program creates virtual global roles within [24]7.ai to enhance global exposure, especially for women who have locational constraints to relocate due to family commitments.
Aspire: A programme with flexi modules on demand like overcoming self-limiting beliefs and enhancing holistic development for women.
Retention initiatives at [24]7.ai that create an equitable culture
[24]7.ai has a strong focus on retention initiatives in the organisation to help employees, especially women, cope better with demands at the personal and professional levels.
Adoption support policy – [24]7.ai also supports parents who choose to adopt instead of the conventional way of parenting by providing them with maternity leave and baby allowance.
Maternity benefits: To support women during pregnancy, [24]7.ai has several initiatives:
- Baby allowances for employees welcoming a new child into their family.
- ‘Baby showers’ for expectant mothers at the campus.
- Special cabs for expectant moms throughout their term of pregnancy for a comfortable and safe commute.
- Moms-to-be badges are given to employees to ensure special care is given to the expectant moms on campus.
Gift of Time – An initiative at [24]7.ai where employees can ‘gift’ their leaves to colleagues in their time of need. Up to 30 days of leave can be gifted to others facing a serious ailment, illness, or injury which poses a threat to their life.
Diversity council: A Diversity council has been constituted to work towards a strong diversity agenda throughout the year to ensure an equitable experience.
Equitable workplace policies – Women employees at [24]7.ai can avail the benefit of policies especially curated for women, like flexible work hours, work from home, etc. ‘Work from anywhere’ has been offered to women with infants or small children to manage their schedules better.
Nina Nair, Senior Vice President & HRD Head, India & the Americas, says “Our clear focus in the past years has been to make our organisation gender diverse and inclusive. We strongly believe that a collaboration of unique individuals creates inventive solutions. This is why we at [24]7.ai aim to create an Equitable workplace that is flexible, supportive, and rewarding so that our employees are happy at work. Our focus on gender diversity has helped us ensure that over a third of our workforce are women, and even our senior leadership team comprises women who hold key positions across varied teams.”
