Hexagon, under the leadership of Navaneet Mishra, Senior Vice President & Head of Hexagon’s R&D Center India, is addressing the gender disparity in the technology sector through its innovative program, “Begin. Again.” Mishra discusses the wide gap in women’s representation in decision-making roles and the unique challenges faced by women re-entering the workforce. The initiative not only aims to increase female participation but also ensures their growth in leadership roles, fostering diversity and inclusion in Hexagon’s R&D center in India.
- What is the wide gap between women graduates and job seekers in the IT industry? What made you start this? Please share trends, numbers, facts and figures?
One of the biggest gaps for women in the Technology industry is in their representation in decision-making roles including at the highest levels of leadership. While the overall percentage of women in the Technology workforce in India is growing today – and has touched over 35% by recent accounts – their numbers are still low in leadership roles and in deep technical tracks of work that’s powering research and innovation.
At Hexagon R&D in India, our goal is to accelerate this process of including women not only in the workforce but in leadership roles that manage global responsibilities in Research & Development.
For an Engineering and R&D center in India, we have a high diversity in our workforce with nearly 30% of women. But we are still targeting for much higher numbers, while knowing that we work in a niche Engineering, Research & Development space, where women participation statistically is 5 to 10 percentage points lower than large umbrella of IT & ITES companies.
“Begin. Again.” is one such program that we launched earlier this year that is meant to enable women who’d like to re-enter the workforce in technical and mid-management roles. The important thing about the program is that it is not only a way to include women, but has a steady path to their growth. In fact, one of the employees hired through this program has not only made it to their full-time role in just about 3 months, but is now strongly heading into taking up the responsibility of a global team that drives innovation. This is the kind of impact we’d like to see more of and are focused on powering that.
- Do you wish to tie-up with governments and look at the PPP model? Possible to speak with 1-2 women employees who joined via this Begin. Again?
We are currently not actively looking for a government tie-up at this time, but we are doubling down on enabling women to join the workforce and also grow in the organization. Programs such as “Begin. Again” with its promise of a clear full-time role while gaining the advantage of an onboarding exercise as an highly-paid intern, is creating confidence for both employees and the hiring managers. As an organization, we are happy to see how well this is progressing.
But in this context, I’d like to highlight Hexagon India R&D’s strong CSR program that’s focused on grassroots empowerment of girls and young women from rural communities. With our programs that work with several villages, we have successfully created a path for young women to enter STEM education in the top technical institutes of the country. Our efforts have continued over years – from distributing tablets and bicycles to running focused sessions on Maths, English and Computer programming, to talking to their parents and changing minds. I am happy to say that these young women from villages in Warangal not only successfully scored on the competitive exams and secured their seats in Engineering – their journey has played a big role in how the communities envision women’s roles in the society and workforce.
We are thankful and proud to play a role in elevating their potential at work and in life.
- Women’s attrition was higher than that of men due to the ending of WFH reason. How women will work at Hexagon. Is it WFH? How do you wish to promote gender diversity?
Hexagon India R&D has been and continues to be flexible about Working from Home – for both men and women. We believe in creating a workplace, career possibilities and culture that brings out the best in people whether they work from the office or from home.
We are also pretty flexible wrt extending long-term WFH for a defined period, which we do as needed. Our programs to support and grow women go far beyond only the model of work, because we are focused on having more women as leaders in the organization.
One of the interesting trends we have noticed is that women employees often leave the organization for higher studies, and hence we are exploring ways of supporting them in this regard so that they continue to contribute to the field of STEM and deliver core innovation.
- TCS’s 2022-23 Annual Report, mentioned additionally, the ‘Rebegin’ initiative, aimed at experienced women professionals re-entering the workforce after a break, received nearly 14,000 job applications during the same fiscal year. Is there a trend that all IT players are looking at this initiative?
Yes, we see that trend. And it is indeed welcome. The important thing is that this has to be lived beyond statistics. It is not only the participation of women overall, but in how their thoughts and perspectives are being included in innovations, business decisions and company strategy. The technology businesses, who get this right in spirit and in real practice, will have strong advantages – financially, strategically and culturally.
- Is there any policy for flexible work arrangements to provide necessary support and flexibility for caregivers of young children, expectant women employees, and persons with disabilities at Hexagon?
Our Diversity & Acceptance initiative that we fondly call “One People” makes it easier for women to continue to work at an R&D center, while also balancing family and social responsibilities.
We have introduced a part-time policy where women employees can choose to opt for a 50% commitment of their time to work. They work for 50% of the hours and get 50% pay. At the end of every six months, they can opt to continue or to join back full-time again. We find that this is useful to women who are either taking on more responsibilities at home, or are going through a transitionary period in their lives. Offering them this arrangement helps them continue their careers.
We also offer a free creche facility at our office premises for parents to support kids of up to 8 years of age. We continuously invest in internal forums for mentorship and coaching for women. Also for expectant mothers, we offer fully-flexible Work from Home facility.
