Dear Pradeep,

Your post has been taken from here, http://retention.naukrihub.com/increase-employee-engagement.html

The first site that i found when I copy pasted your first paragraph on google search.

I appreciate your time in googling and finding the solution for Ravindra's query.

Dear friends, can we have some ORIGINAL ideas to the very pertinent query raised by Ravindra ?

Dear Ravindra,

We have discussed something similar to this said topic in a separate thread. Here is the link : http://hrlink.in/topics/have-women-found-their-due-share-in-the-corporate-world

I am rearing to contribute to this topic after some meaningful replies, of course original ones.

Regards, Harish

Hi

Please find below some of my views to increase women employee retention.

Attractive terms and conditions that provide flexible work practices to suit women employees at different stages of life like marriage, maternity, etc.

Challenging job content and offer career prospects, development and support with equal employment.

A positive and family-friendly work culture.

Providing healthy work / life balance for women employees.

Strict polices to protect women employees from Harassment, Bullying etc.


Rgds

Kartheka R

Source: Self & Net

Hi harish,

As per my view we can increase wome retention rate by using these methods.

1. Flexible timings
2. Work from home facility
3. Comfortable working area with good respect, with great safety
4. Motivating women employees
5. Providing benefits
6. Increasing paid leaves
7. Creche and play school
8. Top Management by women
9. Transfers and promotions
10. Free medical check up's and other facilities etc.


Regards
Hemalatha

Most organisations tend to proclaim that they are a fair Organisation. They do not discriminate on the basis of gender. They would cite employee surveys to substantiate their claim that employees are treated fairly regardless of gender.But in the enthusiasm over the response most organisations miss the fact that an overwhelming number of employees in the Organisation are men, This Organisation is not an exception. A CII study of 149 Companies showed the incidence of working women across companies at 6 per cent. If you talk to HR Managers, CEOs and women employees to understand why there are so few women in employment it seems that most Organisations do not consciously discriminate between men and women. Then why are there so few women in most Organisations, particularly in managerial positions?
Look at some numbers At birth the ratio of female to male is 9.3 to 10, according to census of India, 2001. In a population where the women do not face discrimination, Nobel economist Amartya Sen puts the sex ratio at about 10.5 women to 10 men. As the girl child grows up the chances of her education is less than boys. Of the 6 to 11 year-old children not in school, 60% are girls. Also, only 39 % of females (compared to 64% of males) above the age of 7 are literate.
Thus, through a process of continuous elimination through the long years of education when it comes to employment only 18 per cent of the formal sector jobs are filled by women.
However, this is three times higher than what the CII study actually found across 149 Companies. While there would be good reasons for this (more number of BPOs and ITES companies would push the percentage of women employees up) We are left with the disturbing thought:
“Does the process of elimination of women which starts at birth, followed by the education process continues after her entry into employment in the formal sector?” Does that explain why the CII study could find only 6 percent of women (4 per cent in senior management) amongst the surveyed companies?
Almost all of us who started working after doing a professional course .I know of women batch mates who have opted out of a full time job. A frequent reason is taking a break to raise a family. (I am yet to come across any man who gives the same reason). I do not have numbers of such talented
women opting out of full time jobs, but I am convinced that this is a growing number.
Indeed, in HR there are women who are doing part time consulting assignments.When we speak to senior executives from Industry we do sense an appreciation for women employees. In fact, the number of women employees is comparable (and in some cases more) in sectors like BPOs and ITES. Women candidates in new industries like retail (and even older ones like retail banking) are rarely being asked about when they plan to get married or start a family. When an Organisation like ICICI or HSBC announces the
name of a woman as the CEO they encourage many more talented women to apply for jobs. However, acceptability of women in service industries also reflects our subtle biases. The CII study, for example, also measures that in half the organisations, women are not preferred in some functions, such as manufacturing/ production etc. the main reasons behind this being security concerns for women and perceptions that women would “not be competent enough” for these positions. “ Our operations are in far flung locations which are not conducive for women. We have to take cognizance of societal and cultural realities in those places. One untoward incident can ruin their image
feel a few Conglomerates.
This is hopefully changing. In quite a few large Groups in the core sector , the Owners/ Chairmen are driving the affirmative action agenda in gender – with
clear goals and monitoring of career growth of women employees.
In one of the most backward districts in Orissa where a large
plant is being rapidly commissioned by an aggressively growing Organisation. you would be pleasantly surprised to know that amongst the engineers being recruited 30 per cent were women. In a focus group discussion, most, I found joined this site for the core sector/ commissioning experience
which leverages their core engineering skills. Interestingly, most women engineers were from Orissa or had parents in Orissa. The question on what will make them stay in the Organisation elicited the usual response – learning, growth and compensation – not different from responses you would get from male engineers elsewhere. “Why would you leave the Organisation?” if asked. The number one reason by far was “Marriage” None of the male
engineers gives marriage as a reason for changing jobs.
Thus, the reason we have less number of women in the workforce is because lesser number of women are available for employment, and we are not retaining the numbers who do join formal employment

Attracting and retaining women in the workforce is important for a variety of reasons. In spite of our large young population, it is now acknowledged that we are short of critical talent in almost all sectors. By one estimate only about 10% of Indian students with generalist degrees in the arts and humanities are suitable, compared with 25% of all Indian engineering graduates. The graduates' different levels of skill reflect the varying quality among India's universities. While the best Institutes may produce very good
recruits, a vast majority of them are below expectations for most recruiters. Nasscom in a report said the outsourcing industry was expected to face a shortage of 262,000 professionals by 2012. A major part of the requirement is coming from the Services sector which accounted for 57 per cent of real GDP in 2004-5. The demand for women employees will grow with the continued growth of this sector.
Organisations, particularly those who want to build their employer brands (and therefore attract better talent), are taking proactive steps to address this issue. Crèche and playground facilities for employee’s children have been introduced by some organizations (Texas Instruments, Honeywell Technology etc) This is a big help, particularly for women. In US where 62 percent of adult women participate in the workforce, 54 percent of children use day care facilities. In India, day care facilities is almost non-existent and very few Organisations provide crèches.
The Employee Assistance Programmes globally is a multi billion-dollar industry which uses specialized service providers to help Organisations address issues of work life balance, among other things. Some of these service providers are now available in India.
Organisations like Texas Instruments have introduced counseling services for employees,a practice which was limited earlier to manufacturing organizations tackling absenteeism & alcoholism in blue collared employees.
Similarly, flexible timings are a norm in IT industry. Sabbaticals, Paternity Leave, Flexi time, telecommuting, extended maternity leave and concierge services are a norm in most good companies today. Sasken, for example, has a hibernation leave which is a paid leave of 8 weeks for 2 years of service, recognizing the intense work that most employees have to put in. The women engineers in Orissa seem to be reconciled to gender expectations when it comes to marriage and raising a family. But a few of them voice a collective yearning when they sat, “My name should have its own identity,
apart from my father and my husband.” This requires change in mindsets in society, particularly among men.
There is enough evidence to suggest that government, society and organizations start taking the issue of work-family balance seriously, particularly if we want to attract and retain talented women in the workforce. Compared to 46 per cent women managers in US in India it is a dismal 4 per cent. Even in Asian developed economies like Japan, more than 55 per cent of adult women participate in the work force. While the Government has
made a beginning by introducing schemes like free education for the girl child, more women will join and stay in full time employment only if we recognize
the unique needs of women in our society. Organisations like Honeywell Technology Solutions has found our that there are significant business benefits in the form of lower attrition, more loyalty, increased referrals and more mature expectations when you succeed in attracting and retaining more women employees.

Hi Ravindra,

Retaining an employee is a big question & companies are providing sufficient facilities for retention but still struggling is on for retention. I don't think that attrition is depending on gender basis(Reasons for leaving a job might be different for both).

In my view, we can retain our employees by:

1. Providing good work culture
2. Flexi hours
3. Work from home facility
4. Open house sessions with HR & Department Head (For grievance).
5. Crech facility (if possible, coz this can help to retain your female employees)
6. Pick & Drop facility (this avoids late comers).

And, I believe sharing of ideas in this forum should be welcome irrespective of any source, if I don't have time to Google then atleast I can read the googled article by someone else in this forum.

Regards,
Shilpa