Helping Women Put Career On Par With Family

From 21-34 decades, females make up 34% of the workers. From 35-49 years, their share sections as close family members take priority. Increasingly, creches in workplaces are helping females put profession on par with close family members.

When it comes to daycare features in India, demand far surpasses supply. The dual-income family has become the standard, and working parents worry who will manage their children when they're out.

Help is hard to come by, as are relatives to babysit. Even as more and more private daycare agencies open up in the cities, India Inc hasn't kept up. Few organizations offer any kind of creche or daycare features today, even though it's clear that workers would rather leave their wards with office-certified minders, or have them available (especially if the children are young).

Companies need to pay more attention to this. Saundarya Rajesh, creator of seeking agency Avtar Career Designers, says 1.5 million females professionals have left the workforce in the last 20 years, to appropriately manage children or, in some cases, an elder in family members members. Most never return. Companies already wrestling with less females professionals who can be marketed can ill-afford a further hole in the skills pool.

Leena Nair, professional home (HR) at Hindustan Unilever, says while there is no lack of skilled females at the entry-level or even the five-year mark, organizations face a challenge in employing females to the top groups, from among those who have worked for 14-15 years. "At this stage, there are just not enough females as they've dropped off the workforce," says Nair.

"This is where we need to provide help, to both women and men, many of whom have working wives." Adds Rohit Thakur, HR head at Microsoft: "Companies can pre-empt the element of their female talent not joining back by simply offering facilities like daycare." Indeed, in a 2012 survey by Avtar, workingwomen respondents rated daycare as a 'career enabler'.

Many companies do realise this, and either have onsite creche facilities or tie-ups with external vendors. Most companies report that male employees now want it too. A professionally-managed daycare facility might be a small trade-off for an organisation to retain its talent.