With love: From a women-dominated workplace

What’s the culture at PR Pundit, where women make up 83 per cent of the headcount.

In Eleanor Roosevelt’s words, ‘A woman is like a tea bag — you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.’

Women do go through hardships for a smooth career and come out successful, which is why the discussion on improving gender diversity in organisations has been doing the rounds globally. Companies have reformed culture, policies and their age-old practices to make the workplace more women-friendly. All this, because organisations now realise the benefits of having a balanced gender-diverse workforce in place!

When most organisations are talking about integrating more women into the workforce, here is one where women make up 83 per cent of its headcount. The organisation is proud to be an all-woman brigade of sorts!

PR Pundit, a full service-dedicated public relations company, where women dominate the workforce, has interesting stories to share about how having more women in the workplace not only makes it more fun but much more collaborative and efficient. It was never a conscious effort to get only women on board, but as the team built up gradually and naturally, it so happened that they just ended up with more women than men in the teams. In fact, 90 per cent of the core client servicing team and 88 per cent of the top management at PR Pundit are women.

While there are certain disadvantages of having so many women in an organisation, the advantages are many. Archana Jain, managing director & CEO, PR Pundit, says, “In times when gender disparity at the workplace is a big concern for most, we are proud to have women in the majority. They bring in more creativity in what they do and at the same time they are much more collaborative, which builds a healthy work culture for us.”

Women, in general, are comfortable with collaborative working as compared to men. Jain explains how women, when assigned a task, keep touching base on its progress frequently. Also, since women are better with expression and communication it helps them build better and enduring relations. That is why, women are also more successful in business.

The organisation celebrates its women and understands what it takes to nurture and retain talented women. 44 per cent of the women at PR Pundit take care of both work and their children while 70 per cent contribute to their family income. Jain says, “It takes some effort to have so many talented women in the workforce. The entire culture has to be harnessed in understanding with their needs. We realise that women feel a greater sense of responsibility towards home and family, irrespective of their age or marital status, and we respect that. Keeping that in mind, we allow flexi-hours and work from home to our employees as and when the need arises.”

Jain, in fact, feels that their employees who are working mothers are their greatest asset — despite the extra load, they manage to perform well. She says, “With so many social commitments, to be able to cope with home, children and career is commendable.” She calls them ‘Supermoms’. Of course, it is not easy — but with a little support from family and workplace, most women are able to sail through. People at PR Pundit not only celebrate the spirit of motherhood, but also the birthdays of employees’ children.

With beauty and brains in abundance at PR Pundit, even the team-building exercises are unique and innovative. For instance, employees once had an interesting fun activity, where teams were required to dress a cake with some available ingredients. In addition, there are frequent little initiatives, such as the ‘Handloom Week’ and ‘Wear Pink to Work Day’. Jain shares that the daily atmosphere at office is always jolly and active as women are so expressive. Interesting conversations about food and diet take place during the lunch hours.

The only few challenges they face are at times when certain male-oriented organisations show discomfort in meeting an all-women team and hesitate to talk or make eye contact. Also, at times it so happens that women fail to take harsh decisions. Often, women are also found to be incapable of letting go of petty disagreements, which men generally don’t bother about. Apart from that, Jain says, “Our women are very efficient and we enjoy having them with us as it’s their hard work that makes us what we are today.”