Tata Technologies, a global company in the engineering and product-development domain, has embarked on a transformative journey to enhance gender diversity within its workforce. Realising how important inclusivity and equal opportunities are to achieving this goal, the company has implemented a comprehensive gender-diverse hiring campaign to attract and hire more women engineers.
“Recognising the significant value that women bring to the table, we have specifically decided to concentrate on hiring women engineers. Through this campaign, we aim to attract talented women who are innovative and driven to pursue their dreams. We invite them to be a part of Tata Technologies’ transformative journey, as we continue to evolve and make a positive impact,” says Naaz Mushrif, global head – diversity & talent, Tata Technologies.
As a global organisation, Tata Technologies serves customers from across various sectors — such as aerospace and automotive — from different parts of the world, encountering diverse problems and challenges. Therefore, having a diverse talent pool makes it possible for the company to better understand these problems, challenges and customer expectations.
Campaigns: Commenting on the diverse solutions from such a diverse talent pool, Mushrif cites an important example— “We recently launched an internal campaign called ’Shennovators’, which focuses on women innovators within our company. The response and nominations we received from various business units and projects were inspiring. Each nominee had a unique story, showcasing how they contributed to innovative projects and solutions for our customers. The different geographical and gender-diverse perspectives that were received led to diverse approaches to problem solving. Each team member contributed their unique skill set, resulting in the best possible solutions for our customers.”
Through the Shennovator campaign, the company has celebrated contributions of diverse groups and inspired other women within the organisation. This was also a significant step towards providing an equal-opportunity workplace, recognising the value that diverse groups bring to the organisation.
“It not only brought a wide range of solutions to the table, but ensured the best outcome for our customers,” admits Mushrif. “Innovation is at the core of our organisation, not limited to major projects but integrated into everything we do, big or small. Embracing diversity of talent and perspectives allows us to cultivate an innovative spirit within our workforce, ultimately benefiting the organisations we serve,” points out Mushrif.
Now, with the decision of hiring more women, comes the responsibility to strategise how to bring the talent on board. Hence, in terms of attracting and encouraging women to pursue careers in engineering and product development, Tata Technologies has a history of dedicated efforts.
CSR: One such initiative is its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme called ’Eve’, where the company sponsors women from lower-income backgrounds to pursue education in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) fields. “Over the years, we have sponsored and supported 350 to 400 women to upskill themselves in STEM, making a significant contribution to bringing more women into engineering,” shares Mushrif.
Hiring: The company has also taken many internal measures to address the challenges and expectations of women in engineering. For instance, it actively hires women who have taken career breaks and fresh engineering graduates.
Additionally, during the campus recruitment campaigns, it ventures into remote areas of India to hire women from humble backgrounds who demonstrate exceptional commitment and determination to build a career.
“Innovation is at the core of our organisation, not limited to major projects but integrated into everything we do, big or small. Embracing diversity of talent and perspectives allows us to cultivate an innovative spirit within our workforce, ultimately benefiting the organisations we serve.”
Naaz Mushrif, global head – diversity & talent, Tata Technologies
In addition to hiring fresh talent, the company also focuses on lateral hiring as a tool to attract required women talent. It is launching a campaign to specifically target women on career breaks. “We aim to create an environment that is flexible enough to accommodate the various personal and professional priorities of experienced women engineers with experience in the range of five to 15 years. We believe that as the competition for talent intensifies, it becomes imperative for us to tap into this pool of potential (women on break) and provide opportunities for women to re-enter and thrive in engineering careers,” enunciates Mushrif.
As for the roles and responsibilities, the organisation is not limiting its focus to specific areas or experience ranges when it comes to attracting talent. Rather, it is actively seeking women with various skill sets across the board. The goal is to have dedicated recruitment efforts spanning different domains, to accommodate the wide range of requirements.
Now, when it comes to hiring women for specific roles, there’s always a possibility of bias arising during recruitment or even onboarding. However, the company has implemented several strategies and initiatives to address these barriers and challenges.
Leadership development: One such initiative is the Leaderbridge Wings programme, which focuses on grooming and developing the next generation of women leaders. This gender-specific leadership-development programme provides customised mentoring and individualised coaching to women team members. The intention is to challenge self-belief, build leadership competencies and prepare women for upcoming leadership roles within the organisation. The programme aims to inspire and encourage the next generation of women leaders, creating a chain reaction of progress and representation.
In addition to the Leaderbridge Wings programme, the company actively promotes dialogue and discussions through platforms such as open-house sessions and town halls. The company conducts communication and ‘break the bias’ training programmes to support its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
To generate employee participation and ownership in the DEI initiatives, the company has also appointed employee volunteers called ’Rainbow Champs’. These volunteers play a crucial role in propagating the messages of the Rainbow initiative and championing the cause of various diversity groups. The participation and response from employees have been highly positive, with volunteers across the globe dedicating their time, on a monthly basis, to support the programme. This approach ensures that the DEI efforts are not limited to HR initiatives but are embraced and driven by employees throughout the organisation.
Now, with every policy in place, the company also monitors the progress of each initiative it has taken to promote its vision.
Measuring effectiveness
To measure the effectiveness and progress of the gender-diversity hiring campaign, the company has set clear hiring goals for each fiscal year. These goals are considered stretch goals and are aimed at achieving increased gender diversity within the engineering workforce. The company also values feedback from newly-hired women employees to gauge their perception of the workplace and their overall experience at Tata Technologies.
In addition to numerical targets, the company focuses on various perspectives to strengthen gender diversity. This includes providing growth and upskilling platforms for women, evaluating the number of profiles and applications received for specific positions, and becoming a preferred employer of choice for women in the industry. “We believe that employee referrals from within their network are a significant indicator of the organisation’s credibility and the belief that diverse talent will thrive in its environment,”opines Mushrif.
In the near future, Tata Technologies intends to measure these metrics and track progress over time. The goal is to strengthen the numbers and ensure employee satisfaction and engagement, particularly among women employees. Moreover, the company aims to assess its commitment to gender diversity and the overall experience of women talent as indicators of success in its hiring campaign.