That Wipro is serious about its mission to make the organisation diverse and inclusive in every sense of the word is clear from the Company’s Annual Inclusion & Diversity Report 2021-22.
While women make up 36.1 per cent of its workforce, they also account for 22.2 per cent of its board of directors and 14.8 per cent of its executive committee members.
That the Company is progressing in furthering its D&I agenda is further clear from the fact that the share of women in its leadership ranks has also grown from 7.3 per cent in FY21 to 12.4 per cent in FY22.
The share of women in mid-management has grown from 10 per cent in FY21 to 11.3 per cent in FY22. Similarly, there has been growth in the share of women in junior management too, from 19.1 per cent in FY21 to 21.8 per cent in FY22.
All this has been possible due to Wipro’s capability programmes.
Women are able to stay relevant, competitive and also tackle challenges at the workplace through the Your Career Your Choice (YCYC) and Women in Leadership (WIL) initiatives. Quarterly discussions under the W-Connect Forum, with the CEO and the executive board, allow women to voice their opinions and be heard. These candid conversations help improve our charter and provide for effective two-way communication.
Under the initiative called Enrich, high-potential women employees are sponsored for leadership programmes to strengthen the talent pipeline and create an enabling ecosystem.
The Begin Again programme hires women who have taken a break from their careers and helps them get back to the active workforce. This programme has witnessed about 96 per cent of new mothers returning to work, with a whopping 99 per cent staying on with Wipro for more than a year after returning from their break.
The Refresh programme is designed to help women returning from maternity leave to smoothly transition back to work. These women are not only reskilled but are given support to build their technical and behavioural capabilities and assigned to meaningful projects.
Women techies in India were sponsored for the NASSCOM W2RT (short for Women Wizards Rule Tech) programme in FY2022. This year-long programme trained 10,000 women in the Indian industry on new and emerging technologies.
These initiatives are truly contributing to making Wipro a place, where according to Saurabh Govil, CHRO, Wipro, “everyone feels safe, respected, seen, heard, and understood irrespective of race, demography, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other factor”. Govil, who announced the release of the Diversity and Inclusion Report on LinkedIn, admits, “We have accomplished significant milestones but know that we have a long way to go. We are confident that our efforts will take us where we need to be”.
