3 Fifty diversity at Webomates

Last week, I was planning the agenda and activities for the upcoming International Women’s Day celebrations meetup. I browsed through the UN-Women website to get a hang of this year’s theme, which turned out to be aligned with my line of work.

“DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, to promote gender equality in otherwise male-dominated sectors of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.”

On impulse, I got on the internet to check the latest data on how women are faring in the corporate world. At the back of my mind, I knew that we women have come a long way, but at the same time, the thought that it isn’t easy for many others was bothering me.

Want to know what made me write this? The shocking numbers that popped up in my research…..

Let me share them with you.

• As per Mckinsey’s report “Women at the workplace”, Women are underrepresented at every level and in technical roles
  
• The Gender snapshot report by the UN released in 2022 states
  • Women hold only 2 in every 10 science, engineering, and information and communication technology jobs globally.
  •  At the 20 largest global technology companies, women are 33 percent of the workforce in 2022 but hold only one in four leadership positions.
    
• As per UNESCO’s science report – 2021,
  •  By 2050, 75% of jobs will be related to STEM areas but a very small percentage of women will be working in these fields.
  • As a reference point, only 22% of women hold jobs in AI-related fields

Somewhere in my heart, I didn’t want to believe these numbers, but sadly those were the bleak facts staring right at my face.

I was having a good day till then and did not want anything to spoil it. So I started focusing on positive things that have happened to me, to send out the beacon of hope to women out there who are sailing in the same boat as I was till 5 years ago.

I had a flourishing career in HR till I decided to take a break to raise my little girls. A few years passed and then I decided to start working again when the girls started school.

That is when reality hit me. Getting back into the mainstream job was not easy. Months passed by without any success and then Webomates happened.

Let me tell you something about my workplace.

Webomates started its operations a few years back with a handful of people. As time passed, the business grew, and so did the need for more hiring.

The flagship team had one strong focus – “Hiring the right people for the right job, without any bias”.

I was happy to be finally with people who understood the value of talent and were truly committed to having a diverse workforce.

My team was tasked to find the right fit for the roles identified within the organization. We tapped major hiring talent pools and found that a large number of women wanted to get back into mainstream work after a career gap. They had the right qualifications and experience too. Just that they had to take a break from their careers due to a variety of reasons.

Learning from my own experience and keeping in mind Webomates’ desire to make a difference, I ensured that candidate shortlisting was a bias-free process. As a result, we hired quite a few deserving women candidates-including freshers and returnees. 

The next logical step was to provide an inclusive and women-friendly work environment. 

Some of the women who joined back needed to polish their skills or learn new ones. Our technical and leadership teams designed upskilling or reskilling programs based on their job profile.

I love Webomates’ work policies. They are formulated keeping a good work-life balance in mind. To name a few – flexible work hours, remote/hybrid work model, medical benefits, child care support, etc.  

All our teams were sensitized to making work allocation and performance evaluation transparent and unbiased. The idea was to focus on talent and the ability to deliver, irrespective of gender.

Being an integral part of making Webomates an equal-opportunity employer makes me feel good about myself. Today, we have,

• 50% women in our workforce – Gender equality
• 50% women in every function – Gender parity

50% women in top leadership – Gender responsibility

We at Webomates are committed to providing a friendly, stress-free, and supportive work culture for Women at Work.

If you want to be part of the “WoW-Team”, then reach out to us at recruitment@webomates.com, and someone from my team will contact you.

(About the author: Swati Singh is a talented HR professional who took a career break to raise her daughters. She joined Webomates in 2018 and since then she has been instrumental in hiring some very talented women who are part of Webomates’ core team now.)

Tags: Diversity and Inclusion, Equality, Gender parity, International Women’s Day, Women’s Day 2023, Work life balance, zoom ceiling