India's biggest conglomerate, the Tata Group, just launched what might be the biggest initiative to promote women in leadership positions. Putting across a cross-company mentoring programme, the project will have 300 high-potential women executives mentored by 180 CXOs and 35 CEOs from 45 group companies.
The aim behind the diversified conglomerate's mentoring programme is to put more women in leadership positions forming a part of the gender diversity vision set by group chairman Cyrus Mistry. He had stated in 2014, that the company wants to have at least 1,000 women leaders by the end of this decade even as it looks to double the number of women employees during the period. While the first phase has been completed, the second is to map mentors with mentees as well as the logistics and technology framework which is under finalisation.
Group chief HR officer NS Rajan said, "On the leadership journey, hand-holding by an experienced mentor can be a vital support to help us grow. Through the cross-company mentoring programme, we provide an opportunity for our women professionals to fulfil their potential and move up the ladder." In cross-company mentoring, women executives will not be restricted to the leaders in the company she operates in, instead, she gets a wider network of leaders to choose from.
The Tata Group is India's biggest employer of women at 145,000, and yet, has a limited number of women in CXO positions. While it's easier to improve gender diversity at lower levels, companies across industries are finding it difficult to increase the numbers at the top. As they move up the hierarchy, women managers drop out due to several reasons. Rajan said the mentoring programme reinforces the group's commitment to women and encourages them to stay and be an integral part of its future leadership pool. It acts like a retention tool, shielding women managers from dropping out. The programme will not just be restricted to India but also be applicable in the 100-plus countries where the group operates.
