Indian firms turning friendly towards working mothers
More and more companies in India have come up with policies which are friendly towards working mothers, according to online job platform for women ''JobsForHer''.
"As compared to 2019, 2020 has witnessed several companies offering multiple benefits for working mothers to retain them as employees," the report found.
The survey conducted with over 300 companies, revealed that about 60 per cent of Indian companies offer six-months paid maternity leave while 12 per cent offer more than 6 months. Further, 68 per cent of companies ensure that women are offered a fair performance appraisal during the year of their break.
It said that around 63 per cent of the companies maintain regular communication on the role of the employee when she rejoins the workforce.
However, it was observed that only 15 per cent of companies offer paternity leave between two weeks and one month. Moreover, the study revealed that enterprises are offering more mother-friendly policies as compared to SMEs and start-ups.
Neha Bagaria, Founder and CEO of JobsForHer said: "Today, women are finding ways to remain in the workforce or re-enter post their break. It is delightful to see that businesses across the country are supporting working mothers immensely with friendlier policies and are being more accommodative to their needs. We hope that this number of companies altering their work policies to make them more flexible for working mothers only increases in the future."
The survey showed that an increasing number of companies are realizing that when women quit the workforce owing to familial commitments, asignificant percentage of talent is lost.
A whooping of 79 per cent of all the companies including large corporates, SMEs and startups have allowed flexible work timing policies that can be availed by employees. This is a 20 per cent increase from the 2019 survey.