New Delhi: More women are likely to join the corporate workforce in the country this year, with overall hiring prospects are picking up and companies increasingly believing in maintaining a healthy male-female ratio, recruitment experts said.
"Most organisations that stressed on being equal opportunity providers ensured that the male-female ratio was maintained. Now, with opening of markets and opportunities, there will be a resurgence of female job applicants," staffing firm TeamLease Services General Manager Surabhi Mathur Gandhi.
IT services firm ITC Infotech's HR Head Anand Talwar said, "Yes, more women are expected to join this year into the country's workforce. As they make up about one-fourth of the workforce and with hiring prospects picking up significantly, the female employee strength is also expected to rise."
Some other specialists said said that certain sectors such as retail, telecom, hospitality, banking and outsourcing are likely to attract most of the female talent.
"The sectors which are a lot more open to women include telecom, retail, BPOs, KPOs and pharma research firms," said Korn/Ferry International practice head, leadership and talent consulting Nina Chatrath.
"Amongst the staff strength seen within ITeS, banking & financial services, hospitality, media, consulting there is a higher female employee strength," TeamLease's Gandhi said.
Given the flexibility of work hours and work-from-home options introduced by various firms, the IT sector has seen an increase in women employees as well.
However, the gusto with which women join the workforce is seen diminishing along with their raising levels in the corporate ladder, experts believe.
"Companies are giving more importance to gender diversity across all levels. However, mostly women staff is concentrated at the junior and middle levels in a firm," said Hewitt's India Leader (Performance & Rewards Consulting Practice) Sandeep Chaudhary.
Experts said the family and other personal commitments lead to dropping out of a lot of women from the mainstream workforce after the middle management levels.
"The presence of women in the senior management levels in companies is few and sparse as most of the fairer sex mostly quit way before reaching the top rungs," Chatrath added.
Meanwhile, TeamLease's Gandhi said, "more and more women are seen taking an active participation in career enhancement and growth within the corporate world hence pushing boundaries of their career span further."
According to global HR consultancy Hewitt Associates, a majority of Indian companies, particularly those in infrastructure and energy sectors, are planning to hire in a big way this year.
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