Avtar Sets on a Mission to transform 1,00,000 companies to Equitable Workspaces

  

Company heads from different industry verticals share their first-hand experience of DEI initiatives at their organizations at Avtar’s ‘Business is Good” campaign launch

 

 A unique initiative launched by Avtar Group, India’s pioneer in the space of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, the Business is Good (BIG) aims to increase Women’s Workforce Participation in Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities by ensuring that 5,00,000 women enter the workforce by 2027.

 

The campaign was launched on Monday and top honchos from different industries across the country, came together to vouch for DEI that has triggered a growth in their businesses. Some of the key participants were Amit Gossain, Managing Director, KONE Elevator India Pvt Ltd,  Chandan Barve, Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, ASC, Sun Life India Service Centre Private Limited, Chandrakant Nayak, CEO & Country President, Dow Chemical International Pvt Ltd (Dow India), Daisy Devassy Chittilapilly, President, Cisco India & SAARC, Cisco Systems (India) Private Limited, Deepak Iyer, President, Mondelez India Foods Pvt Ltd, S. Ramprasad President, UST BlueConch, Satish Pillai, Managing Director of India, Nielsen IQ and Siva Padmanabhan, Managing Director, AstraZeneca India Pvt Ltd.

 

Contrary to the World Economic Forum’s projections that suggest that it would take 100 plus years to close the gender gap, Avtar & Seramount Best Companies for Women in India is set to achieve 50: 50 gender balance with equal representation of men and women by 2027. According to the study, women’s representation at the 100 Best has grown from 25% in 2016 to 34.5 in 2021. Following the projections, the 100 Best Companies will get to a 50-50 gender balance by 2027.

 

“Through innovative practices and deep commitment, the Best Companies for Women have put themselves on the fast-track towards achieving gender balance as early as 2027. These companies have reaped the fruit of rising the gender diversity bar in their operating profits,” said Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President, Avtar Group in an exclusive media interaction today launching the BIG initiative.

 

As per India’s largest diversity analytics exercise that Avtar hosts - the 100 Best Companies for Women in India, 62 companies recorded an increase in operating profit, 73 companies recorded greater innovation revenue and 81 companies recorded an increase in customer satisfaction, during a time frame that gender diversity grew by over 2%. “We are extremely proud to have partnered with many of these organizations on their DEI Maturity Journey; seeing them move the needles as they moved up the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Maturity Curve (DEIMC © - a proprietary measurement model developed by Avtar, that assesses the ability of an organization to leverage diversity, promote equity and nurture inclusion,” added Dr Saundarya.

 

Avtar launched the “Business is Good” campaign and initiative to ensure that 100,000 businesses by the year 2027 become diverse, equitable and inclusive. This will be achieved by large corporates who have visibly seen the benefits of DEI. The top leaders at these role-model organizations will be part of the initiative driven by Avtar, in which they will share not only their own business benefited from DEI, but also how their companies instilled this culture.

 

Managing directors, Chief Executive officers of role-model organizations, will be part of the initiative driven by Avtar, in which they will share not only their own business benefited from DEI, but also how their companies instilled this culture. Avtar’s BIG initiative comprises focused group discussions, meetings with top leaders, white paper and much more.

 

About Avtar

Avtar, set up in 2000, is India’s first diversity advocate & workplace inclusion expert. Renowned for its extensive work in the space of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and more specifically, women’s workforce participation, it is the country’s largest provider of second career opportunities for women and is also the earliest to begin working on diversity audits and measurement. Lead by the visionary Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Avtar has ventured into areas of gender inclusion and career creation, which are firsts to India.

 

• Creating platforms for second career women to meet potential employers,
• Developing a comprehensive set of career enablers which companies can implement in their workspaces
• Spearheading original research that has provided cutting edge insights to organizations
• Creating India’s first diversity hiring portal myavtar.com for women, LGBTQ, PWD, Veterans and Silver Generation
• Re-Skilling, Up-skilling, and Counselling of women to pursue sustainable career paths and
• Building career intentionality amongst under privileged girl children.

 

Avtar has built its DEI offerings under four EDs, which ensures that every organization can have a clear path towards moving forward, building, and sustaining diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces. The Four EDs – Enrich Diversity, Embed Diversity, Enable Diversity and Experience Diversity are constructed along four key implementation dimensions of Diversity - for Audits & Advisory support, Recruitment Programs, Workshops and Training Programs and Conferences and Events, respectively.