Based on your experience would you say that the acceptance for women is increasing in the manufacturing industry in India?
Well, to begin with, industrywide reports tell us that India has among the lowest women workforce participation rates in the world. Again, if we drill down to the manufacturing industry alone, women are definitely underrepresented with participation ranging from only three to 12 percent.
But today, modern manufacturing is undergoing a transformation with the fourth industrial revolution. With technological advances and the convergence of physical and digital manufacturing, manufacturers are changing their operating methodology and raising the raising the bar for required employee skillsets. Talent, apart from being key, is a critical differentiator across the spectrum.
Studies reveal that women make up at least 40 percent of the workforce in more than 80 countries and contrastingly, studies have also revealed that manufacturers' top concerns have been the inability to attract and retain a quality workforce. In fact, there are about half a million jobs open in manufacturing right now, across the world.
So, yes, there is tremendous opportunity for women to not just build meaningful careers in manufacturing but also drive the future.
What should be done more to encourage the participation of women in manufacturing? Tell us about the strategies implemented by ELGi.
At ELGi, we have women working across almost all the functions both white and blue collar. Human resources, supply chain management, IT, technology, finance, marketing, sales and other support functions. If we look at our current distribution, we are at approximately 30 percent in sales, marketing and support; 18 percent in finance and HR and 14 percent in technology.
Also, at ELGi, career progression is purely based on performance and potential and one's gender really doesn't play a role. Employees move to the next level based on their skill development and the opportunities at the organization.
In my view, all manufacturing organizations need to focus on building female role models to inspire and encourage young women. We need to adopt and develop more inclusive workplaces and we need to find creative ways to build good work-life balance for all our employees.
We are attempting to recruit women in ELGi Vocational Training School, where we educate and train. We conduct women exclusive sports event once in a year in line with the Annual Sports Day. It is a two-day event with outdoor activities; right from throw ball as team sport to running as individual sport.
Do you think women can play a bigger and better role in improving the work environment for the manufacturing industry?
Let me address this a little differently - the manufacturing industry is reinventing itself and exciting, educating and empowering women will be critical to the future of the industry. Women represent one of the largest pools of untapped talent, and by tapping into this pool, manufacturers can close out on the skill gap that has traditionally caused challenges with evolution and expansion. Furthermore, gender diversity benefits manufacturing firms by creating a culture that improves their ability to innovate and grow. This aspect is well supported by lot of data and research. It's not just the bottom line, women in manufacturing are building meaningful careers—and quite literally the future.
How easy or difficult is it for male staff members to accept women supervisors or women leaders? What can be done to change their approach to this issue?
At ELGi, we work towards helping our managers equip themselves with the appropriate skillsets to be successful managers, irrespective of their genders. The boss-subordinate relationship is one of the most profound and it might it might be a paradox because it must be genuinely human and caring—even close, since you and your people strive toward a common, worthwhile purpose. But it must remain a relationship that never loses sight of one fact: it exists to accomplish work. It is a means to an end. A manager and his reportees, irrespective of their gender need to connect as humans but always, in the end, to focus on the work.
What are the various opportunities available for women in the manufacturing industry today?
At ELGi, we have women working in across almost all the functions. Function is with respect to the white-collar workers. We have women working in HR, supply chain management, IT, technology, finance, sales and other backend support functions.
It is also good to know that we have more women in the front-end roles and also in the core jobs like technology. In terms of the distribution of women workforce, close to 30 percent are in sales and support; 18 percent are in finance & HR and 14 percent are in technology.
If we look around there are some great organisation such as HAL, Tata, L&T and Mondelez, just to name a few have women playing variety of roles in manufacturing from shop-floor to mines.
What is the ratio of women to men employees on ELGi's shopfloor? Do you think this is a good ratio to have or are you working towards changing it?
Currently, there are no women working directly on the line. We are working on it and are hoping we get some female candidates for our upcoming vocational training program. Also, we are looking at creating additional facilities for women to attract more women workforce. When we go for campus hire in various reputed engineering colleges and management institutes, we don't follow any gender bias or discriminate in terms of the functions they can choose. Though we have women working in technology and manufacturing, the percentage is not very significant. Overall, in India women constitute four percent of ELGi's workforce and globally seven percent. Globally women constitute seven percent of the total headcount and at it is about five percent in India.
Do you see more women now opting for jobs in the manufacturing industry as compared to the IT industry?
There is always an excitement in being part of manufacturing where design and value add happens. Besides, jobs in manufacturing are more stable and this motivates the women to continue to work in the manufacturing industry. As already mentioned, because of technological advancement there is an equipment to lift every part and no one lifts a weight of more than seven kg in the plant. The advancement in the material handling system has enabled the employees to come into the direct manufacturing. Also, for over three years vocational training is being provided for fresh workmen at ELGi. We are looking at including female employees in future training as well.
What are the common misconceptions that women have about working in manufacturing?
The biggest misconception is that it's not a women's job; it's tough and very hard to work on the shopfloor. Also, when women enter the supervisory level, they always look at ratio of male and female. If the number of women is less, they think the workplace is not women friendly. Secondly, many women fear that they might not be able to survive in a male dominated sector. Unless they read success stories of other women in the manufacturing industry, they don't feel confident joining the industry; rather they will choose to work in fields like finance, IT which are the comfortable segments. These are some of the pain points that doesn't allow women to enter into the core manufacturing industry. Moreover, there is lack of awareness among the women about the job opportunities that exist in the manufacturing sector. This is an insight that we have gathered during the past hiring processes.
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