Based on your experience, would you say that acceptance for women is increasing in the manufacturing industry in India?
Yes, in the Indian manufacturing industry, I truly believe that the acceptance of women is increasing.
What is your organisation's approach towards gender diversity?
Cummins has begun this journey long before, for Cummins one of our five core values is Diversity & Inclusion - Valuing and including our differences in decision making is our competitive advantage. There have never been any challenges in Cummins for male staff members to accept women supervisors or women leaders. The best way to change the approach is to truly accept Diversity as a core in everything you do.
Diversity and Inclusion: This is not just a theme but a Core Value at Cummins. Cummins India diverges in age, gender, race, nationality, language, differently-abled, other underrepresented, personality, behaviour, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, gender identity and expression. Cummins in India believes that a diverse population develops a collective behaviour and as a result, encourages all individuals and employees to best use their talents.
At present, how many women are employed by your organisation in the manufacturing segment?
We have a diversity of ~33 percent and at Cummins, we have set steep targets to reach 50 percent in the coming years.
What are the various opportunities available for women in the manufacturing industry today?
At Cummins, there are a plethora of opportunities. we pride ourselves on being the ‘keepers' of Cummins core values of Diversity and Inclusion.
Do you think women can play a bigger and better role in improving the work environment for the manufacturing industry?
Diversity is something that is always on my mind and in many facets of my job. Understanding the value of diversity helps me excel in my roles as a leader, manager, recruiter for my function, volunteer leader and sponsor of a number of a great place to work initiatives. Additionally, understanding the value of diversity allows me to help create and manage the right environment. I attempt to be conscious of invisible diversity as well when I lead teams, to try to build inclusive environments and elicit diverse perspectives.
Some of the values that are most important to me include integrity, compassion, dedication, diversity, inclusion, equality, mentoring and coaching. I own and lead several of the technical lane deliverables, which are all about finding and fixing problems for our customers, identifying and reducing reliability risk. So, every day I am coaching teams to make the right decisions for Cummins and the customer to give them a product that works. It's often challenging to balance competing objectives, but it's bringing those varying perspectives and objectives together to enable teams to make the best decisions they can. Focus on strengths, treat people as they would like to be treated, hold yourself to high standards, and persevere - you are making a difference! I feel privileged that I work for a company that allows me to use my strengths to grow, to learn, to help others, and also work to change our community and our culture.
What should be done more to encourage the participation of women in manufacturing? Tell us about the strategies implemented by your organisation.
Career development and networking have been long-standing initiatives throughout our existence; it's something women very clearly wanted from the group. Mentoring circles, for example, have been a very successful initiative offered by the group, bringing together successful women at Cummins and newcomers to the Company. In a mentoring circle, the protégés are paired with one male and one female mentor, allowing more women to have access to company leaders than with one-on-one mentoring. Career development and networking have been long-standing initiatives throughout our existence. It's something women very clearly wanted from the group.
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?
As mentioned earlier, Cummins began this journey long before, for Cummins one of our five core values is Diversity & Inclusion - Valuing and including our differences in decision making is our competitive advantage. There have never been any challenges in Cummins for male staff members to accept women supervisors or women leaders. The best way to change the approach is to truly accept Diversity a core in everything you do.
Let me share with you an example from Cummins:
In a progressive move to strengthen the gender diversity, Cummins Turbo Technologies (CTT), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cummins in India announced the introduction of B shift (late evening shifts) for women employees at the Dewas facility. With an objective to enhance gender representation at Cummins, the company initiated this project on pilot basis in April this year at their Dewas facility and successfully conducted a dry run with 50 women employees working in the B shift (4 pm- 12 am) on 26th and 27th April 2018.
Post receiving positive feedback from all employees and other stakeholders and reviewing all arrangements, B shift for women employees was officially launched on 25th May with grand celebration. All the women employees were welcomed by male colleagues and the occasion was celebrated in a grand manner.
The responsibility lies with us to create apt platforms and identify relevant areas for skilled women employees to be recruited, especially at the grassroots level like shop floors. In the last few years, we have witnessed an overall increase in women workforce who are keen on being part of the shop floor and the trend is definitely growing in India. At Cummins, we have always been at the forefront of creating a diverse work culture by ensuring adequate representation and Inclusion by fostering the right working environment that is psychologically safe, inclusive, respectful and performance-oriented.
At Cummins India, we truly believe in embracing the diverse perspectives of all people and honouring them with dignity and respect. The introduction of B shift for our women employees at Dewas facility is one such step towards improving gender representation There is a need to enhance opportunities for women, particularly at the shop-floor employee level. Within the Cummins, we pride ourselves on being the ‘keepers' of Cummins core values. Empowering women makes sense for our business because their inclusion in the economic cycle has a magnifying impact on growth and the health and progress of their families as well. This initiative is already showing results with gender representation improving at the site from 8 percent to 26 percent in a short duration.
The roll-out of this initiative is backed with all necessary steps like legal compliance requirement, ensuring women safety, door to door pick up and drop bus facilities, women security guards, doctor and medical assistance and other steps, making shop floors more gender-inclusive and a Great and Safe Place' to work.
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