NASSCOM awards IT-BPO industry for gender inclusivity: IBM India best IT Products and Services Company

Promoting a culture of diversity and inclusivity at work

Bangalore, 22^nd November 2010: In an initiative for creating a diverse workforce in IT-BPO industry, National Association of Software and Services Companies, NASSCOM, today started its 2-day annual diversity initiative, the Diversity and Inclusivity Summit 2010 at ITC Gardenia Hotel, Bangalore, scheduled for 22^nd and 23^rd November 2010. With focus on cultural, generational, differently-abled and gender diversities, this initiative would expand the employment pipeline for the IT-BPO industry by leveraging India’s demographic dividend, drive more innovation and strengthen India’s competitiveness in the global market place.

Speaking about the initiative, Ms. Sucharita Eashwar, Senior Director, NASSCOM said, “With the initiative, NASSCOM aims to promote Women’s Entrepreneurship and Supplier Diversity amongst companies and engage and partner with government at the state and national level to enable greater participation of diverse groups in the economy. We have formed four national level sub groups to define the contours of the particular diversity groups, create an ecosystem for their inclusivity, and take forward the agenda through activities across the country. NASSCOM has constituted a high powered Diversity Forum with accountability and leadership of an EC member, to bring the diversity initiative into mainstream.”

Diversity in the Indian IT/ITES workplace is influenced by globalization, talent availability, customer expectations, changing demographics, move towards CSR and sustainability, culture of innovation and inclusion and skill, performance behavior demands.

There has been a transformational shift in the focus of gender inclusivity, and Indian companies are increasingly viewing it as a business imperative, and not as a corporate social responsibility activity. As compared to 2005-06, when only four companies had formal defined policies for gender inclusivity now there are about 350 companies which have formal gender inclusivity policies. Independent studies show that companies with more than two female board members demonstrate a better return on equity compared to the industry average (11.4 per cent vs. an average of 10.3 per cent, according to a recent study).

With an increasing number of women engineers passing out of college every year, and a social shift towards greater acceptance of a working spouse, the IT industry provides a safe and friendly environment for the working woman. These factors have led to a sustained increase in the number of women employed by the IT industry. According to Gartner, the emergence of women in varied roles in IT is among the 10 converging factors that will change the workforce by 2010.

NASSCOM Awards for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity

The NASSCOM Corporate Awards to companies for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity is a key component of the NASSCOM Gender Inclusivity Initiative, to celebrate best practices in gender inclusivity in the work place and showcase the winning companies. This is the first award in India that honors companies that have implemented policies and practices for gender Inclusivity and enabled women to contribute to the success of the enterprise at all levels in the organization.

The winners for 2010 across categories were:

This would serve to highlight that embracing inclusivity can boost creativity, innovation and the bottom line. This would help employers build workplace cultures that are inclusive for women. The Awards serve in supporting the industry-wide mission of enabling women leaders and creating a culture in which women employees are supported and encouraged to seek and achieve their highest potential.

About NASSCOM

NASSCOM (www.nasscom.in) is India's National Association of Software and Service Companies, the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT software and services industry in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with over 1200 members, of which over 250 are global companies from the US, UK, EU, Japan and China. NASSCOM's member companies are in the business of software development, software services, software products, IT-enabled/BPO services and e-commerce. NASSCOM has been the strongest proponent of global free trade in India.

NASSCOM is committed to work proactively to encourage its members to adopt world class management practices, build and uphold highest quality standards and become globally competitive. In India and around the world, NASSCOM members are participants in the new global economy and are reputed for their cutting-edge business practices and social initiatives.

Annexure: 2010 winners across categories

Category 1:

Best IT Services and Products Company

Category 2:

Best BPO Company

Category 3:

Best emerging company

Category 4:

Best company with less than 1000 employees

Category 5:

Most Innovative Program