Wanted: Housewives for banking, IT, retail jobs

NEW DELHI: Being a woman with children and a home to look after was considered a career-dampener not so long ago, but housewives are now being increasingly wooed by big guns such as Standard Chartered Bank and Infosys in an array of sectors like software, retail, banking and BPOs.

Housewives are now in great demand in the job market as companies are realising that this particular class of employees is more stable in nature and could be a major weapon against the high level of attrition plaguing the industry.
   
To tackle the aversion to long working hours, companies have come out with "flexi-timing" for women who have children, giving them an option to work only four hours a day.

"We plan to hire women in 4-6 hour shifts in major metros, as there is a need to break away from the traditional processes amid the current talent crunch," Standard Chartered Bank's HR Head Madhavi Lall told.

The firms are targeting especially those who quit their jobs after going the family way.

"Over 50 per cent women in India have to give up their jobs due to 'child break'. However, flexi-timed jobs will make this career gap diminish as it did in the US and Europe," hiring firm TeamLease Services chairman Manish Sabharwal said.
   
Teamlease is hiring women for 4-6 hour shifts for retail chains like Shopper's Stop and Fab India as well as some BPOs and financial services firms, Sabharwal said.

StanChart also allows flexi-hours for existing employees after their maternity leave, Lall said.

Besides, Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group that runs retail chains like Pantaloon, Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, has signed up Chennai-based HR consulting firm AVTAR Career Creators to hire 3,000 women professionals to work in shifts ranging from one hour to five hours a day.
   
The consultancy firm has also conducted such hirings for StanChart, Unilever, Capgemini, Cholamandalam Group, Thomson Financial and E-Serve. It is also in talks with firms like Infosys, Cognizant, Merrill Lynch, Barclays Bank and IFB.

The hiring process for Future Group has already begun in Kolkata and would subsequently move to Mumbai, Kolhapur, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Cochin and Ahmedabad, by AVTAR's Interim Women Manager's Interface Network (I-WIN).
   
There are positions in customer service, warehouse, HR, audit, in-store marketing, store management and cash handling departments, AVTAR Career Creators CEO Saundarya Rajesh said.
   
StanChart is looking at candidates ranging from MBAs, CAs, graduates, law graduates and engineers, Lall said. "We are present in 31 cities, but currently we would be hiring flexi-timed women candidates only in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore," she added.
   
"The branches in these cities are bigger and have better scope for such hirings. As we grow in smaller centers, we will extend these plans for those cities as well," Lall said.
   
The bank has also started an all-women branch in Kolkata and also has an extended maternity leave policy, she added.
   
"Currently, 35 per cent of our total workforce is female and with more women entering the job market, we expect to further build the diversity in our workforce," Lall said.

For Future Group, AVTAR is looking at candidates with education ranging from higher secondary to graduates, post-graduates, CAs, MCAs as well as MBAs in HR, finance and marketing, Rajesh said.

Despite the flexi-timing, these employees are being offered salaries at par with the others. "Salaries for this segment of workforce is pro-rata to what a regular full-time employee gets," TeamLease's Sabharwal said.

Standard Chartered also follows the practice of giving salaries on a pro-rata basis, Lall said.

"An MBA or IT professional can earn up to 55 to 70 per cent of the salary earned by full-time staffers," Rajesh said.
   
The remuneration for those with general educational background varies between Rs 3,000 to Rs 15,000 for 4-6 hour shifts depending on their professional experience, he added.

AVTAR is targeting two categories of women for these flexi-time jobs -- first-time career job-seekers and those who have earlier quit their jobs due to reasons like childcare, elder-care or shifting to other city.

"This is a group of people who are trained, focused, but constrained by time. Still, the companies are more than happy to engage with them," Rajesh said.
   
AVTAR is assessing candidates on three factors - current skill repertoire, orientation to a flexi-job and suitability to a specific activity. The assessment is followed by three levels of personal interviews, leading to a job offer.

"With the growing need for talent in the industry, flexi- time is here to stay," Lall said, adding that "I have a personal belief that workforce created on these lines would be more stable in nature."