Chanda Kochhar (at present, CEO and MD of ICIC Bank), Shikha Sharma (head of Axis Bank), Kalpana Morparia (head of JP Morgan in India) and Renuka Ramnath (head of venture fund Multiples)... the list is pretty long. They were all incubated at the ICICI Bank to be leaders in their own right.
If the banking and finance sector in India has a lot of women bankers at the helm, it has a lot of do with ICICI Bank and several women-friendly initiatives implemented by its fomer chairman, KV Kamath, now the chief of the New Development Bank of BRICS countries.
Chanda Kochhar (at present, CEO and MD of ICIC Bank), Shikha Sharma (head of Axis Bank), Kalpana Morparia (head of JP Morgan in India) and Renuka Ramnath (head of venture fund Multiples)... the list is pretty long. They were all incubated at the ICICI Bank to be leaders in their own right.
Zarin Daruwala, CEO designate of Standard Chartered in India, is the last one to join the team. The 51-year old Zarin was the former president of the corporate banking at ICICI Bank. She says the gender neutral environment in the bank is a big reason why women rise up from the ranks. Speaking to dna, she said, "All through my career at ICICI Bank, we have learnt to work in a gender neutral atmosphere and any role is considered as apt and challenging for a man as it is for a woman. Assignments are rarely given and assessments ever made on the basis of the gender.
On Monday, ICICI Bank created another first to its credit to nurture and retain women who comprise 30% of its workforce. The bank has just launched a special programme that lets women work from home -- iWork@home where women employees can now work from home for a year, which can be extended. The programme has a three-level security protocol which ensures that only the concerned employee is able to access the system. The second initiative is meant for women managers with young children up to the age of three years where the bank will foot the travel and stay cost of their children and the caregivers.
Besides this, Kochhar said the bank also offers six months of maternity leave, 36 days of paid child care leave which is available each year for mothers and single fathers till the child attains the age of two years. The bank also offers 180 days of fertility leave for employees who are seeking to undergo treatment for fertility, and 36 days of paid adoption leave for women employees and single fathers. In additin, the bank also tries to accommodate transfer requests made by employees on account of marriage, medical reasons or any personal emergency. The bank has also launched a Quick Response Team (QRT) to respond to women employees, if they are in distress while commuting, says Kochhar.
Daruwala adds, "I think as women, we might have to deal with few compromises, but there aren't sacrifices The personal ecosystem that a woman has is crucial to her career. My mother and my mother-in-law were my very strong anchors. I have learnt to delineate the two lives – personal and professional – but I've been lucky to have very understanding bosses. For example, I worked half day in office and in the other half, oversaw my daughter's studies at home during her Board exams."
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