“Diversity and inclusion is at the heart of our talent life cycle”
Philips India believes in a diverse, inclusive and engaged workforce. As head of Human Resources for the Indian Subcontinent, Armaan Seth talks about the women-friendly policies that help in strengthening women workforce especially at the leadership roles, globally. Edited excerpts:
How do you promote diversity and inclusion at Philips India?
At Philips we believe, a diverse, inclusive and an engaged workforce is an essential element to a thriving innovative business and we strive to attract employees from a wide range of backgrounds.
Diversity and inclusion is at the heart of our talent life cycle, and helps us to enhance employee engagement and drive performance. Valuing diverse perspectives, we leverage the diverse thinking, skills, experience and working styles, while simultaneously fostering an innovative, collaborative and high-energy work environment. To promote diversity in the workplace, we provide opportunities for work arrangements that accommodate the diverse needs of people at different career and life stages.
What can be done to encourage the growth of women leaders within organizations?
Women leaders today are at the forefront of redefining the business landscape. We encourage women to reach leadership positions by providing them the right support when it require it most.
To promote gender diversity, we aim to create an ecosystem which would help women workforce to thrive and reach out for higher goals. Philips has various active diversity policies to support women balance their work-life including, flexible work schedules, child maternity polices (including adoption policy), sabbatical policy and late evening travel policy.
Philips with its womenfriendly policies is committed to support working mothers in their return to work so that they can continue to build a fulfilling career (We have a programme called “Back in the Game”). We are also working towards strengthening women workforce by providing them mentorship and helping them to take leadership positions in India and globally too.
Our government has already undertaken initiatives like 180 days of maternity leave, crèche facilities, and day care. While policies, laws and recommendations are good, our ecosystem needs to provide them with equal opportunities too. We all need to come together to conquer the barriers faced by women in the workplace.
What are the other HR policies that you have in place to enhance employee engagement?
We are a brand with a legacy of over 125 years. We make sure to practice and strengthen various employeefriendly policies which are progressive and targets different phases of the employee life cycle. These policies are regularly updated basis employee feedback and we have won several awards for these forward looking steps we take in this area.
We have flexible working hours to facilitate employees who wish to voluntarily reduce their working hours, to attend to personal, family and educational needs.
We also have a work from home policy to provide employees the flexibility of working from home subject to nature of job and viability considering the impact on the business/ project requirements. Each employee can work from home 1 day a week to help them balance their work life. Lastly, we have a fitness Policy to ensure that our employees have a healthy lifestyle. We encourage them to pick up an activity and reimburse the same.