Tata Steel targets 20% women in workforce by 2020

Tata Steel targets to have 20 per cent women in its workforce by 2020 as gender diversity ensures availability of different mindsets to deal with challenges, a top company executive said.

“Gender diversity is essential, and not having it can be detrimental to business. A diverse workforce ensures that we have different mindsets dealing with challenges in different ways, and this helps us strategise better,” Tata Steel Chief Diversity Officer and Chief Group for Human Resource Atrayee S Sanyal told PTI. She said Tata Steel has a target to have 20 per cent women in its workforce by 2020, from the current level of 11 per cent.

“We are definitely planning to employ a large number of women in the coming years. Tata Steel, as an equal opportunity employer, believes that women can perform any role with equal competence as that of a man. We have not restricted ourselves to defining certain roles or levels where we will employ women. Our diversity targets have been taken for the overall organisation and we are open to employing women across all roles and levels.”

However, for this purpose the company will not compromise on merit at any stage of selection or promotion. “Our recruitment sensitisation handbook clearly mentions that at an equal level of merit and competence, we would prefer a female candidate but we consider merit as the ultimate criterion for selection.”

When asked about the difficulty in finding women with the required skills in manufacturing, mining and engineering, she said the availability of women is gradually improving. Further, she said, there was a need to devise policy interventions to offset the challenges which come with more women going for extended maternity.