The Hindu Business Line : Satyam scouting for women at senior levels

The company has 19 per cent of women in its workforce of around 28,000; "but at the leadership level this percentage comes down to 7 per cent", Mr A.S. Murty, Director and Senior Vice-President, Human Resources, Satyam Computer Services, told Business Line.

Lack of qualified women

"We're desperate to get more women at senior levels and are prepared to be flexible, but can't find qualified women."

He says some customers ask for women leaders, and often during meetings with customers "it is a little awkward if you don't have a single woman leader, particularly when the customer might have 4-5 women in their group. We've identified this as a problem and want to improve the percentage of women in senior positions."

Not enough drive

But the bad news is that HR chiefs like him find that "not many women aspire to become leaders; the ambition is just not there. Once they reach the age of 30, 35 or 40 years, they get complacent and do not want to forge ahead."

Marriage and children are a deterrent; "married women face pressure from in-laws, husbands and even children and at this stage working itself is a positive for them," says Mr Murty.

So would more women opt to remain single or childless in the future?

Family women a better fit

"This would not be healthy; the examples of many single women at the top is not a proud example I want to quote. Their anxiety, attitude, communication methods, etc, cause concern. Especially in divorced women, we commonly find problems and my experience is not positive. Some of these women are difficult to fit into teams; they can make both insensitive bosses as well as subordinates." Mr Murty believes that at senior levels family women fit in much better. But on the overall issue of women employees, his experience is positive.

"Contrary to popular belief women don't gossip much in office. They complete their task in time and leave. You might find male employees in office till 7 or 8.30 p.m., but their overall productivity is not necessarily better." He adds that to find women leaders Satyam is creating a forum of women leaders "who will themselves tell us what we need to do. We're completely open and flexible on this issue."

On attrition too, says Mr Murty, there are concerns on women leaving within two years after marriage.

The company hires 20-25 per cent women from campuses, but "after marriage 80-90 per cent of them leave."So does it prevent them from hiring more women at entry level?

"No, but of late, when we look at the attrition figures, we're asking if we train women for 6-24 months, what is the use if they leave?" The average tenure of women is 2 years; with that of men being slightly higher, he adds.

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