Wanted: Housewives for banking, IT, retail jobs

PTI / Nov 18, 2007, 12:52 IST

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

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.

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 said.

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 centres, 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.

End of Article