Tata Steel plans on improving diversity, to recruit 5,500 women and 100 differently-abled

Tata Steel is looking forward to hiring 5,550 women by the year 2020. Currently, Tata Steel already has around 2,000 women in its workforce, which is less than 6% of the total 35,000.

Apart from this, the company is also planning to recruit 100 differently-abled people. Tata Steel currently employs 106 differently-abled people. The hiring would be replacement hiring.

"Most of the diversity hiring would be replacement of positions currently held by men," Atrayee Sarkar, chief diversity officer at Tata Steel, told ET.

“It took a year to lay out concrete plans around diversity and inclusion. Unlike other companies that talk about diversity at managerial level and at industries that have desk jobs, for Tata Steel, which is an organisation that has multi-location mining, raw material and manufacturing and bringing in diversity is more complex,” Sarkar added.

"Trying to achieve the percentage in all our locations is a bigger challenge to us." The strategy for improving diversity is clear: Take more women at the entry levels. Previously, just 10-15 per cent of entry-level hires were women. Now, it wants to take this to a minimum of 30 per cent- that means, every 10 new hires at the entry level will have at least three women. "We're getting women from campuses, in the first block," Sarkar told ET.

The next on to-do list of Tata Steel is to increase the count of differently abled people. Tata steel is looking forward to making 50 places suitable for differently abled people. "We just brought on board 'EnAble India' (as) a partner for recruitment, infrastructure and sensitisation for the differently abled. It is their first time for a manufacturing company," Sarkar said.

"The design, structure, etc., will be completely designed for the visually impaired/people with hearing impairment/physically disabled across some of our locations, the company has also worked out a 'power engagement' programme," Sarkar further added.

In case a qualified spouse of an employee in a different location wants to be employed, Tata Steel will take that person on board on a contract basis under its 'Spouse-Retainership' programme. "We are also looking at our alumni. People who have left us and want to come back may do so on a contract on long-term basis," she said.

Tata Steel has already announced policies like work from home, paternity leave, 15 days special leave to the mother and two-three nursing breaks a day for women with babies recently.
(image:Reuters)