Citibank provides a smashing new childcare policy that all mothers will be super happy about

Citi, err new moms never sleep. Just to give the new mothers a respite, Citi Bank is offering its women employees in India a childcare allowance over and above their salaries worth up to Rs 1.32 lakh a year for spending on daycare services of their choice, in what is seen as an unprecedented employee benefit across India Inc and is aimed at making it easier for new mothers to pursue their careers uninterrupted.
In a news report by The Economic Times, Citi will, starting this financial year, pay its women employees in India a fixed quarterly childcare allowance of Rs 33,000 for up to four years after their return from maternity leave, which they can use for financing daycare services of their choice. Employees can avail this facility for two children.


This isn’t a typical benefit provided by other companies. While firms such as Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Hindustan Unilever run their own creches or have tie-ups with creche providers, Citi's move will be especially helpful for women employees in non-metro cities where firms typically don't run creche services or have subsidised corporate tie-ups .

"As we work towards nurturing young women leaders at Citi, we realise three factors impact their professional career growth in some manner - marriage, mobility and motherhood," Sarab PreSingh, head (recruitment, learning and talent) at Citi India told the ET.


"What's happening across the corporate world and with us as well is that women at the entry level account for around 40% (of workforce), but as one goes up the experience curve the percentage of women employees reduces," added Singh.
HR experts believe this would be leading light in the industry.

"Organisations are waking up to the fact that the age group of 27-35 is the critical age group where women are dropping out and they need to be protected. They don't have many women reaching the levels of AVPs and VPs and that explains such policies," Saundarya Rajesh, founder and president of Avtar Career Creators and Flexi Careers, who works on diversity and inclusion issues told the ET.

The financial daily said, in the past few years, Citi has made largescale changes to its maternity benefits and flexible working arrangements for women employees. It has introduced a flexible maternity policy, which allowed women employees to avail their maternity leave of 180 days in three different options. Women officers could either avail of leave for a continuous period of six months or exercise flexibility in the leave duration by opting for leave in tranches.

The bank also made sure that new mothers kept their performance ratings during their maternity leave period. The bank's performance management system rates women employees only for the actual period of work and in line with prior two years' performance records. "This increases our budget outlay, but we believe returning mothers will find value in the new policy," Singh said.

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