Breaking stereotypes is how Thought Works

At a time when IT firms across the country employ 25-28 per cent women in the workplace, which drops to 18 per cent at the middle management level and a low single-digit number at the top management level, ThoughtWorks India has hit a high of 39 per cent women in its workforce of 1,198 employees, up from 31 per cent in 2012. The company’s US workforce employs 40.5 per cent women.

More important, the global provider of software solutions ensures complete pay parity between men and women employees in a scenario where women earn 25.8 per cent less than their male counterparts in the IT sector, according to the latest Monster Salary Index India. The Index points out that gender continues to be a significant parameter in determining salaries in India where men earned a median gross hourly salary of ₹345.8 vs women who earned ₹259.8 in 2016. “Of our six offices in India, the largest is in Bengaluru and is headed by a woman – Namitha Anand, who joined the company in 2004 as a graduate business analyst and in 12 years made it to the top as Office Principal. Her experience ranges from professional services, analysis to project management and consulting. In her current role, Namitha’s primary responsibility lies in people – capability building, people engagement, community building, recruitment,” Tina Vinod, Diversity & Inclusion Lead, ThoughtWorks, told BusinessLine .

Vinod herself has successfully made her way to the top over the years, with the company supporting her through her pregnancy and post-pregnancy period. Her goal is to get to 50 per cent diversity in the next 24 months, a tough task she says, but not impossible to achieve. Women form 34 per cent of the company’s technology team in India; 28 per cent of lateral hires and 43 per cent of graduate hires in 2016 were women.

Social media campaign To attract senior women technologists, especially developers and quality analysts with over six years of experience, the company launched #TalkTechToHer, a social media recruitment campaign, last year. Within three weeks of the campaign going live, over 750 women whose career paths were disrupted when they were forced to quit their job for personal reasons, got in touch with ThoughtWorks. Vapasi, another programme that helps female IT professionals who took a break to get back into the industry, is an intensive hands-on programming classes held over a few days. The participants are connected with senior women mentors who guide and help them make the transition back to the industry. Once it is completed, they are free to apply to any company they choose to.

ThoughtWorks has four India Leadership programmes that has over 50 per cent representation of women – Organisation Leadership Programme, Technology Specialist Leadership Programme, Emerging/Future Leadership Programme and Bespoke Coaching.

Progressive HR Policies at ThoughtWorks are: six months maternity leave, unlimited sick leave, medical insurance for mothers and the new born, insurance cover for employees’ first three children while most other employers offer only the first two, tie-ups with Cloud 9, and other maternity care hospitals for discounted consultation, diagnosis and scans; Employee Assistance Programme for free financial, legal, medical advice, counselling in extreme confidentiality.