In a move that can potentially revolutionise the way women work and are employed in public sector banks, State Bank of India (SBI) is chalking out a plan to offer work from home option to its female employees.
This plan is particularly being worked upon to retain female talent of the bank.
India’s largest multinational, public sector banking and financial services company, State Bank of India, currently employees 45,132 women. This is 20 percent of the total staff strength of 2,22,033.
Understandably, they do not want to lose its female resources, many of whom often quit their jobs post maternity or for elder care.
And while the bank is still working on the functionality of the option, their biggest hurdle is to figure out the technical feasibility of this option.
First announced in 2014
This move was first announced by Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, SBI on December 15, 2014. She announced that the company is looking for ways to allow women to work from home.
Bhattacharya was speaking to The Times Of India while flag-off Pinkathon. She pointed out that while 38 to 40 percent recruits were women, their high dropout rate led to women accounting for just of 20 percent of the total employees.
She stated the four primary reasons for losing out on female talent:
- Caring for children
- Caring for the elderly in their homes
- Domestic chores like relocating
- Taking care of the house
She had announced, "We try to accommodate staff where transfers are concerned, but right now we are not able to provide flexible timings. We are looking at whether it is technologically possible to allow working from home."
Additional benefit
In addition to chalking out a plan to allow work from home, the company was also reviewing the option of giving a two year sabbatical leave to its women employees.
This was especially thought out for those female employees who have to stay home for various domestic responsibilities.
ICICI Bank already offers work from home
The State Bank of India is not the first company to offer this opportunity to women. ICICI Bank, helmed by Chanda Kochchar had also launched the '[email protected]' for its female employees.
And they were assisted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi in developing the technology platform for this option.
Read: These 12 Indian companies have the best 'back to work' programmes for women
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(Image courtesy: iDiva)
