No. of companies with women on boards rise 16% over last 6 years

A Credit Suisse research report states that the number of Indian companies that have at least one woman on the board have witnessed an increase of 16 percent over the last six years. The report says that women’s presence in boardrooms increased to 46.5 percent in 2011, from 30.4 percent in 2005. The findings are coherent given that companies in India are going into overdrive to hire more female employees in their bid to have a greater gender balance at the workplace. The quest for gender diversity goes to the extent that recruiters are being pushed to their limits to meet this objective. For that matter, companies are willing to extend deadlines at the cost of having vacant positions for longer duration. The deviation in adhering to deadlines is more pronounced in functions like sales and legal. This in some cases, is explained by the fact that companies are unwilling to compromise on quality and hire a female employee just to meet the quota. The endeavour is to achieve gender diversity and at the same time balance the business criticality of having the right talent for the right role at the right time.