Country’s largest automaker Tata Motors is expected to hire more of women employees to 25 percent over the next four to five years. In April 1974, Tata Motors Pune Plant had first of its female engineer on its assembly.
Gajendra Chandel, chief HR officer at Tata Motors said,”We have substantially increased the number of women in our workforce over the last four-five years and we aim to increase it to 20-25 per cent over the next four to five years.”
He further stated that in January, the company had 2,628 women on its rolls, of which 1,952 were on the shop-floor, which accounts for about 5 percent of its total factory workforce of 41,390. The company employs a total of 55,159 people.
Chandel informed, “Over the years, we have been steadily hiring more women from the campuses. This has gone up from 13 per cent in 2016 to 19 percent in 2017 and a target of 25 percent for 2018 batches.” He said that they focused on hiring women workforce from smaller towns and villages and training under the National Employability Enhancement Mission.
Chandel explaining his new approach said,”We are slowly but steadily working towards building gender diversity where women work shoulder to shoulder and have the same opportunities as men anywhere in the company.”
As part of this new HR initiative, where the objective is to have gender diversity, the Tata Group has launched Tata LEAD Initiative in March 2014. This lead to a modest start by inducting five women at the assembly line of Tata Motors in Pune.
Chandel further added, “This modest shop-floor attempt gave us very encouraging results and the stage was set with culture building, training of all on the shop-floor, mindset change, etc.”
Recently, Tata Motors has introduced a mission to create a brigade of Women in Blue by supporting Women from economically deprived areas. Another initiative by Tata Motors is Women@Work which encompasses all the facets wherever required.
Chandel said, “The agenda focuses on three pillars: Becoming an employer of choice for women, the transformation of culture and mindset to create a positive cultural momentum and development and retention.”