How Is STL Devising Special Initiatives To Bring Back Women From Sabbatical At work Again?

The concept of sabbatical amongst organizations today have ben restricted to a policy mandate only. While there is more to sabbatical being only considered a break. At times we tend to replace the existing talent just because of their unavailability for a few months But Anjali Byce, CHRO, STL have gone a step ahead in actually bringing back the women talent on board who were at their sabbatical for myriad of reasons.

Q1. What are the initiatives taken up by STL to encourage women who took a sabbatical in their careers?

It has been identified that only 58 percent of Indian women are able to re-join work full-time after a sabbatical. Many female employees drop out of the corporate workforce, and marriage and maternity have traditionally been major drivers of attrition among female employees. To change the situation at our end, we run special initiatives like the Take 2 programme which is gender-neutral and is open to those who want to come back to the workplace post a career break. It is a true example that reflects our Philosophy - "Diversity is our strength. Equality is our value. Inclusivity is our culture”.

Initially the focus was only on women, but we further evolved, influenced by our gender-neutral POSH policy, to involve men as well.

Q2. Many men are also taking a sabbatical for personal reasons and parental care. Do you have some programs for them as well?

At STL, our leave policy has weaved in elements for parental support for Men (paternity leave), leave support for adoption, surrogacy. For sabbatical/career breaks, our approach is gender-neutral. We recognise that sabbaticals transcend gender and apply to both men and women. It seeks to expand career prospects for those who have taken a break from work (for maternity, parental care, or other reasons) and wish to return to active professional life. Keeping this in mind we launched an initiative- Take 2 which goes beyond gender and aims to extend opportunities for those returning from a sabbatical or having taken a break in their careers. To guarantee a smooth experience, the programme contains the following pillars:

● Manager Sensitization: Specialized workshops are organised for the managers on the support expected from them, unconscious bias, assigning a formal buddy, and handholding for few months

● Technical Training- This includes domain specific training, instructor led training, virtual training etc required to be up to date with the latest technology.

● Continuous Improvement - We conduct a survey after 90 days and one on one discussion is held to ensure required support is provided. There is a quarterly connect program with the central team for feedback and support as well

● Buddy Program: We have a buddy system, where we assign an existing employee to a new joinee to help with onboarding and knowledge sharing. This also helps new joinees receive the required encouragement and get comfortable in the new work environment

● HR Support: During the initial days, HR has frequent contact with the individual to ensure he/she is comfortable, settled and culturally aligned

Q3. Many people struggle to cope up when returning from a sabbatical. What are some of the initiatives that you have taken for people returning from a sabbatical?

Returning to work after a sabbatical can be quite hard, as adjusting to the work-life again might take some time. It’s known as ‘reverse culture shock’ and has been the downfall of many people after they’ve taken extended leave. Many choose to take a break from their professional careers thinking it is a pause and not a full stop, but once you have been away from the workforce it is not easy to regain the lost confidence and write the next chapter.

We at STL, realise the importance of sensitivity training as it aims at increasing the satisfaction of employees by raising awareness about certain individual prejudices that they might have and by helping them learn how to overcome those and become more sensitive towards their colleagues. We have the initiative ‘Manager Sensitization’ that has specialized workshops for managers around unconscious bias, and they are inducted on how they are expected to support employees who have returned to work from sabbatical. We further provide the returnees with a formal buddy to ease their process and hand hold for 1-2 months to guide them throughout their work. To keep their progress in check, we conduct a survey after 90 days to ensure that the promised support is provided and how the employees are doing.

Q4. Do you have any initiatives that support the employees on their sabbatical as well?

We are experimenting with a few optional programs to help employees stay connected during their sabbatical. For example, we have set up a structured cadence for willing employees. They are given the option of connecting with their managers once a fortnight to be updated with things happening around. There is a low-touch mechanism to ensure that employees do not feel disconnected. These are purely optional and can be used only if the employee is willing to.

Our Employee Assistance Program is designed to promote health, safety, and well-being. The program also provides access to parenting and postpartum counseling for people who are on maternity/paternity sabbatical.

Other than sabbatical for parental care, we also encourage employees to take vacations and return revitalized. This encourages employees to be more inventive and imaginative and creates a positive workplace.

Q5. Despite various initiatives, many women who return to work face bias. How do you create an unbiased/supportive environment and ensure that they are receiving equal/ fair treatment from their co-workers?

Recent studies have reported that workplace diversity not only enhances work culture but also has a direct impact on a company's profitability and efficiency. However, despite widespread perceptions of the tech and manufacturing industry as progressive and forward-thinking, with a lot of talk about diversity and inclusion, it remains a male-dominated field. Although gender equality has come a long way in the last few decades, it remains a long way off. There's even more reason to be concerned now that the global pandemic has further disrupted the world and organisations and individuals are geared toward the new normal because recent studies show that women make up barely more than a third of the workforce in big-tech companies.

At STL, rather than a mandate, we consider DEI as an opportunity to onboard talent without any boundaries and limitations-across-geographies, domains, multi-generational, and gender. Democratization of competence and merit gives us access to top talent and offers a competitive advantage. We have the entire coloring section in our cable factory across three facilities run by an all-women team. As mentioned above, we also have a program called Take 2, that goes beyond gender and aims to extend opportunities to those who have taken a break (for maternity, parental care, etc.) and want to return.

We provide access to professional counseling as a part of our Employee Assistance Program. Apart from the manager sensitization as a part of the Take 2 program, in our DEI strategy, we have a dedicated segment on driving the agenda of addressing unconscious bias at work. We keep inviting leaders and speakers from time to time to address different aspects like unconscious bias, building allyship at work, positive psychology and mental wellbeing.

At STL, we have built a High Performing Organization and Leaders for Today & Tomorrow with a strong Focus on Career Growth and Leadership Development clocking 20800 learning hours and counting.

Q6. In your opinion, what does the corporate landscape look like for women returning to work? What are some markers of progress and where is change overdue?

There have been paradigm adjustments in how career goals are seen in recent years, indicating more unusual employment choices. People are working with significant technology breakthroughs: communication styles are rapidly evolving. In the last few years, organizations have seen massive alterations due to initiatives such as building an inclusive work culture and advocating for gender equality, among other things. Organizations have also made structural modifications to ensure that women are fully integrated into the workforce. Companies are going above and beyond to adapt and modify regulations to nurture female leadership and provide flexibility, independence, and power of choice.

STL is a very STEM-aware organisation, women in STEM roles have a very healthy representation. It is commonplace in our company to see women in traditionally male-dominated functions eg: Civil Engineering, Public relations, Key Account Management, and Predictive Analytics. We have the entire coloring section in our cable factory across three facilities run by an all-women team. Infact our Optical interconnect factory has a 60% women workforce. This team has increased productivity and improved efficiency at our plant. At a higher level, this team of STLhers has proved that talent, not gender, is what sets individuals apart.

Q7. From a company perspective, what are some of the challenges you face while dealing with people coming back from sabbatical?

Initially there was resistance from managers to hire people coming back after a sabbatical. The main fear was a gap in technical skills in the ever evolving and dynamic world. Flexi work hours and work from home was not an equally accepted working model. However, we have come a long way. With our various training programs and initiatives, there is a much greater acceptance, empathy and support for people coming back with a career break.

Taking another step in our series of the transformational journey and in line with our core values of “Keep It Simple” and “Respect & Empathize'', we introduced Flexi-Holiday (Optional Holiday Plan) to promote a better work-life balance and time with family to celebrate or observe essential occasions We also introduced our Employee Assistance Program designed to cater to diverse wellness needs of employees and their families globally. This includes counseling, financial advisory services, parental coaching etc.