In Conversation with Preethi Ramnarayan, Director HR - Talent Management, Providence India

Preethi, a big congratulations to your organization for winning the Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award at the BW People HR Excellence Awards 2023.  In your view, what is unique about the D&I Policy and programs at Providence India? 

Our organization's vision is ‘Health for a Better World’, and our promise is "Know me, care for me, ease my way." We strive to deliver world-class, accessible health care to the communities we serve, and our vision and promise are underpinned by our values of Dignity, Justice, Compassion, Excellence and Integrity. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a part of our organizational DNA, and at Providence India, we strive to integrate it into all aspects of our HR programs, from hiring policies and benefits to engagement and retention. We respect and embrace the uniqueness of all our caregivers and encourage them to bring their authentic selves to work. A diverse, equitable and inclusive culture also helps us unlock human potential, unleash innovation and attract, develop and reward top talent.

What sets us apart is our holistic DEI strategy, which is shaped by our vision. We look at three broad areas of impact: first, how we hire, engage, develop and retain our employees – whom we call caregivers; second, how we enhance our culture, collaborate, and build synergies with our global enterprise; and third, how we build our India presence and visibility as an employer of choice through impactful programs and meaningful partnerships that win us positive recognition, such as this award. 

Can you provide an example of a successful diversity and inclusion program that led to your company championing the cause of D&I?

We look to our own parent organization, Providence, which is a nearly 170-year-old not-for-profit with a legacy of delivering equitable, accessible and affordable healthcare since its inception. In India, we enable US caregivers and clinicians to deliver care by accelerating digital transformation and building solutions that enhance patient and caregiver experiences. To build inclusive solutions, apps and products, we need to think and act inclusively, so intentionally building an inclusive culture across every touchpoint in our organization was something that we were clear that we had to do from the start when we established operations in Hyderabad in 2020. 

A core part of this is learning, and some of our marquee DEI learning initiatives include monthly labs – fast-paced, highly interactive and collaborative sessions where participants explore more about workplace topics such as unconscious bias, microaggressions, and workplace conduct, and how these align to our culture and values. When it comes to hiring, we also have a mandatory training program, HireSmart, for interviewers to ensure that they minimize bias in the interview and selection process, and we provide them with an inclusive interview guide. Over 100 interviewers have been trained through HireSmart. 

Championing the cause of DEI has to be driven at the leadership level in order to set a precedent for the practice of inclusive behaviours on an everyday basis. To ensure that we benchmark our thinking and actions with market best practices, we ran an inclusion immersion workshop for our leaders in partnership with Great Place to Work, challenging them to think about how we would like to represent our DEI stance and values as an organization. 

In April this year, we launched Thrive, our return-to-work program for women who have had a career break of a year or more and are keen to resume work. This is just one of the programs in our overall charter to build a gender-balanced organization. We are proud that 37% of our caregivers are women, and 42% of our leadership team comprises women. 

Challenges in managing a diverse workforce

What are some of the challenges organizations face when it comes to managing a diverse workforce and aligning it with the company goals?

Many organizations today are talking about how to manage across generational diversity. For example, Gen Z comes with a very different mindset to the workplace and to their learning approach from Gen X and Millennials, thanks to the fact that they are the most digitally native generation born. Their thinking is also different, as purpose drives their passion at work. Both Millennials and Gen Z have stronger opinions about what they expect from their place of employment, be it benefits, culture, flexibility, or type of projects. As an organization, generational diversity benefits us greatly, because we are transforming care with technology, and we can only be at the cutting-edge of innovation when we nurture diverse thinking. As an organization, we have our ears to the ground at all times to ensure that we provide the right enabling environment to attract and retain talent, and best-in-class tools and technologies to facilitate learning and development.

Another important balance for organizations to maintain is equitability when it comes to gender diversity, as needs and contexts are different. We customize our approach to be truly inclusive. For example, we ensure that our amenities are inclusive, such as gender neutral washrooms in our offices, and that our family healthcare plans cover same-sex partners. We also provide strong mentoring and support to new parents through our buddy program, as well as mentoring for women in the workplace through coffee connects and other programs. We run a series called “Diversity Dialogues” every quarter, which talks about different aspects of equity and inclusion, covering such topics as unconscious bias between genders, fostering allyship with our LGBTQIA+ colleagues, and more.

A third, and equally important challenge is mental health and well-being in the workplace. Post-pandemic, there has been a surge in conversations about mental health and well-being, as more and more people feel safe to speak about behavioural health. Again, this goes back to generational diversity, as Millennials and Gen Z have frank discussions on this topic on social platforms and this becomes part of the workplace as well. It is imperative for us to support our caregivers – and as a healthcare technology organization building health for a better world, nothing is more important to us than the well-being of our caregivers. Our DEI charter is divided into several pillars, one of which is well-being, and we have a robust program to ensure that a well-being approach is embedded into every aspect of a caregiver’s experience: helping them connect with others, connect with themselves, providing benefits that support their holistic well-being, providing 24/7 access to counselling, and running workshops and training programs on various aspects of well-being, from sleep and nutrition to mindfulness and disease prevention.

How do you measure the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion initiatives and policies? 

We track effectiveness on a number of metrics, including survey feedback for each and every program we run, participation levels, how our caregivers are engaging with our program communications and content, how many participate to be active members of our employee resource groups, and core organizational metrics, such as gender balance ratio, compensation balance, etc.

What role does the CHRO play in fostering a diverse and inclusive culture within the organization?

The CHRO’s role is crucial to building a strong organizational culture. They drive business accountability, ensuring that DEI is not just a program that checks boxes, but is embedded into the organization’s business strategy and goals, and aligned with the business leadership. At Providence India, all caregivers have a DEI component as part of the performance goals set with their leaders. The CHRO enables this, along with ensuring that policies and programs running in the organization are equitable and inclusive.