Retaining talent versus Derailing talent

Fascinating to see how the top firms in India are trying to retain talent, while the U.S. governments- state and federal- cut support for education and teachers, the elements that can provide the spark for talent to shine.

Google, Infosys fight 'daughterly guilt' to lure Indian women

When Preethi Mohan Rao quit her job following the birth of her first child in 2006, the 28-year-old tax professional was prepared to put her career on hold indefinitely.

Her bosses at Ernst & Young's Global Shared Services in India would have none of it. As E&Y's Indian operations grew to almost 4,000 employees by 2010 from about 200 in 2002, the company accomplished something rare in India: having an equal number of male and female workers, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its March 7 issue.

The company had spent thousands of dollars training Rao and wasn't about to give up on its investment. The human resources department kept in touch, calling monthly to see how she was doing. They enticed her back with a flexible schedule and a nursery on the ground floor of the company's glass-and-steel building in Bangalore. At first, Rao worked two hours a day, then four, and after a few weeks went back to full time. "In spite of all the time we spent transitioning, I held on to all my projects," said Rao, now a manager.

That kind of pursuit of an employee may be uncommon in the US, with unemployment at 9 percent. Not in India, where the economy has grown 8.5 percent on average for the past five years and companies face chronic talent shortages. Keeping female employees has proven difficult in a male-dominated society that often frowns on women working outside the home.

At 34.2 percent, India's rate of female participation in the labor force is the lowest among the so-called BRIC countries, or Brazil, Russia, India and China, according to United Nations statistics. Women make up 42 percent of college graduates in India, yet even those with diplomas are expected to let their careers take a back seat to caring for husband, children, and elderly parents.

"The measures of daughterly guilt are much higher in Indian women than in the West," says Sylvia Ann Hewlett, president of the Center for Work-Life Policy, a Manhattan think tank, who headed a study last year on the challenges Indian women face in the workplace. "And since taking care of elderly parents usually becomes a reality later in their careers, it takes them out of the workplace just when they should be entering management roles."

To counter these challenges, Google Inc has taxis on call for employees, a particular draw for women who may need to rush home to care for a sick family member. German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim Gmbh, mindful that families frown on young women traveling alone, will pay for an employee to bring her mother along on longer trips. Indian outsourcing company Wipro Ltd runs on-site day camps during school holidays in the spring.