Companies race to campuses to have more women at finish line

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

female workers during this campus recruitment season, as manufacturing firms strive to widen the talent pool and build a pipeline of women professionals by grooming them early, in a sector that is highly male-dominated.

Companies are targeting female graduates at leading engineering and management schools (IITs, IIMs, NITs, etc) and undergraduate colleges such as St. Stephens, Lady Shri Ram College, Shri Ram College of Commerce, and St. Xavier's College for entry-level roles, top executives told ET.

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Core sector companies in steel, cement, engineering, energy, automobile, and infrastructure, among others, are looking to boost their intake of female students to 30-50% of their fresher hiring pool from the 2024 batch, the executives said.

The renewed focus on expanding the female workforce is driven by companies' need to infuse their organisations with fresh ideas and foster innovation as they venture into emerging businesses.

Diversified conglomerate JSW Group will increase its campus intake of women talent to 30% from engineering schools in the Class of 2024 compared to 27% a year ago. For B-schools, about 35% of the total hires will be women.

«The group is stepping up its focus on diversity and demographics (millennial hiring),» said CHRO Dilip Pattanayak.

This will help create a culturally dynamic and forward-looking organisation for the next phase of growth, said Pattanayak.

The focus is on