Wipro Limited

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Company: Wipro Limited
Company Description: Wipro Technologies, the global IT business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) is a leading Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing company, that delivers solutions to enable its clients do business better. Wipro Technologies delivers winning business outcomes through its deep industry experience and a 360 degree view of “Business through Technology”
Nomination Category: Company/Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Women Helping Women Award

Nomination Title: Wipro Initiatives in promoting Gender Inclusivity at the workplace

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated individual or organization during the eligibility period (up to 500 words):

A true celebration of diversity can best happen in an environment that allows for the expression of individual talents. At Wipro, meritocracy is the core of business. Gender Diversity is a part of our Diversity initiatives to ensure that women not only get equal opportunity to compete, but we also nurture and actively seek to build this pool. The current issue is that of sustaining this talent and ensuring that women continue to build successful careers with the organization.

A qualitative research conducted made us understand that the needs of women employees were quite varied across different life-stages. The early stage of her career requires challenging work roles and opportunities to explore her potential and groom herself as a professional in making. In the next stage, family and child care responsibilities take a pivotal role and after about 10-15 years of being a professional, she begins to experience a glass ceiling, which prevents her from growing further. At this stage, empowering her to take those key positions and decisions is what makes a significant impact in her career.

Women Of Wipro: On the basis of the experience of dealing with thousands of women employees, their exit interviews and the findings of this survey, Wipro evolved a gender inclusivity program called Women of Wipro, or WOW as it is popularly known. The WOW Forum aims at bringing together women executives across business units in Wipro who have the passion for extraordinary personal and social transformation, working together for better causes and common goals. WOW’s philosophy on gender inclusivity is simple – aspire to create a sensitive organization where men and women alike can flourish and grow in their careers with a holistic approach towards performance and work.

WOW has crafted a segmented approach towards Gender diversity focusing on 3 major themes according to the life-stage of the employee –

Exposure (Life-stage I): Fuelling ambition by providing greater visibility.

Flexibility (Life-stage II): Opportunity to grow by instituting flexible policies and processes

Empowerment (Life-stage III): Making a difference by increasing access

Based on the panel discussion during the IWD week celebrations last year, the WOW council invited Wiproites to give feedback on other areas that could help deepen the initiatives. Mentoring & Diversity Education were identified as two critical areas for building a more inclusive workplace.

Women in Leadership – Mentoring for success was a program launched in 2010 for high potential women leaders in the middle management cadre. A pilot of 100 mentor-mentee pairs was conceptualized, program managed and implemented successfully by the WOW council. The mentors and mentees had an enriching experience and the feedback has been very encouraging

Diversity Education: Diversity appreciation workshops, gender inclusion talks, WOW speaker series, the IWD celebration globally has helped raise awareness among Wiproites. “Xperience Wipro” over Facebook and Twitter took these celebrations to the world outside this year. An e-Module to help understand diversity at the workplace and what constitutes inclusive behavior was designed and is now a mandatory course for all employees to ensure sensitization at all levels in the organization.

List the URLs (web addresses) of any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that you would like the judges to see that support your entry. IMPORTANT: List each URL on a separate line, begin each URL with http://, and enclose each URL in square brackets. For example, [http://www.yourcompany.com/pressrelease.html]:

Wipro Sustainability report
http://www.wipro.com/Wipro_Sustainability_Report/index.html

2. Wipro equal opportunity web page
http://careers.wipro.com/why_wipro/spiritofwipro.htm
http://careers.wipro.com/why_wipro/equal_opportunity.htm

3. Diversity festival – Xperience Wipro
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xperience-Wipro/123559251031851#!/pages/Xperience-Wipro/123559251031851?sk=app_11007063052
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xperience-Wipro/123559251031851#!/pages/Xperience-Wipro/123559251031851?sk=app_11007063052
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xperience-Wipro/123559251031851#!/pages/Xperience-Wipro/123559251031851?sk=app_10531514314

4. News and articles made available.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/cnbc-tv18-comments/wipro-working-for-women_528300.html

Provide a brief biography of the nominated person, or of the person or persons who lead the nominated organization (up to 100 words):

Sunita R. Cherian, Vice President & Global Head – Human Resources at Wipro EcoEnergy, is based in Bangalore.

An Electrical and Electronics engineer and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, she joined Wipro in 1996. She has held responsibilities in sales and marketing, evangelizing world-class process implementation in Wipro and in Human resources. She has recently moved into the Eco-Energy business as head of HR.

She is a member of Wipro’s Prevention of Sexual Harassment Committee, is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Master Coach and a PAPI specialist. As member of the Diversity Council at Wipro she heads the Gender Diversity committee. “Women of Wipro” or WOW was formalized and launched under her guidance and it has been a roaring success.

If the nominee in this category is an organization rather than an individual, choose one (even if both apply):

The CEO (or other principal manager) of this company is a woman, and at least 40% of the management team is comprised of women.