Indian firms prefer men over women for jobs: Randstad survey

Globally, 70% respondents said men are preferred over women for the same job, said the Randstad Workmonitor survey. File photo: Mint

Even as the corporate world is stressing upon gender diversity at the workplace, it prefers men over women when it comes to hiring, according to a survey conducted by Staffing and HR solutions firm Randstad.

A whopping 55% of the respondents from India of the Randstad Workmonitor Survey released on Tuesday said men are chosen over women for positions for which both are equally qualified. Interestingly, a breakup shows that 61% male and 47% female respondents agreed to this bias.

Globally, 70% respondents said men are preferred over women for the same job.

Over half of Indian employees (57%) prefer male managers. While 70% male respondents want a male manager, only 41% women prefer male managers.

Randstad Workmonitor Survey June 2017 includes responses from employees (excluding self-employed) aged 18-65, working a minimum of 24 hours a week in a paid job. The survey is conducted across 33 countries with 400 interviews per country.

The survey revealed that 70% of Indian respondents work with a male manager, higher than the global average of 67%.

“Despite numerous reports highlighting the continuous gender pay gap, the study also found that a whopping 91% of the respondents from India believed that at their workplace, both men and women in similar roles were rewarded equally. This is much higher than the global average of 79%, who thought so. 88% also felt that both men and women are equally supported when asking for a promotion,” according to the survey.

A majority 93% surveyed globally said their manager played a crucial role in building team spirit, while another 90% felt their managers “advocate company culture and set the example for the rest of the team members.”

Gender diverse teams are appreciated among employees in India. While 89% would prefer to work in a gender-diverse team, 86% see gender-diverse teams achieving better results than single gender teams.

“Gender diversity may be high on the agenda for India Inc. today, but what I believe is that diversity is not just a goal or a guideline, it is a business imperative… a country has truly evolved only when diversity in its true spirit is promoted across, with corporates setting the benchmarks, creating a conducive work environment for women. This will definitely help India reap rich rewards of economic growth as well,” said Paul Dupuis, MD and CEO, Randstad India.