BackICICI Prudential Life Insurance debuts ‘ABCD’ framework to abet D&I initiatives
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has implemented a holistic framework of initiatives to create a balanced workplace while offering proper guidance for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in the company.
PremiumICICI Prudential Life Insurance has implemented a holistic framework of initiatives to create a balanced workplace while offering proper guidance for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in the company. Based on the "ABCD" framework, the company's D&I initiatives include luring diverse talent and improving workplace belonging and inclusion through facilitating policies and awareness and sensitization programmes. Furthermore, it entails connecting with employees from various groups by providing supportive policies and platforms.
This encompasses both internal and external forums for women leaders to learn by modelling. The framework also discloses Diversity dashboards to track progress on gender diversity. The company's initiatives seek to enhance overall diversity, including the portrayal of women and the integration of people with disabilities and LGBTQs into the workforce. As part of its D&I agenda, the company recently established a Diversity Council. The Diversity Council, which includes senior women and men leaders, steers the D&I agenda, including strategic accountability for results, governance, and oversight of diversity efforts, and promotes company-wide communication on its progress.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance said its efforts to strengthen gender diversity and foster an inclusive culture has resulted in the overall composition of women increasing to 27%. Significantly, women’s participation in the Company’s process and support functions is now 40%.
To enhance the participation of women in frontline responsibilities, the company has also launched a drive to recruit from women-only graduate universities. Furthermore, recruitment partners have been trained to provide a perfect balance of candidates for job openings at the company on a proactive basis. The company has a variety of enabling and supportive policies in place to meet the various life-stage needs of its employees. It intends that these policies will encourage more women to join the company's workforce and encourage them to stay committed to their careers in the long run.
Furthermore, in order to foster a perception of belonging and inclusion, the company has made employee policies gender-agnostic, removing gender binaries from the policy language. Furthermore, the company has broadened the scope of family, which previously only included spouses, to include same-sex partners. All primary carers, including male employees, are now eligible for adoption and surrogacy-related leaves.
Understanding that flexibility is a key issue for many working women as well as for men colleagues with specific lifestage needs, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance said it provides its employees with an option to avail of sabbatical or flexible working hours to meet their personal and official commitments. The company said it will also bear the cost of all primary caregivers, irrespective of whether they are male or female, wanting to take their child (upto 2 years), along with a caregiver, on official business trips.
Ms. Urvi Chhaya, Senior Vice President, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, said “We are proud of being an equal opportunity employer and our endeavour is to strengthen our efforts to foster a genuinely inclusive culture in all our practices. We have instituted our equal opportunity, D&I policy with a focus on gender as one of our priority areas. Further, we have also formalised a Diversity Council comprising the leadership team that steers and reviews the D&I agenda in line with our “ABCD" framework. Our people-centric policies and processes are anchored on the principles of our cornerstones of supportive environment, fairness and meritocracy and promoting a level playing field with the objective of ensuring the benefits can be availed by all our employees, thereby making them feel valued and included."
“We believe Indian women have a huge role to play in realising India's dreams and aspirations to build a developed nation. Our policies and initiatives aim to ensure our women workforce feels supported, valued and respected at the organisation. We have been consistently working to balance the gender diversity of our workforce, which has led to an increase in the representation of women in the Company's workforce. We are committed to fostering diversity and building a culture of inclusion at our organisation," further added Urvi Chhaya.
As part of its connect and support agenda, the company recently established a Women Resource Group comprised of senior women employees who offer guidance and advice to younger female colleagues on managing careers, career challenges, and balancing work-life at various life stages, as well as other work-related aspects. Furthermore, the company has established an interactive forum - Udaan - that hosts exemplars who have reached the pinnacle of professional excellence, thereby encouraging learning through role modelling.
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