Women in Manufacturing: Representation Matters!

Intending to achieve equal representation of men and women at the plants, Sterlite Technologies (STL), a prominent global provider of optical and digital solutions, has made some impressive strides in diversifying its workforce.

To learn more about the cable coloring department and progressive change in the world of Indian manufacturing, skill development, training and value addition by women in manufacturing, we conversed with Ms. Anjali Byce, Group CHRO, Sterlite Technologies.

Below are a few excerpts from our conversation. You can watch the full video on our YouTube channel.

About Sterlite Technologies STL

“STL is a company in the sand broadband category. Sand transforms into glass, fibre, and cable, along with all of the optical interconnect that links various cables, and that part modulates our entire manufacturing side of the business. But in addition to that, we also perform ducting, crunching, and cable laying, which are more closely related to an infrastructure or EPC type of business. We also have a project-based business. Our broadband or digital division encompasses our entire software division and sees cloud, data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) across several industrial verticals. When you look at the full space, I am happy to discuss the representation of women in various sections. Because everything here in STL is technological and a blend of digital and manufacturing projects,” said Ms. Anjali Byce.

STL – Sterlite Technology Limited – Journey of being an equal opportunity employer

While talking about manufacturing and how STL began their journey of recruiting women, Ms. Anjali Byce said, “One is that the business case is clear. The more diverse the people working together, the more diversified the ways of thinking, problem-solving, and innovation. Thus, the more the ability to generate good products. Another way to look at it is to say that we need to consider the societies or communities in which we live and work because 50 per cent are men and 50 per cent are women. Imagine being employed by a company where your client is not represented fairly. Women make up 50 per cent of consumers, so how can one run an organisation without the approach and perspective of this demographic? So, I think the business is clear about why we need this mix.

But when it comes to manufacturing, I believe the best way to approach this is to advise switching from a metric of representation to a metric of value addition and refraining from getting caught up in what people can and cannot accomplish as opposed to how to make it happen. We hired a very vibrant group of young women who are engineers and went on to work in our cable plant. One section is called coloring and is a crucial part of the operation. The machines’ coloring and ribboning are integral parts. So that was where this entire cohort of women came in.”

Roles taken up by women in the manufacturing sector

“In STL, women began as machine operators at the very young age of 20 to 24 years olds, but as time passed, we saw them all progress to Shift leaders and Supervisors. Women manage a maintenance crew that does internal machine installations to be in charge of the main production area.

All of the curves for plant efficiency, operational efficiency, scrap, deliveries, and entire group productivity are going in the right direction, and I believe this is a reflection of what we represent. That implies we are utilising people’s strengths to encourage maximum potential,” expressed Ms. Anjali Byce.

Employee Assistance Program

“We have launched an ‘Employee Assistance Program,’ which provides diverse opportunities for people who get stressed due to financial obligations and might require parental counselling, psychological therapy, or legal advice. Therefore, we created a broad platform with strong enablement where people can go and seek support according to their specific requirements.” according to Ms. Anjali Byce.

She added, “If we are looking at succession planning, that is a crucial process to determine how many women are already in critical roles and how many are in the pipeline to take over those responsibilities. We monitor this as a process, career growth, among other things.”

Skill development initiatives in STL for women

“There are many things we do for skill development; this is another type of enablement. We have mapped everyone’s skills, where they are on those skills, and what you may be doing as potential next roles, etc. As a result, we are transitioning from a role-based to a skill-based organisation, where each role has a skill linked to different proficiency levels, and employees are being trained and groomed.”

Initiatives for skill training for women in the latest technologies

While talking about the skill training of women in the latest technologies, Ms. Anjali Byce stated, “We take up several initiatives for women in terms of skill training. We have launched a foundational course in 5G that is accessible to and free for all women. We will also be sponsoring 100,000 women to enrol in that course.”

The main reason for the initiatives of skill training for women is,

• To create an ecosystem that is inclusive of the type of talent entering the ecosystem for the next generation of technologists.
• Shifting from role-based to skill-based organisations, looking at all of the different roles and identifying the skills that go along. Also, ensuring that their skill and proficiency level are mapped.

Tech Academy at STL

Ms. Anjali Byce said, “At STL, we have a tech academy where we train people in-house. We train them in our customer base now in our partner ecosystem. But we also collaborate with the government and academic institutions to roll out courses in the technology sector. The tech academy starts with diploma programs in areas like Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, etc. and ends with B. Tech courses in Computer Science. In addition, we make it very simple for employees to access skill development programs. One can visit our learning and development team to get a voucher, then log in to the course online and get certified. It could be skill courses or high-end courses, even at Ivy League colleges.

Also read: Project Her&Now – Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship https://nationalskillsnetwork.in/project-hernow-women-empowerment-through-entrepreneurship/

So, what is crucial is not only the availability of courses but also making it simple and accessible for individuals to know where they are and how far they need to go. There is a strong emphasis on preparing people not only for the present but also for the future. So, if you look at our latest college recruitment, around 45 per cent of them are women. Currently, there is a lot of emphasis on the entire batch to drive them along that trajectory at, the very least, the first four to six months are devoted to skill-based training to get them ready for customers and deployment.”