While India has evolved and progressed in several areas, gender equality is still a fading reality. This is heartbreaking, considering the key role played by women in the socio-economic growth of the country. We must ingrain that a nation cannot progress without equal opportunity and adequate safety measures.
In India, the prevalence of a rigid work environment and dearth of family-friendly work institutions create impediments to women’s career growth. Long distances between the home and the workplace increase commuting time and work burdens thereby adversely affecting the much-required work-life balance.
According to a McKinsey Global Institute Report 2016, with a balanced ecosystem for women in the workplace, India can contribute $700bn to world GDP by 2025.
Balancing the ecosystem:
Women in the workforce often feel discouraged by the unavailability of safe and quick commute options Besides the restricting job prospects, child care and daily chores, commuting also disproportionately limits women. Hence, it is time for the Indian corporate to extend their complete support in driving women participation in the workplace with efficient commute benefits. Organizations must incorporate the unique aspirations of millennial women and their desire for flexible work timings and a better work-life balance. This will ensure that women can contribute more to the organization without the ‘double burden’ of work and domestic responsibilities, or free of any guilt when their careers and motherhood collide.
The corporate employee transportation system
As per a WHO study, 35%* of women globally undergo some form of abuse while commuting. This has triggered the need for alternate, responsible employee commute solutions. These solutions will ensure the transportation is safe and hassle free for employees and economically viable for corporates.
Employee productivity is directly related to their well-being and with the IT, BPO and KPO sector being the largest users of employee transportation services with shifts and odd hours of operation, modalities for women safety are being adopted. And automation of the employee transportation operations has been a major contributor to creating a safer ethos of women employees.
Some best practices to ensure employee safety as per advisories issued by regulating bodies are listed below
- Well defined transport policy by the company
- Fixed GPS devices in all vehicles for live tracking
- Panic button fitted in all vehicles
- Company to have a dedicated control room/transport helpdesk
- Emergency/escalation contacts on display for the transport helpdesk
- Route plan to avoid female employees to be first pick or last drop
- Escort guards when female employee is first pick or last drop between 8pm to 6am.
- Background verification of drivers and security guards
- Female employees’ mobile numbers to be masked on devices for drivers’ use
- Deployment of Alco meter and random checks for drunken driving
- SMS services for communication/notifications
- Effective incident management process/protocol
- Record management
- Feedback mechanism
These measures are instrumental in driving the growth of corporate transportation ecosystem in India and addressing many concerns associated with it.
The MoveInSync advantage
Headquartered in Bangalore, MoveInSync today services more than 60 marquee clients with severa Fortune 500 companies across 19 cities. Safety of employees is the bedrock of all innovations and initiatives at MoveInSync. With its commitment to the above industry best practices, the company gone an extra mile to join hands with a Govt. agency, Hawk Eye, for SoS support.
