L&T is a vast organisation and International Women’s Day celebrations have been an important annual event throughout the Company for years. This time, the conglomerate organised a mega centralised celebration in Mumbai with participation of employees from multiple locations.
Organised under the aegis of L&T’s Corporate HR, the mega event was hosted at AMN Tower, the corporate office located in Powai. Not only select women employees and leaders from across L&T offices in India, but several L&T Board members, including the CEO & MD Mr S N Subrahmanyan graced the event.
Addressing the gathering, Mr Subrahmanyan emphasised that inclusiveness is ingrained in L&T’s DNA. “L&T gives opportunity to all who have talent. We look for the person who can accomplish a job – we don’t differentiate whether it’s a woman or a man. We need able people and can’t afford any bias,” he said.
Mr Subrahmanyan vowed that the Company will continue to push for more women in leadership roles. “Those who have the backbone to take up challenges will surely rise.”
Underscoring that service-roles offer better opportunities for women, he said that work-from-home technology has made it possible to target women talents who lose out for relocating to new places due to family obligations and that Corporate HR should explore retaining / hiring such candidates.
That L&T is increasing its women-intake is not an overstatement. Dr C Jayakumar (EVP & Head – L&T Corporate HR) shared some encouraging data. Women accounted for 21% of all graduate and post-graduate engineering trainees that L&T hired in 2021. This year, the percentage has increased to 25%.
"The diversity of L&T’s workforce is really amazing. To further groom women leaders, we last year introduced two leadership development programmes – Winspire Propel and Winspire Rise – exclusively for women. These are unique initiatives that also provide trainees an exposure to L&T campuses and operations in Hazira, Vadodara, Chennai and Lonavala.
Taking a cue from Dr Jayakumar, Ms Poonam Chandok (Head HR – L&T Energy Hydrocarbon and a key figure driving the Winspire initiative) revealed that L&T has in its workforce people from 46 nationalities and 80 linguistic backgrounds. “L&T is a melting pot of cultures, and this is a diversity that we at L&T are used to,” she said.
Mr MVN Rao (Head – Corporate Learning & Development at L&T) underscored that unconscious biases come in the way of building inclusive organisations, and hence L&T is increasingly focusing on awareness, education and sensitisation.
Complimenting this, Mr Subramanian Sarma (L&T’s Whole-Time Director & Sr EVP – Energy) said that the Women’s Day event is not a mere celebration but also serves to create awareness about gender equality. “When there is diversity and inclusion, everybody wins. In L&T, women are placed in leadership roles by choice and not compulsion,” he stressed.
L&T’s CFO and Whole-Time Director Mr R Shankar Raman underscored the fact that very few organisations provide opportunities to talent the way L&T does. His advice to aspiring women professionals: “Be curious; be responsible. Keep yourself at the centre of your thought.”
Mr Shrikant Joshi (CEO & MD – L&T Realty) revealed with pride that 23% of L&T Realty staffers are women and they work across all functions.
L&T leaders accorded such high importance to the event that while several senior leaders attended it in person, three more Board members – Mr M V Satish (Whole-Time Director & Sr EVP – Buildings), Mr T Madhava Das (Whole-Time Director & Sr EVP – Utilities) and Mr S V Desai (Whole- Time Director & Sr EVP – Civil Infrastructure) addressed the gathering via videoconference.
Icing the cake, Ms Meena Subrahmanyan, the better half of L&T’s CEO & MD, sent a video message to all women L&T-ites.
“Unconscious biases impact our decision and hence we need to consciously break that bias. Don’t be discouraged by change. Don’t be patient. Be prepared. We need to change how we view ourselves,” she said to a huge round of applause from the audience.
But the event was not all about encouraging speeches. Women of Metal, a short film produced by L&T, was screened at the event.
Also, the first batches of the Winspire Propel and Winspire Rise women leadership development programmes were felicitated by Mr Subrahmanyan and other senior leaders. Mr Subrahmanyan patiently posed for duelfies and groupfies with members of the batches who came from L&T campuses all over India.
