They should, however, meet two criteria: They should have worked for at least two years before taking the break and, should have had a break for a minimum of six months. The company has publicised positions it seeks to fill and is encouraging employees to come up with references while offering attractive rewards for each successful referral.
The rewards range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 for referrals from job level three to six. Referrals at job levels 4, 5 and 6 get higher rewards of Rs 25,000, Rs 35,000 and Rs 50,000 in that order. The company is seeking to fill a wide range of jobs including automation testing, software development (azure, python and spark) and SAP consultancy.
Shaji Mathew, group head of HR at Infosys, said the company has developed a thoughtful approach to address various personal and professional milestones that women navigate while pursuing a career. “The ‘Restart with Infosys’ program aims to provide women professionals, who are currently on a break, with an opportunity to rejoin the corporate workforce and move their careers forward. We have hired over 500 women as part of the ‘Restart with Infosys’ program, which has components of skilling, mentoring, and live-project experiences to enhance their readiness to resume and scale their careers effectively.”
It is a passive talent poll companies would be tapping that one would not see on job sites, according to Vijay Sivaram, CEO at Quess IT Staffing. “Companies would be ready to retrain them, if necessary, to align them to the present job requirement. Many women professionals would be open to return to work as most companies now have hybrid work policy unlike the pre-Covid era. The companies may also have a small cost advantage,” he added.
According to a senior woman tech professional at a global software firm, such initiatives would help companies meet their diversity targets. They no longer look at company level targets but try to meet vertical-level targets. More women in the overall workforce would also lift the global profile of the company with clients, she said.
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Infosys is aiming to achieve 45% female representation in its workforce by 2030 as part of its ESG Vision 2030. In fiscal 2024, the company had 1,24, 569 women, making 39.3% of its total workforce.The company was ranked among the top 10 best companies for women in India in 2023 for the fourth year in a row and as the champion of inclusion in most inclusive companies indes for the second year in a year by Avtar and Seramount, according to its latest Annual Report.