Come June, one gets to witness many brands and corporations indulging in rainbow marketing, rainbow capitalism, pinkwashing and other forms of performative action on social media. But the bar for approval from the LGBTQIA community has risen and they want to be on the same footing as any other employee. Considering this, the need of the hour is to create a wider diversity and inclusion ecosystem in the corporate world.
Enter Godrej Group. The Indian conglomerate’s recruiters are sensitised to ask the taken name and pronouns, and frame questions around identity. One of the group’s sites of Godrej Properties has 40 percent women and 10 percent LGBT+ individuals and Persons with Disabilities (PwD). Godrej Consumer Products has taken a formal commitment that its new factory near Chennai 50 percent of the total workforce will be women and 5 percent will be PwD and LGBT+ individuals.
From setting up internships to building the talent pool from the community, to adopting Careers 2.0 for women who have taken a career break, a chance to return to the workplace and providing gender-neutral adoption leaves, Godrej is going that extra mile to create an inclusive work sphere.
Storyboard18 got in touch with Parmesh Shahani, head of Godrej DEI Lab and Megha Goel, chief human resources officer, Godrej Properties Ltd (GPL) to understand how the GILAC companies are executing Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and how Godrej is sensitising its employees, creating a safe workplace and more.
Please elaborate on how the Godrej Industries Limited and Associate Companies (GILAC) have made significant progress on DEI initiatives
Parmesh Shahani: At Godrej, we believe that having a diverse workforce is the right thing to do. We believe that it also helps us innovate better and grow faster.
Our maternity support included 6 months of paid Maternity Leave long before it became a legal mandate to do so, and covers the cost of fertility treatments. Our new mothers have flexible work options to choose from, on return. Our Caregiver Travel policy enables them to bring a caregiver and children up to 1 year of age, on work travel. Careers 2.0 offers women who have taken a career break a chance to return to the workplace. We also have uncapped trust-based sick leave and flexible work options. Our Paternity Leave policy gives new dads two weeks of paid time off and flexible working hours to bond with their newborns. Our Adoption Leave is gender-neutral and based on the primary caregiver, with paid leave options. We also have a Travel Safety Policy for Women.
Our Anti-Sexual Harassment Policy is a firm commitment towards building a safe workplace for all our employees. There is zero tolerance for any kind of unsafe behaviour. We have a POSH e-learning module and training on-site in factories. We have an online portal for complaints. In addition, we have a dedicated hotline for our factory employees. We are an equal opportunities employer and have a public commitment that we do not tolerate any form of discrimination on the basis of nationality, race, colour, religion, caste, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, age, or marital status and allow for equal opportunities for all our team members. We subscribe to the CII-ASSOCHAM Code of Conduct for Affirmative Action.
We have multiple support groups for women – Manch in Godrej Consumer Products, WeForShe in Godrej Agrovet, SheRises in Godrej Capital, and Queers and Allies in Godrej Properties for persons from the LGBT+ community.
Parmesh Shahani: Godrej Properties has a Pride internship programme for LGBTQIA individuals. At Godrej Consumer Products, Aarambh is a hiring programme specifically for women in sales roles. We have launched EmpowerHer which conducts awareness drives and health camps for issues such as biases against women, menstruation, PCOS, menopause, gender transitioning, and mental well-being. It also has tie-ups with healthcare professionals. We have an onsite medical centre, hospital, children’s daycare facility, and women’s resting and breastfeeding facility at our headquarters in Mumbai.
How have you been providing strategic DEI guidance to the different businesses and facilitating enhanced internal collaborations?
Parmesh Shahani: As the DEI Lab, we work alongside each group company on their specific goals for the representation of different diverse cohorts. Every company has goals on women representation, while some also have specific targets for LGBT+ individuals and PwD. Our annual reports also have our current representation and DEI commitments. One of our sites of Godrej Properties has 40 percent women and 10 percent LGBT+ individuals and PwD. At Godrej Consumer Products, we have taken a formal commitment that our new factory near Chennai 50 percent of the total workforce will be women and 5 percent will be PwD and LGBT+ individuals.
Through our Godrej DEI Lab, we have established a Diversity Council comprising select leaders from across the group, and each quarter, the council meets in person to track the progress of the Lab as well as different group businesses. Every quarter, our senior leaders track gender representation at the Group level through a detailed scorecard. Our Group companies track metrics on representation in the overall workforce, hiring, attrition, etc, on a monthly basis. Our Lab facilitates regular meetings of different businesses in between the quarterly update meetings, so that we can all share best practices and ideas with each other.
We have also recently started advising select group companies on how to look at their products and brands through an inclusion lens.
How is Godrej creating a wider DEI ecosystem in the corporate world? Please give examples and share anecdotes.
Parmesh Shahani: At our Godrej DEI Lab, we believe that we shouldn’t compete with other companies in terms of inclusion. We should in fact collaborate and share with each other so that together, we can create a more inclusive ecosystem for all. We are constantly reaching out to other companies to learn from them, as well as share our practices with them. We also regularly host events on our Godrej campus in Vikhroli, where we invite experts from the field to give talks, and for this, we invite our friends from other companies to attend too.
Recently in November 2023, we hosted a masterclass on LGBTQ inclusion in collaboration with Pride Circle, with visiting American experts Dr Lee Badgett and Fabrice Houdart, formerly with the UN and World Bank, and in December 2023, we are hosting a special event on advancing inclusion of PwD, in collaboration with the Keshav Suri Foundation, featuring among others, Vineet Saraiwala, the founder of Atypical Advantage, and Professor Anita Sharma from ISB Mohali, and supported by art, photography and products, all made by persons with disabilities. We are also open to conducting collaborative reports and studies to advance inclusion with other companies as well as universities, going ahead.
What policies has Godrej incorporated to be more inclusive in the workplace? What kind of initiatives are being taken for the LGBTQIA community?
Megha Goel: At GPL, we have initiated the concept of model sites, with a focus on building an all-inclusive sustainable workplace from Day 1. The idea is to create a space which belongs equally to everyone. Thus, at the inception itself, these sites have an equal representation of gender and sexuality across all employees (on-roll and off-roll) with all requisite infrastructure like all-inclusive washrooms, feeding rooms, and child-care facilities provided. Supplier diversity is also considered here, with our sites running a Trans cafe, and ensuring it is also integrated with the look and feel of the sites, including murals and decors. We have made a conscious call to choose these sites at locations which are visited frequently by customers and vendors; to ensure inclusion is a mainstream subject.
Godrej Properties has launched a PRIDE Internship – a 9-month internship programme which provides on-the-job training along with mentorship from a Godrej leader and regular feedback mechanisms. This internship is currently seeing its 6th batch and more than 10 PRIDE interns have joined as full-time employees.
Godrej does specific hiring drives for select roles both in partnership with agencies and by ourselves. Godrej Properties has hired recruiters from the LGBT+ community; this has helped the company connect with candidates better and handhold them through the process. The company makes special considerations during onboarding, for instance, sensitivity of stay preferences, usage of taken names, and so on.
We communicate our LGBT+ inclusive policies and practices on our LinkedIn posts and ensure our job descriptions are crafted accordingly. We work on actively sensitising our teams, especially our talent acquisition team and hiring managers.
How is Godrej sensitising people at the workplace?
Megha Goel: We partner with LGBT+ hiring consultants like Pride Circle, Vividhataa, Periferry, and NGOs like TWEET Foundation and HST. Respecting individual privacy is a priority for us. We affirm their right to self-identify and use pronouns of their choice. So, we do not require candidates to disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity during the application process, and we call this out on our hiring posts. We work towards fostering an inclusive environment where employees are encouraged to share such information voluntarily if they feel comfortable. Our recruiters are sensitised to ask the taken name and pronouns, and frame questions around identity. Asking how open one is and would like to be about their identity such as “Open only to HR”, “Open to Manager”, “Open to immediate team” or “Out and Proud” helps to avoid any unwanted instances of outing while working at the workplace. All communication, including the use of their chosen name, is handled with the utmost confidentiality and respect for their individual identity. Our commitment is to treat all candidates with equal respect and consideration, ensuring a workplace that values and prioritises diversity and inclusion.
We have launched Queering Workspaces in association with Gaysi Family, which is an experimental space where we share stories of queer professionals on policies, experiences, allyship and much more to build a community and bring their stories to the forefront thereby creating more role models within the community for people be inspired from and add to the talent pool.
Godrej Properties works towards sensitising the organisation through live sessions and collaterals like The Blueprint of A Workplace Ally (booklet), GenderBread Person interactive handout, and Pronoun lapel pins. While there is year-round communication on LGBT+ inclusion, during Pride Month, Godrej Properties focused on specific efforts like Human Library and Pride Fest during Pride Month Celebrations. The company has also participated in roundtables hosted by NASSCOM and AON to showcase best practices and conducted roundtables for India Inc at large to contribute from an advocacy point of view.