Page 16 - Impact of WfH study report _SCOPE-ILO_Neat

4
the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in India”. The study was successfully
completed with active support from SCOPE and its member organizations including
the Women in Public Sector (WIPS) forum in PSEs.

The study findings revealed the need for positive initiatives, enabling dialogues and
discussions within PSEs. To facilitate this, as an immediate initiative, SCOPE created
a body of champions - - both women and men, drawing from different PSEs. ILO
trained and certified these champions who have now become a SCOPE task force, to
conduct gender training and sensitization sessions focusing on equal opportunities for
5
career advancement in different PSEs.
“Work from Home (WfH)” arrangement was one of the key recommendations of this
study. It received a fair share of arguments. Many women executives cited the WfH
arrangement as an influential factor in not only advancing their careers but also
facilitating a better work-life balance. The senior management or decision-makers in
the company nevertheless argued that WfH is not practical or feasible as it is made
out to be. Primarily because, not all job functions and tasks can be done outside the
specified workplace. Also, deploying it may influence or make companies reengineer
among other things their performance appraisals, on which depends employees’
promotion.

The COVID 19 pandemic brought a forcible shift to “working from home’ (WfH) work
arrangement, making it an inevitable option. The percentage of remote workers has
risen tremendously, as companies have taken steps to facilitate the practice in an
effort to keep their operations ongoing (ILO, 2020b).

During the lockdowns that followed, PSEs in India like all other big or small companies
in India or globally, adopted the “WfH” model, bringing in a new dimension to the
workplace culture of PSEs.

In light of this new workplace culture – the new normal, SCOPE-ILO initiated a study
looking into the “impact of Working from Home (WfH) on Women
Executives/Managers in PSEs in India”; and whether this model is a long term
sustainable solution. Also, the study is part of SCOPE-ILO’s larger initiative to
empower women executives, and promote their career advancement to managerial
and leadership positions in PSEs in India. In this regard, the WfH study explored the
specific impact of WfH on women in PSEs who may be playing multiple rather a triple
role simultaneously that of “employees, caregivers, and managers/leaders”.

4 Study available on ILO Website; https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-
bangkok/---sro-new_delhi/documents/publication/wcms_632553.pdf
5 One of the objectives of the Task Force is to initiate dialogues with women executives in
the PSEs and motivate them to aspire to positions of leadership and management. This is
done by addressing challenges that face them at work.

2