Breaking barriers: Embracing gender neutrality in the workplace

A gender-equitable workplace is better poised to innovate and assess customer interest as well as demand: HR, DBS Bank India

At DBS, we are constantly striving to tread further on the journey of being the ‘World’s Best Bank’, while being a purpose-driven brand. Ushering in an inclusive culture is the first step towards a truly diverse workplace that can build customer-centric products while co-creating business value.

DBS has multiple measures to combat gender-bias across the hiring lifecycle: The recruitment team at DBS shares specifics on demographics on the applicant cohort that are then shared with the marketing team for amplification of hiring collaterals on both digital and traditional platforms. This targeted marketing approach not only helps in personalized communication, but also saves time in filtering resumes. Our in-house chatbot, JIM (Jobs Intelligence Maestro) has helped streamline the end-to-end job application process and enable real-time interaction. The chatbot uses cognitive and personality tests to assess candidates and answer queries.  JIM can review resumes, collect applicants’ responses for pre-screening questions and conduct psychometric profiling assessments. Gender-diverse interview panels help reduce similarity bias, and take a more holistic view of a candidate’s capabilities and cultural fitment.

In addition to the above, we also partner with specialized diversity hiring agencies and we have a dedicated initiative to bring talented women back to work through Reimagine. We also deploy hackathons to hire women in Tech, like Hack2Hire, that have further helped boost the diversity quotient.

How can organizations better place themselves to meet the needs of a diverse workforce?

Progressive organizations today have discarded One-Size-Fits-All policies and have implemented customized solutions that fit the needs of a varied set of employees.

At DBS, our benefits are constantly enhanced to match the evolved expectations of our workforce. The benefits that we offer, are flexible and provide employees the power of choice, basis their needs and lifestages. It allows employees, irrespective of gender to strike a better balance between their personal and professional commitments. DBS offers flexible work arrangements in a hybrid work model, Remote and Onsite Day care facilities and extended work from home benefits for new parents and primary caregivers. In addition to this, DBS offers iFlex – that is a flexible spending account were employees receive value-based points, that they can reimburse against a personal/ family wellness requirement, basis their own preferences.

On the career development front, we have a leadership development program – MyPersona, which is targeted at enabling women in their early career phase to become future leaders. All first-time people managers are also mandated to go through a training program to minimize unconscious bias, which also equips them to inculcate a psychological safe environment for their team members. Our employee assistance programme, iOK also supports the mental and emotional wellness of our team members

While much has been done when it comes to gender-equity at the workplace, what are your suggestions on the way forward?

It is true that we have come a long way from where we were in terms of gender equity. The employment sectors are now definitely better poised for creating an ecosystem where diverse talent can thrive, however the challenge of talent availability continues. Even today we do not have a proper channel for women in smaller geographies and a lot needs to be done in areas of specially abled communities as well. The higher education institutes have a large role to play in building this pipeline. The gender pay gap shall continue to be a point of discussion as well.  Organizations should regularly revisit this during year-end compensation exercises and bridge gap to market.

In the last couple of years, gig working has come up in a big way, for it facilitates access to a diverse pool, as well as amongst candidates who are able to choose between freelance jobs that fit their interests, provide new opportunities and a flexible schedule. Gig working is a beneficial proposition to both ends, and in near future we can expect a lot of structuring in this domain.