Women's Day: People Leaders tell us How Indian Inc is Prioritizing Women Professionals' Growth

By: WE Staff

Dhanashree Thakkar, Head- Human Resources and Distribution Training, Bharti AXA Life Insurance

Elevating Women’s Representation at Every Level

For the year FY25, our focus was on strengthening diversity across the organization across levels. We have managed to improve our gender diversity from 27% women in FY24, to 34% women in FY25 especially at the frontline levels. For some of the business channels this percentage is 40% and above. To enable this, no initiatives have been taken which include focused hiring, manager training, and special referral schemes for women, and mandates for hiring only women. In addition, a large scale Wonder Women Club is created which includes top 350 women across the company. These women are trained on yearlong journey focused on strengthening their managerial behaviors, managing emotions, accepting their strengths and active mentoring from leadership team. What is important is involving and training the managers as well for how to manage and support women. How Diversity Fuels Growth & Leadership

The focus on diversity is a strategic business focused priority. We have seen an increase in women productivity, engagement and better buy in from the stakeholders. Some Stories are Sona and Snehal.Both have been with us for a few years. Sona was recently elevated to manage Wealth Vertical, and Snehal was elevated as Head of Legal. Both women are role models for other women, and we need many more of these. Sona Jose- Head of Wealth said, “The Wonder Women's Council is a unique and inspiring community for women at Bharti AXA Life. I've gained immense value from the sessions and interactions, learning from our strong women leaders. I'm proud to be part of this platform, which will undoubtedly drive positive change for gender balance and women-led initiatives.”