Over 500 women employees have benefitted under Altimetrik Women’s Initiative for Networking Growth and Success (WINGS) Initiative. Ranga Kanapathy, Head of Engineering and India Technology Center, Altimetrik was in conversation with team IT-Voice where he answered questions related to the initiative. Here is a snippet from the brief interaction:
Prateek: What inspired you to launch wings?
Ranga Kanapathy: WINGS – Women’s Initiative for Networking, Growth & Success was created to do exactly what the name suggests. At Altimetrik we strongly believe in the immense potential that women in technology have. But they face various issues and roadblocks that more often than not go unnoticed or unspoken due to a variety of reasons. As growing successful organizations, it is our responsibility to help women share their voice and provide them a conducive environment to nurture their skills and develop in their careers. The power of women professionals in the workplace is indisputable today. WINGS aims to help women discover themselves and hone skills that can make them perform at their best while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
Prateek: How many women are you planning to hire by Dec end and by the end of FY21-22?
Ranga Kanapathy: Our overall hiring target for the end of 2021 is to add 700 more professionals and achieve a 32% women representation. We are currently at almost 25%. Our goal is to hire as many women as possible. However, this is a daunting task as hiring women in tech can be quite challenging.
Prateek: How much have you invested in this initiative so far?
Ranga Kanapathy: We have invested over INR 30 lakhs on the overall gender diversity hiring initiative so far in 2021. We are eager to invest more if we can get the right talent to join our team.
Prateek: What criteria do you look for when hiring for diversity?
Ranga Kanapathy: There are two parts to this evaluation. One is of course the technical ability for the position we are hiring for. The second, and more important is cultural fitment. The candidate should have the acumen to learn fast, be innovative and agile, and adapt to the changing landscape of the tech world and the dynamic economy. Anyone with a fire in the belly to prove their abilities is welcome. We are happy to train and help them acquire any tech skills as required by the job.
Prateek: What is your take on Women in the IT sector and what does the future look like for diversity recruitment?
Ranga Kanapathy: We want more women to join the IT sector and stick to their careers to grow into IT leaders. There is a huge scope for this talent to grow. We have seen women be excellent engineers and have a sharp eye for business understanding. We hope that women find more avenues to grow in this booming sector. More and more IT companies are focusing on diversity hiring and this is only set to grow further in the coming years. The goal is to build a truly diverse and inclusive world of work for everyone.
Prateek: Are you partnering with diversity service providers? If so many and how are they contributing to your diversity agenda? Please cite examples?
Ranga Kanapathy: Yes, we do partner with some of the diversity providers such as AvatarCC, JobsforHer, Inharmony, etc. They are helping us take our hiring message forward and also partner with WINGS to run workshops and sessions to help our present women workforce.
For any such interaction opportunities, you may write to us at [email protected].
