‘Organisations need to convey clearly to women that they have everything needed for success’: Anju Bhadoria

Mobility technology supplier Marelli India’s HR Director and Country HR has a unique proposition to get more women to the workplace. Convey a message clearly that the organisation has all requirements for women to be successful.

Talking at a panel discussion at the Autocar Professional Women To Watch webinar, Anju Bhadoria is of the firm opinion that organisations can attract more women talent if they have clear communication. “I would like organisations to start telling more clearly that they have everything that is needed to be more successful,” she said.

We can attract more talent if we can communicate to this (women) talent pool slightly better.  I think if we focus more on that, we will have more women rising and shining. If we create more role models, we will only see a constant increase in numbers,” she adds.

She opines that the auto industry is ‘razor sharp in not only attracting, but building a leadership pipeline. Taking the example of her own organisation, she says, “If you talk of Marelli itself, the year on year increase of women in leadership is quite high. The objective is very clear. When there are more women, there is more focus on innovation and investing in R&D.”

Whereas attracting talent is important, infrastructure becomes critical, and she would like to see companies offer more infrastructure support. Now shopfloors are also heavily women-driven. It is both men and women that need infra. Of course, women need more infra support, she adds saying, “We need to have organisations giving importance to build that infrastructure that can support women having children, families having children.”

Among other things, she is also rooting for building a strong support structure and emphasises the importance of networking. Based on my experience, there is a lot of power in building alliances and networking, she adds that women must rise above the imposter syndrome and adds that talent can’t be segregated based on gender and women must believe in themselves. “Talent can’t be segregated based on gender and that’s the reality. Like any other industry, automotive also looks for good talent. If you look at the data, diversity ratio is increasing. In the past 30 years, the numbers have constantly been increasing,” she adds.

I want women to build a strong support structure and start believing in delegating. I want to see more and more of that genuine hunger and desire in women also, she said, adding that the ‘industry is wholeheartedly welcoming and doing everything necessary for women talent.'