Good news! Indian cos to hire more moms

Aiming for a work culture that helps balance work and family responsibilities, every three in five Indian companies plan to hire more mothers on a part-time basis over the next 24 months, a survey says.

According to a global survey undertaken by workplace solutions provider Regus Plc, nearly half (44 per cent) of the global business population plans to hire more mothers returning to part-time work over the next two years.

Indian firms' hiring intentions register far above global average, with 64 per cent of business leaders saying that they would recruit more mothers into their workplaces on a part-time basis during the economic recovery period, the survey revealed.

"This marks India as the country with the most ambitious hiring intentions out of those studied. The most conservative hiring estimates appeared in the Netherlands, with only 24 per cent expecting an increase," the report stated.

Regus' multi-national global economic indicator survey, the Regus BusinessTracker, asked more than 11,000 respondents about their hiring intentions with regard to part-time, returning mothers over the next two years.

Meanwhile, India still faces numerous challenges in making the workplace suitably flexible for new mothers performance registered positively on the global scale, even as the country's performance registered positively on the global scale, the report stated.

The report further said that although attitudes towards working mothers have changed over the past few decades in the large urban centres of India, rural businesses sometimes demonstrate reluctance to treat working mothers fairly.

"As businesses worldwide take the tentative steps towards recovery, we're starting to see the emergence of shifting workplace strategies," Regus' Country Head Madhusudan Thakur said.

"Businesses have learned that adhering to a rigid 9-5, 5-days-a-week mentality with no room for flexibility can mean sacrificing talented workers-- and in a time when companies are focusing on cutting costs and maximising profitability, firms cannot afford to operate without the best and brightest talent available," Thakur added.

Another challenge facing working mothers in the country is the level of resentment from male co-workers that has developed as a result of new legislation that extended maternity leave periods.

The overview of international hiring intentions varied from sector to sector in Regus survey. The banking (47 per cent) and manufacturing (47 per cent) industries anticipate taking on more returning mothers.

On the global level, size of company seems to have little impact on firms' intentions to take on more returning mothers in 2010 and 2011, the survey revealed.