A few days ago, after wrapping her work for the day, Shilpa Narayan, HR Manager, Courtyard by Marriott Chennai booked an Ola Auto to head home. She was pleasantly surprised to see a woman driver bring the three-wheeler to a halt near her. One rarely encounters this sight!
It is not that India does not have woman auto drivers. Mumbaikars have often seen Chaya Mohite, Anita Kardak and Shila Dawre ply their vehicles through the city’s narrow bylanes. However, the ratio of women drivers is extremely low as compared to their male peers across the country. Be it a metropolis like Mumbai or Chennai.
After being aback by seeing her woman driver, Narayan also realised that our minds are subconsciously wired to certain gender typecasting. For instance, presuming that a rickshaw or a truck driver will be a man.
Hence, for Narayan, the woman driver symbolised the essence of ‘Breaking the stereotypes’ in every context possible. She was independent, supporting herself and her family and more importantly, earning her livelihood in a profession rarely chosen by a woman.
DEEP THINKING
This episode also made Narayan ponder over the rarity of seeing women in certain types of male dominated roles. And the astonishment their presence then evokes!
According to her, this could be for various reasons, which are shaped by a person’s lifestyles and life circumstances. “Women generally don’t involve themselves in such roles simply because of they have been led to subscribe to the stereotype that it is ‘meant for men’. Many prefer to be homemakers and look after the family. This could possibly be because they are concerned about erratic working hours, late nights or safety issues,” she opined.
In fact, on closer look, she observed that similar male-dominated roles exist in the hospitality sector. Some examples are in the hotel kitchen, followed by maintenance, loss prevention or stewarding departments.
“But these types of typecasting are getting crushed slowly and gradually. We now see more female managers and leaders in the roles of a Security Manager, Director of Loss Prevention and Materials Manager in some of our hotels,” she happily noted.
Narayan is certain that this feminine ascendancy will grow in times to come. Soon, the industry will boast of all women-run restaurants and hotels, which will be a big boost for gender equality.
ON THE LEADING BOARD
Often, people perceive a CEO, CTO, CFO or any other CXO to be a man. However, this perception has been flipped in recent times, and how!
Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO and Co-founder of Bumble recently became the youngest woman billionaire. Heineken USA appointed Maggie Timoney as its newest CEO, the first woman to serve as chief executive of a major American beer company. As CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki is regarded as one of the most powerful women in the tech industry.
Closer home too, some talented female CEOs are changing the rules of the game. One of them is Hina Nagarajan, who will replace Anand Kripalu as the MD and CEO of United Spirits, the country’s largest liquor firm. She will also be the first woman to helm USL.
Deepika Rao is the MD and CEO of Ginger Hotels, a part of IHCL hotel chain. Anshu Sarin is the CEO of Keys Hotels, a role she has been managing for almost six years. These trailblazers are an inspiration for other women professionals in the hospitality industry, showing that the glass ceiling has ceased to exist.
THE CHANGEMAKERS
At the same time, a hotel’s HR team can play a significant role in encouraging women in departments like security or housekeeping to scale the rungs of success. The foremost step is by ensuring diverse hiring, and ardently working towards an individual’s development.
According to Narayan, diversity does not start or stop with talent acquisition. Instead, it extends to how well the organisation supports female employees in breaking various shackles and competing with their male counterparts to achieve excellence and growth.
“At Courtyard by Marriott Chennai, we constant encourage the participation of more women in our frontline operations. Our female front desk employees can leverage their multi-skilling and job enhancement training to engage in concierge and valet operations. Similarly, a restaurant hostess can transition to bar operations, while supervisors in housekeeping operations can move to the security division,” Narayan explained.
These lateral movements aid in assigning more responsibility to the workers, while breaking gender stereotypes. They get the opportunity to showcase their operational calibre, while their individual journeys are recognised through a #MorePowerToYou campaign. Senior leaders at the hotel constantly conduct staff pulse surveys and check-ins in addition to offering quick coaching.
Recalling the woman auto driver, Narayan felt that the episode underlined some valuable lessons about gender diversity, which any HR team can employ. The first is to create a common ground where every individual can excel, irrespective of gender or any other demographic.
Moreover, each person should be set up for tasks based on their respective strengths and aptitude, while at the same time, challenging them to outdo their best. But most importantly, the incident showed her the importance of breaking stereotypes and driving some out-of-the-box changes.
