HCL celebrates International Women’s Day 2020

March 03, 2020

Global technology company HCL Technologies is celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) with a series of employee engagement activities to recognize its women employees and their achievements. As an official IWD partner for the second year running, HCL will support the #EachforEqual message through its own #HCLforEquality campaign.

Together for an equal tomorrow, today

The campaign runs throughout the year, and includes a number of initiatives around the central theme “together for an equal tomorrow, today”, to encourage its employees to get involved in overcoming diversity challenges in the workplace. These include a series of virtual events, where HCL’s employees will be invited to join discussions celebrating the achievements of women leaders, hear from guest speakers and listen to panel debates on improving diversity in the workforce.

The campaign sees the launch of HCL’s own 2nd Annual IWD Photography Competition, to draw attention to women breaking barriers, defying convention, and striving for gender equality. In addition, throughout the year, HCL will continue driving diversity through several key initiatives designed to advance careers for its women, including:

Ascend – which mandates increases in the representation of women in senior management via multiple ways, including support programs, peer mentoring and coaching at all levels, and providing platforms to enable women leaders to learn and exhibit transformational leadership
Stepping Stones – which is a focused career development program to enable mid-level female employees to realize their career aspirations and potential and help them in their developmental journey. It focuses on coaching women who are new mothers and require help to manage the new expectations at work and home
HCL Women Connect – which aims to engage and advance women through development programs and advocate a gender-neutral work environment. This group also coaches and counsels aspiring young women professionals, shares experiences on work/life priorities and includes life coach support, daycare in office premises, concierge services, and policies such as extended maternity leave, work from home, flexible careers and flexible work hours
Femspiration – a platform facilitated by the HCL Women Connect Affinity Network, in which successful women leaders are invited to address employees and provide insights into successful leadership as well as understand perspectives on gender matters
Women Lead – an exclusive 1:1 mentoring program for aspiring corporate women leaders across the world, with three successful chapters in Australia, one that recently took place in the Nordics, and plans to launch in other key geographies
#SheInspires – a program capturing the life stories of women who have blazed a trail in the STEM fields, helping inspire the next generation of women leaders in STEM. Launched in 2018, the program has featured 60+ HCL employees and customers through videos, Tweetchat discussions, and magazine articles
Red Ladder – which recognizes high-performing and high-potential women leaders and positions them as role models for other aspiring women. HCL’s Red Ladder initiative is a winner of the Stevie’s Award for women in Business in the category of “Women Helping Women.”

At the forefront of empowering women

HCL has been on the forefront of employing and empowering women for decades. In recognition of its efforts, HCL received NASSCOM’s Award for Excellence in Gender Diversity. It is proud to support IWD, working to raise awareness against bias, celebrating the achievements of women leaders, and encouraging its employees to help create a gender equal workplace. HCL is confident that together, it is possible to create an equal world for tomorrow, today—and every day.