Beam Suntory's and the HerKey Club in India have collaborated to offer employees networking opportunities for the company's women leaders.

Accessing the club's support, women can collaborate and learn from each other's experiences through panel discussions, interviews, learning opportunities and networking forums - all of which underpin their career development journey.

Key features of the HerKey Club include access to:

• senior women leaders from diverse companies across the world
• consistent, curated, distinct content.
• networking opportunities with women leader
• learning opportunities with online master classes etc
• round table discussions
• interviews with women in power
• external speakers for training and inspiring stories

To keep women colleagues engaged and motivated, Beam Suntory hosted a session with the first female bartender of India, Shatbi Basu, where she shared her story of rising in a field predominantly occupied by men. A panel discussion with internal speakers was also hosted on International Women's Day, which was followed by a bartending masterclass for women, as they took over the office bar to make special cocktails for everyone.

Commitment to increase female representation

As a mark of Beam Suntory's commitment to increase women representation in its workforce in India, the company has earmarked roles for diversity hiring with a focus on women and have set annual targets for women representation in the overall employee strength.

Beam Suntory also ensures adequate women representation in interview panels.

As a result of these continued efforts, Beam Suntory hired women in Selling roles for the first time in 2019 and since then have added 10 women in India Sales function including one Senior management role of a Territory Sales Manager and in its Goa plant in a Supply Chain function role.

Beam Suntory also participated in an exclusive virtual career fair for women professionals which was attended by thousands of top women talent and top companies such as United health group, Novartis, Pegasystems, Unilever, Microsoft, Facebook, DBS Bank, Qualcomm, KPMG, Ford, and Publicis to recruit for some of its open roles.

Large female intake for internship program

For Beam Suntory's summer internship program, the company presented to two of the top ten business schools of the country, IIM Lucknow and XLRI, and received an overwhelming interest with more than 500 applicants for six openings.

After receiving the top slots for interviews, Beam Suntory hired give female and one male candidate across various functions.

Out of the four interns Beam Suntory hired for its summer internship program, it offered a pre-placement offer to one female candidate, who readily accepted.

Developing women in leadership roles

Beam Suntory has incorporated a diversity lens in succession planning and talent review process in India, to drive greater rigor in making sure we are developing its women talent and increasing their readiness to take on leadership positions.

Benefits to increase inclusivity

Beam Suntory India has also rolled out benefits to increase inclusivity and help women employees balance their work life.

This includes child care policy to allow them to have access to good child care centers by co-paying the child care fee, removal of dress code policy to allow everyone to unleash their spirit at workplace, providing required flexibility and support to its returning women employees post maternity break, and a cab facility for women including security escorts if they had to stay in office outside of working hours due to meetings or other work commitments.

Workplace training for appropriate conduct

Beam Suntory also conducts appropriate workplace behavior training for all its new hires as a part of their onboarding program which is called Sunrise Tour. This workshop enables participants to create a shared understanding of the fact that different people have different values about what is or isn't appropriate conduct and being sensitive and respectful to those.

The company conducts a mandatory training for all employees and a separate one for all managers on prevention of sexual harassment at workplace every year to build an inclusive environment for women employees and sensitize all employees and managers.

Thrive in your career thanks to Beam Suntory initiatives such as HerKey Club

Women are empowered to drive winning results at Beam Suntory through various initiatives at the company - plus a supportive and inclusive company culture.

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