The Battle for Female Talent in Brazil - Center for Work-Life Policy

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in Beirut as a global business operations manager, she feels she has built many
of the same skills and relationships she would have developed as a consultant
while traveling only once every four to six months. “I don’t see flextime as an
obstacle to career advancement,” she says. “Just because you’re there only half the
time doesn’t mean you can’t come up with something of value, and my manager
understood that.”
Being flexible about flextime has been a win/win, enabling Booz to attract
and retain talented women and giving women new opportunities to nurture their
ambition and continue to build their careers. That translates into the kind of loyalty
and commitment money can’t buy. “It really made a difference for me to be able to
take care of my personal life without having to drastically change my professional
life,” says Hadidian. “It helped me get through those hard times—and it meant
the world to my family that I could be with them. I’m very proud to be a Booz &
Company employee.”
Google: A Safe and Comfortable Commute
Getting to work is so stressful for women in India that, according to a USAID survey,
it’s a primary reason for them to consider quitting their jobs. Public transportation
is often a gauntlet of taunting, catcalling, pinching, groping and other indignities.
Driving one’s own car may be safer but enduring an hour each way of sclerotic
traffic, with its nerve-gnawing bouts of automotive chicken and horn-blasting
stoppages, saps energy and takes a toll on productivity. And with gasoline costing
about $5 per gallon, it’s expensive.
Most high-tech firms in India routinely provide transportation for their
employees. The big ones usually offer buses and commuter vans that shuttle
employees from train stations and other pre-arranged stops to and from their
campuses. Google goes one step further by offering shared cabs for all of its
1,200- plus workers—both men and women—at its sites in Hyderabad, Bangalore
and Gurgaon.
The company outsources the service to contractors who provide trained
drivers and clean, air-conditioned cars—usually white Tata Indicas that, for safety
reasons, do not carry the Google logo or any other form of branding. “Having air
conditioning is very important especially since the climate is typically hot and
humid, so employees are fresh and rested during their commute.” says Keerthana
Mohan, Diversity and Talent Inclusion Manager, Google - Asia Pacific.
The system is personalized and flexible. Every morning, Mohan is picked
up at her doorstep, joining two other people who live on the same route to the
office and have been assigned to commute together as a threesome. In Google’s
larger offices, a transport supervisor sets the pick-up and drop off schedule and
employees can opt for a convenient slot time; at its site in Bangalore, where Mohan
lives, she and her cab-mates agree on when they want to go into the office. It takes
about 60-90 minutes to cover the 15 kilometers (10 miles) to work. The car isn’t
equipped with WiFi—wireless service isn’t universally available in India—but she
can plug a data card into her laptop and connect with the Internet that way or take
meetings over telecon. “Typically one person takes a call while the others may log
in or get some shut eye,” Mohan explains.
The cab and its driver are on contract to Mohan’s group for the full day.
Although Mohan’s group usually leaves at 6:30 p.m., the cab will be available to
her anytime she needs it, including into the evening on occasions when she may
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