More women opting for work from home for work-life balance: survey

 
The survey findings, released before the 'Mother's Day' (May 14) point out that women from Delhi-NCR, with good work experience and professional qualifications are the ones who are opting for maximum WFH, followed by Karnataka, and Mumbai.

Of the respondents in the survey, 20 per cent women from Delhi -NCR said they would like to opt for WFH, while in Bangalore and other major cities of Karnataka, this figure was 12 per cent and 10 per cent for Mumbai. The trend was yet to catch up in non-metros as there are lesser job opportunities for women in those cities, excepting for low end on the value chain.

The survey found that with increasing problems of commuting, pressure of nuclear families and lack of organised system of domestic help, more and more career women are "sacrificing" their growth opportunities and are looking for WFH.

The survey found  that contribution to family income , in the age of high cost of living,  is among the top reasons why women work again (37.9 per cent), besides standing shoulder to shoulder with the men folk to do well in life. .

The IT & ITeS sector can offer the maximum  potential for WFH, followed by  graphic designing and content writing, while at the lower end of value chain tele-marketing and data entry are the options.

An empirical study was conducted with a cross section of 1,200 women employees/registered jobseekers at GharSeNaukri (GSN) portal.   The majority of the survey respondents’ (62 per cent) fall under 1-10 years’ experience category out of which 50 per cent are with 1-5 years’ experience

The highest number of women job seekers who registered with the GSN portal are in the age group of 35 – 45 years. This might be a reflection that perhaps young women have the responsibility of child care and prefer to do jobs with flexible work options.

Nearly 70% of the employers agreed that work from home option would increase their organization’s productivity as women hired shall balance family and work.  Similarly, 80% opined it shall be profitable to hire women on part time basis or work from home to cut down overhead expenses

Nearly 75% believed that work from home option with flexible hours would have a higher retention rate of employees and develop a brigade of professionals who are connected to a company, know its work culture and yet work from home to fulfil targets.