Priya Bajoria, Senior Vice President, Financial Services, Publicis Sapient
It is often discussed that women bring a different perspective to teams; they make for more inclusive and collaborative leaders.
Many countries like Norway and India have taken the lead in adopting legislations to promote women on the boards of publicly listed companies. Goldman Sachs recently announced that effective July 2020, they would only take a company public in the US or Europe, if it had at least one woman or non-white person on their board. While we are seeing a continuous wave of change and higher awareness regarding diversity and inclusion, the need to have more women in the workforce especially in industries like financial services and consulting, has never been more apparent.
More than ever before, in today’s digital economy, women are direct consumers and control finances, making and influencing decisions. In order to design products and offer services that appeal to women, today’s corporations need more women on their workforce, including as consultants and advisors, helping them crack the code.
Developing talent for the future is a challenge being faced by knowledge intensive industries like financial services. Companies are fiercely competing with each other to hire and retain the limited lateral talent pool. I strongly believe that among the firms who succeed in the war for talent will be those that are successful in implementing a comprehensive strategy geared towards hiring more women. A well-thought out plan and investment in reskilling and training based on prevailing technology and industry trends, will be essential in attracting women back into the workforce after a break in their careers.
Corporations have to take immediate steps to support and progress the careers of women.
- The pipeline for ‘Talent of the Future’ needs to be created now. We have to focus on getting more students in high schools and colleges to take STEM courses and build on their analytical skills/ learnability.
- Development of an active network of trusted mentors to guide women employees through different phases in their career, will be invaluable.
- Digital technologies have integrated work and life like never before and have made available flexible ways of working. Corporations have to embrace this and empower their employees to manage their time and priorities more effectively
About the author
Priya Bajoria was recently announced as Publicis Sapient’s Senior Vice President, Financial Services & Digital Transformation Leader. With vast experience in industry transformation utilizing digital technologies and innovation, Priya has a unique background in both consulting and investment banking; she previously led Infosys’ North American capital markets business and was an Investment Banker with Merrill Lynch. She will bring the best of PS’s digital business transformation capabilities to Financial Services clients to help them become digitally enabled to better serve their end-customers. Priya has a strong PoV on the key technologies that would best drive digital transformation globally and as a champion of workplace diversity and sponsor/mentor of many women’s leadership networks, she can passionately talk about the important participation of women in the financial sector.
