Ninety Percent of Women in Corporate Jobs in India Highly Motivated to “Go the Extra Mile,” says Aon Study

Nearly half reported facing persistent bias and discrimination

NEW DELHI (31 July 2024) – Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, has announced the findings of its 2024 Voice of Women Study India, which is the first and largest survey of its kind in India, gathering input from nearly 24,000 professional women from over 560 companies, to identify their most pressing workplace challenges and the reality of an inclusive workplace.

The study revealed that 90 percent of women in corporate jobs in India responded that they were prepared to put in extra time, volunteer for challenging projects and upskill themselves to grow in their careers. However, 42 percent of the women surveyed mentioned facing bias or potential bias at work and 37 percent revealed they’ve experienced insensitive behaviour. In addition, six percent of the women (more than 1,400 women) in the survey responded that they had faced sexual harassment at least once, yet less than half officially reported the incident to their employer. Working mothers had their own challenges, with 75 percent responding that they faced a career setback of one-to-two years after maternity leave and close to 40 percent said going on maternity leave had a negative impact on pay and their role changed to something they did not prefer.

Furthermore, 34 percent of women in senior management and leadership roles indicated facing discrimination compared to 17 percent of women in entry level roles, demonstrating an increase in bias advances as women progress in their careers. According to the study, women who faced bias are 3.5 times more likely to perceive aspects of their organisational experience as unfair and 21 percent indicate leaving in less than a year versus only six percent of women who have not faced bias.

Nitin Sethi, chief executive officer of Talent Solutions in India for Aon, said, “Bias at work is impeding businesses’ efforts to engage and retain skilled and committed women in the workforce. It is a reality that cannot be brushed aside. Building inclusive work culture has to be a CEO-led priority. Business decision makers must urgently take steps to address systemic bias through inclusive policies and practices for equitable pay, career progression and maternity guardrails. But more importantly, top leaders must role model the right behaviours and drive accountability for an inclusive culture that determines everyday behaviour in teams and within the organisation.”

The survey further found that having women in leadership roles has a positive impact on female employees in an organisation. Fifty three percent of women who have visible female leaders in the organisation reported feeling confident in their career growth, 52 percent said that it had a positive impact on their culture and 41 percent saw women leaders as role models. Presence of female leaders also reduced the perception of unfairness for three key people processes including performance review, promotion and compensation.

Shilpa Khanna, associate partner and DEI practice leader of Talent Solutions in India for Aon and the study’s leader, said, “Addressing gender issues is critical for businesses in India as they tackle talent shortage and navigate an uncertain business environment. The data clearly highlights that the higher the positive experiences women have at the workplace the greater representation of women in the workforce. Businesses must deepen their DE&I efforts by actively listening to women in the workplace and utilising data-driven insights to ensure they make informed decisions to remove barriers for progress and reframing policies that support women employees at different life stages.”

Aon's 2024 Voice of Women study is the largest pan-India study of working women to identify factors influencing their success in the workplace and understand their experience of inclusion. The inaugural survey was conducted from March to June 2024. The research gathered the responses from 24,000 women from over 560 participating small, medium and large companies.

The findings from the Voice of the Women study contributes towards Aon’s Women’s Workplace Experience Index. This index assesses women’s experiences at the workplace and provides companies with a view of their women workforce’s perception of positive experiences. The higher the positive experiences of their women employees the higher the WWE Index score and the greater impact to women representation in that company.

For more information about Aon in India, please visit https://www.aon.com/india/default.jsp.

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