Volkswagen India starts Women Empowerment initiative

Volkswagen India empowering the Nari Shakti has launched an elaborate Women Empowerment initiative which promotes gender diversity and  inclusivity across all departments. On 11th March 2015, the German automaker organised a meeting in which more than 120 female employees working at Pune Plant in Chakan and Regional Competence Centre (RCC) in Hinjewadi, took part where they were informed about the key action plan of this additional and skill development-oriented initiative, especially designed for women.

Peter Raussendorf, Head of Human Resources and Admin at Volkswagen India said, “Currently, women make up 12% of our total talent strength amongst our indirect employees at Volkswagen India. Our target is to increase this percentage to 30% by 2025 across all departments. Hence, this initiative is our effort towards creating a strong foundation based on best practices in gender diversity and inclusivity to ultimately help us nurture and grow female talent within the company”.

For the women employees working at Volkswagen India’s Pune Plant and at RCC in Hinjewadi, the company has laid down three interlocking key frameworks – ‘Sakhi Group’, ‘Kompass Programme’ and ‘Mentor Programme’.

Though ‘Sakhi Group’, all women will be able to exchange ideas about women’s impact on the global economy best practices, Volkswagen business, networking, discussions, build skills to help women define their personal success and focus on career advancement.

While through the ‘Kompass Programme’ a selected batch of women, who are already settled in their respective working area, will go through a nine-month training. And in the ‘Mentor Programme’, the company will train and mentor already existing high potential women leaders in a nine month project-driven programme with formal and informal sharing of strategies and best practices.

“Given the significant role women play in society and businesses the world over, we believe there is great merit in offering a platform that can further nurture and develop this set of talent. Through our programme, we aim to drive our existing female talent base forward and also create opportunities for new recruits to develop and grow with the rest of the company in a conducive and inclusive environment,” added Mr. Peter Raussendorf.