Ecommerce companies are making concerted efforts to fix the gender balance in the traditionally male-dominated supply chain roles.

From offering creche facilities, period leave, gender-balanced sourcing and women-only delivery and customer service stations to having partnerships with women’s campuses, companies such Flipkart, Amazon, Meesho and Jumbotail are wooing them with a variety of initiatives, recognising the hurdles in hiring women for supply chain roles.

Flipkart has increased women’s representation in the supply chain by 64% in the last two years, while Meesho is targeting 33% by March next year from 21% now.

“At Flipkart, we believe in the power of diversity as a catalyst for success,” said Prajakta Kanaglekar, vice-president of supply chain and customer experience teams.

Apart from comprehensive hiring initiatives, and hubs exclusively led by women, Flipkart has adopted localised hiring strategies, provided transportation and established creche facilities at 28-odd sites to address the challenges of hiring female employees in remote areas.

Its training initiatives, including Vidhyarthini (maximising awareness regarding supply chain roles for female B-School students), Disha (train-and-hire model for MBA students), Neev (train-and-hire model for engineering students) and Supply Chain Certification Programme (SCCP) are designed to prepare female candidates for diverse roles — from internships to management trainees and roles in supply chain management.In the B2B food and grocery sector, Jumbotail is capitalising on its formal programme -Project Shakti – to bring more women into supply chain operations. It aspires to have women in 50% of operations roles at supply chain fulfilment centres in the next 12-18 months.Project Shakti aims to hire, train, and elevate women to key roles in order processing and inventory management for grocery, staples, and FMCG products.

“Our strategy was developed from the insight that women’s natural qualities of discipline, diligence and intuition, critical for enhancing operational efficiency and innovation in the supply chain, when combined with their innate understanding of grocery products, can result in substantial benefits to customers while making a meaningful impact in the women workforce,” said Kamlesh Kumar, vice-president, supply chain, Jumbotail.

Meesho’s approach involves gender-based sourcing, partnerships with women’s campuses and educational institutions as well as internship opportunities for those seeking hands-on experience in the field.

“Despite progress, we acknowledge the unique challenges faced by women in such industries, including a lack of mentorship,” said Ashish Kumar Singh, Meesho’s chief HR officer. To address these, the company has initiatives to support the professional growth of its female employees.

Liju Thomas, director – HR, India operations at Amazon India, said the company has launched multiple initiatives to increase opportunities for women in the logistics sector whilst strengthening its DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) commitment.

Hiring spurt:

Recruitment firms say there’s been a big jump in such mandates.

CIEL HR has seen a 40% surge in demand for female talent, led by a shift towards greater gender diversity and inclusivity within India’s ecommerce industry, chief executive Aditya Narayan Mishra said.

“Ecommerce players like BigBasket, Flipkart, Amazon and Ecom Express are actively looking to hire women. Most ecommerce companies are hiring for roles such as pickers/packers, scanning executives, supervisors, analysts, last-mile delivery personnel, mid-mile delivery personnel, riders and customer service executives within the supply chain,” he added.

Manpower has got at least two times more demand compared to last quarter for diversity hiring, said senior director Alok Kumar, attributing it to lower attrition rates and higher productivity among women compared to their male peers.