There are several reasons to believe that the healthcare is one of the best industries for women to work. Here women are better represented at all levels than in any other industries, are promoted at comparable rates, and report similar levels of job satisfaction as that of their male counterparts.
Gender diversity is especially important among healthcare providers because women make up a large portion of the patient population. Owing to this several healthcare providers have introduced initiatives to encourage and empower women healthcare workers. But before implementing any particular initiatives to improve women representation, leading healthcare provider Fortis Healthcare, has established a strong gender inclusive culture and mindset in the first place. The organization's management believes that diversity in the workforce impacts the entire community and also improves the quality of life of younger generations.
Fortis Healthcare is continually striving for gender balance through recruiting, career development, and a culture of inclusion. In FY 20-21 over 6,00,000 hours were invested in professional personal capability development of employees, including women, clinician & non clinician employees. The organisation has also committed to providing a safe, secure, and supportive working environments especially for women employees.
Women Entrepreneur team got an opportunity to interact with Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO at Fortis Healthcare and learn about various aspects of the organisation and the initiatives implemented for the women at workplace.
Give Us An Overview Of Fortis Healthcare And Some Of The Major Facets About The Healthcare Institution's Work Environment?
Fortis Healthcare Limited an IHH Healthcare Berhad Company is a leading integrated healthcare services provider in India. It is one of the largest healthcare organizations in the country with 27 healthcare facilities, 4100 operational beds and over 419 diagnostics centres. Fortis is present in India, UAE & Sri Lanka. The company is listed on the BSE Ltd and National Stock Exchange of India. It draws strength from its partnership with global major and parent company, IHH, to build upon its culture of world-class patient care and superlative clinical excellence.
Fortis employs 23,000 people who share its vision of becoming the world's most trusted healthcare network. Fortis offers a full spectrum of integrated healthcare services ranging from clinics to quaternary care facilities and a wide range of ancillary services.
Fortis is committed to fostering a healthy work environment by foremost promoting a culture of working collaboratively, providing appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition & inclusive decision making. Our recent employee engagement survey indicates healthy participation across work groups & age groups with strong swing for Brand Fortis as an employer of choice.
Take Us Through The Various Areas Of Specialization That Fortis Healthcare Is Known For? How Has The Organization Grown Over The Past Few Years?
Driving Clinical excellence, is our priority along with entailing the finest medical skills combined with compassionate and distinctive patient care. Our core focus specialties are centred around Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Neurology, Oncology, Orthopedics, Urology and Nephrology.
Over the past couple of years, Fortis has witnessed a steady growth. State-of-the-art advanced equipment and Bone Marrow Transplant Units are in the process of being commissioned in few cities. In tandem with our plans to expand and upgrade medical infrastructure and programs, we have further augmented our clinical talent with eminent clinicians across key facilities.
Tell Us About The Total Work Force Part Of The Fortis Healthcare Team. How Diverse An Inclusive Is The Team? In Your Opinion How Does Having A Diverse, Inclusive And Gender Balanced Workforce Impact At Organization?
At Fortis, we are proud of the gender balance we have been able to create across all the work groups with overall ratio in favour of women by 54:46. This itself is a testimony to the deeply embedded culture of inclusivity & diversity in our organization. We also have a good women representation within the leadership team at hospital & corporate levels.
I believe that our ability to attract, develop, and retain a highly competent and diverse workforce has been the key to our success. Our gender diverse workforce provides us access to a broader talent base and helps us to spot and seize new opportunities. Our patients come from all walks of life, the diverse cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, and behavioral attributes of our gender balanced workforce helps us better understand and serve the needs of this varied customer base.
I believe that diversity in work force impacts the entire community. Greater gender inclusion in the work force enhances women's rights and socio-economic status, expands women's social network, and provides more equitable norms in society. I also believe that diversity in workforce improves the quality of life of younger generations joining corporate workforce by witnessing & having role models across the demographic spectrum.
How Does Fortis Healthcare Ensure Its Female Workforce, A Safe And Conducive Work Environment? What Steps Does Fortis Healthcare Take To Empower Its Women Employees To Create Lasting And Fruitful Careers?
We are committed to providing safe, secure, and supportive working environments for all employees especially our women employees. We provide safe boarding & lodging facilities with dedicated transport service. To preserving the physical and mental health of health workers we encourage working together in small peer groups with close supervision & mentoring for an enabling, nurturing & robust support.
We have included health and safety skills pertaining to personal and patient safety in education and training programmes at all levels. We have 24x 7 dedicated helplines that focus on mental health & wellbeing of our employees. We follow a zero-tolerance policy for harassment & discrimination against women.
Our approach has been three pronged, firstly to establish a strong gender inclusive culture and mindset in the first place before carrying out specific interventions to increase women representation. Our building support systems & enablers addresses life stage requirements of women- flexible working, return to work programs, building a strong support system alongside maternity leave, childcare benefits, child adoption support and life, hospitalization & disability insurance & lastly fostering career advancements.
“Our goal is to continually strive for gender balance through recruiting, career development, and a culture of inclusion”
In FY 20-21 over 6,00,000 hours were invested in professional & personal capability development of employees including women, clinician & non clinician employees across Fortis, this includes organisation wide functional capability development (5,61,000+ hours) including 28,000 plus training hours of safety/environment related training modules.
What Is Your Vision For Fortis Healthcare's Growth Journey Going Forward? Is The Organization Looking To Implement Any New Strategies Or Policies To Strengthen Its Female Workforce?
Our goal is to continually strive for gender balance through recruiting, career development, and a culture of inclusion. It is important to continuously strengthen necessary process check points and controls (performance management & reward allocation, promotions etc) across the employee life cycle to better any gender imbalance outcomes observed.
Additionally New economy requirements of each role requiring stronger administrative skill set & customer centric approach, we are looking at enhancing induction of nursing cadre in management & leadership roles.
Apart from the organizational perspective of gender diverse workforce, I believe that diversity in work force impacts the entire community. Greater gender inclusion in the work force enhances women's rights and socio-economic status, expands women's social network, and provides more equitable norms in society.
Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO, Fortis Healthcare
Fortis Healthcare believes that diversity in work force impacts the entire community and also improves the quality of life of younger generations joining corporate workforce by witnessing & having role models across the demographic spectrum.
