Uber, a ride-hailing company, plans to hire 800 additional female technologists by the end of the year, at a time when many other tech businesses are laying off workers due to macroeconomic uncertainties.
Specifically, the hiring is for two programmes that Uber launched this year. After taking a career sabbatical, women in IT with positions such as product managers and engineers can reenter the workforce through the uReturn programme. The company also announced Pinnacle, a trial programme that offers flexible and remote working choices in the fields of tech operations, mapping, and machine learning and is geared at returning women. Around 150 women have already joined Uber through these two programmes. It now has intentions to hire 800 more people by the following year.
In India, Uber has 1400 full-time employees. It intends to hire 800 women in the tech industry, who will work under contract and according to their flexibility.
According to Uber, women make up 25% of the labour force in India, and many of them quit their jobs to take care of their families. Most never return to the labour because they have few opportunities for doing so.
Despite the fact that Uber places a high premium on diversity and inclusion, the company claims that recruiting women has improved quality and productivity.
In order to help women enjoy their full-time roles, Uber has developed a systematic onboarding process and buddy programme as part of uReturn.
With Pinnacle, the programme is only for working from home and gives employees the freedom to set their own hours. This makes it easier for women to divide their time between employment and household duties as they see fit.
As they transition back into the corporate world, the company offers training, on-the-job learning opportunities, and a community to help them rebuild their skills. These include single mothers, family breadwinners, women who are the primary carers for the elderly or young, as well as women who are physically or mentally challenged.
According to experts, Uber's initiatives to support women in technology are crucial.
More than 73,000 workers in the US tech sector have been let go as a result of widespread job cuts, according to data from layoffs.fyi, a crowdsourced database of tech layoffs.
Additionally, over 17,000 tech workers in India were laid off.
According to experts, the proportion of women entering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)-related fields is equal to that of men. At managerial and higher levels, though, there is a decline in this gender representation. According to a report by 451 Research, women now make up 34% of the IT workforce in India, and STEM graduates have a 50:50 gender split. The 'next difficulty,' according to the article, is maintaining gender diversity in middle management and leadership positions.
