BeingWISE (Women Innovators, Social Leaders and Entrepreneurs) FAQs

BeingWISE (Women Innovators, Social Leaders and Entrepreneurs) is an ecosystem-wide platform accelerating women’s participation and inclusion in the workplace through collaborative efforts across organizations. BeingWISE enables organizations to drive inclusion internally through focused initiatives and also externally to develop the ecosystem and harness the potential of the workforce. The BeingWISE strategy is to:

• Build a consortium of organizations to pioneer inclusion interventions across STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) training in AI and support startups in the technology sector. These efforts feed into internal diversity and inclusion goals.
• Take a data-centric approach on eight parameters of gender diversity as a guiding framework for organizations.
• Establish a community of resources like trainers, mentors, and ambassadors committed to gender diversity.
• Provide eight parameter self-assessment opportunities to organizations, identifying industry positioning and gaps to facilitate best practices.
• Collaborate with government for policy support.

According to a McKinsey global report, a gender inclusive ecosystem would enable India to boost annual GDP by $ 770 billion by 2025. 

However, according to Zinnov-Intel Gender Diversity Benchmark Study 2019, women’s participation in India’s workforce makes up only 30% of the total workforce. A diversity consortium could aid women’s representation and overall workplace inclusion. Every organization has its own practices to propagate diversity. We need to examine the external ecosystem closely as well. BeingWISE aims to bridge these gaps and build an ecosystem-wide collaboration between organizations, communities, and government

BeingWISE aims to build a consortium of organizations in India with common goals through a metric-based program by:

• Building leadership advocacy in the workplace, hiring/retention practices, entrepreneurship, supply-chain, and STEM education.
• Building a sustainable system across India for the advancement and inclusion of women.
• Bringing the key aspects of gender diversity under one umbrella using a metric-based approach.

BeingWISE isn’t internal to just one company or a cohort of 4-5 companies. It’s about getting India Inc, government, and communities to be a part of this initiative. 

• Industry organizations- large and medium organizations, government institutes and, academic institutions.
  
• Individuals- mentors, trainers, advisors, ambassadors.
• Partners- NGOs, consultants, experts, and startups.

• A data-driven approach for organizations to understand and assess its diversity programs and practices.
  
• It has eight parameters cutting across internal and external landscape.
• Organizations can self-assess their diversity and inclusion practices against three standards - Silver, Gold and Platinum—based on the parameters.
• It focuses on common goals towards driving gender diversity across the ecosystem.

Internal parameters to be assessed within the organization 

1. % of women in the workforce in an organization
2. The back-to-work program of the organization
3. % of women leaders/top executives in the organization
4. % of leaders trained in BeingWISE, LGBTQ, and PWD inclusion
5.  Whether the organization meets the basic legal compliance established by the government for women

External parameters to be assessed within the organization

1. % of women-led vendors that you support as an organization in your supply chain expenses
2. Support to women-led startups in developing and mentoring them 
3. STEM training in schools/colleges that you provide to build a talent pipeline for the industry

The BeingWISE-R (Ready) Framework was developed based on extensive research and discussions with organizations, thought leaders and industry associations, and also included insights from the Zinnov-Intel Gender Diversity Benchmark Study. We arrived at the BeingWISE-R (Ready) themes and defined standards of Silver, Gold, and Platinum so that we can assess areas of improvement. This framework is a self-assessment where we can guide organizations through it if needed.

As we build a consortium of organizations, we’ll explore different initiatives to advance women’s representation and inclusion. To drive these initiatives, we may require funds that will be discussed at the consortium level

It’s very simple to be a part of the BeingWISE program. You can contact to us through the “Contact Us” page and we’ll onboard you.

BeingWISE is a holistic approach to look at the overall dynamics of the internal parameters and external influence. The parameters have been devised to cover the major aspects in the D&I space. We recommend partnering across all parameters.. However, if there’s a need for customization, we can discuss it at a later stage.

We can do a detailed TTT session for organizations that want to leverage BeingWISE. There’s no extra charge for the training. In fact, we can even train organizations that would come onboard.

Currently the BeingWISE program is open to organizations in India. Consider extending this program to other geos in your organization once Phase 2 of the program is released. Release would depend on the talent landscape in the respective geos.

When we started out, the initial focus area was women. As we’ve progressed in this journey, we have made it more inclusive and partnered with the ecosystem for people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ and mental health.