Union Bank of India’s ‘Empower Her and Empower Him’ programme, which completed one year, is encouraging women employees to come out of stagnation and apply for promotions. 

A survey on the effectiveness of the empowerment programme, undertaken by the bank, showed that about 10% of employees came out of stagnation in the promotion process for the financial year 2023-24. 

Besides, overall promotion applications for men also saw an increase compared to the previous year.

Outreach and motivation through the programme are helping both women and men apply for promotions so that the bank can identify talent. The state-owned bank is also improving gender quality and empowering employees for leadership roles.  

The bank has formed two committees - one for the women employees and the other for the male. The committee has reached out to 1,100 ladies across the country in the various branches of the bank to encourage them to take up leadership roles. Special training programmes are conducted to promote women leadership.

Both the committees looked into the issues of stagnation of employees and how to get achievers promoted to take up a bigger responsibility in the organisation.

 To mark its first anniversary on 18,  the bank donated 20 bicycles to underprivileged children from tribal areas in Mumbai, symbolising their commitment to empowering and positively impacting society.

The bank also organised an event chaired by its managing director and CEO, A Manimekhalai, executive directors Nitesh Rajan, Nidhu Saxena and Ramasubramanian S, along with senior management and 120 committee members of the flagship programme.  

Manimekhalai spoke about the importance of the role of these committees as they are instrumental in empowering and fostering the growth and well-being of the organisation. 

Edelweiss Asset Management Fund CEO Radhika Gupta and renowned author Gurcharan Das counselled the committee members on various topics like how to lead with passion and purpose for building a stronger and more successful Union Bank of India. They also interacted with the committee members through open chat sessions.

The bank carried out an anonymous survey for all employees to understand ground sentiments and employee experiences regarding gender discrimination. The survey highlighted issues like lack of motivation to take up leadership roles, lack of training in gender sensitivity, lower engagement from leadership on improving the performance of their subordinates and lack of opinions considered in decision making. 

Some more challenges like limited grassroots awareness about the work of the committee, the need for a stronger governance structure of the committee, addressing issues on deep-rooted biases and challenges in driving inclusive culture, lack of public recognition of employees and skill gaps were some of the challenges that were discussed that could be converted into opportunity.

As an extension of this programme, the bank also initiated over 140 social initiatives. The CSR initiatives conducted across the country help the bank to garner business. 

The bank conducted annual health checks up and financial education drive for MSME women entrepreneurs. It supported old age home through donations like bed sheets, wheel chairs and grocery items. It also provided skill training to rural communities, donated CCTV cameras and stationery to schools.