I am the Program Manager for the Learning and Development team at the Pune office, located in India, and have been at DWF for two years.
My main responsibilities include building the training strategy, and designing, creating and writing content for employee development and training programmes.
When I was approached for this role, I saw it as the perfect fit for me to be innovative and the next step towards my career progression, so I had to apply and make the most of this opportunity.
In addition to my role, I'm also a part of the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) team, and I prepare the yearly awareness plan, create content and host training and awareness events to address biases and increase inclusion in India.
Being part of the D&I team gave me an opportunity to start workplace conversations about menopause, which generally has a stigma attached to it. The awareness of menopause is not only for “women of a certain age” but for all people. Because of this I wanted to encourage more awareness and dialogue on this subject.
We need more easily accessible information about menopause and the challenges that it brings, to be available to all our colleagues in India, so it is important for all colleagues to understand how women going through menopause are impacted every day.
While India is a diverse country, inclusion is still a growing concept and we are just about starting to understand the impact of an open dialogue on breaking through unconscious biases and stereotypes. Awareness about menopause is crucial as the average Indian woman has not been provided with enough resources and support to gracefully transition through this phase. The workplace conversations also help with having open dialogue with men, so that they are allies through this phase as supportive colleagues, friends and partners.
I'm proud to say that having these conversations in a safe environment during the D&I calls and meetings, has really helped colleagues have a better understanding of the issues and build alliances across all teams in the office.
