Rendezvous with Shweta Mohanty, VP & Head- Human Resources, SAP in India on DEI Policy

As the head of Human Resources for SAP in India, Shweta provides HR leadership across the region for all entities including R&D, Sales, and Services organizations. She is responsible for designing and executing the people strategy as well as elevating our People Culture.

Her focus is to deliver future-oriented and holistic people experiences, leveraging globally proven initiatives tailored to our local needs, with well-being and employee happiness at the heart of it. Shweta has 20+ years of strong client-facing experience, working with organizations such as Microsoft and Wipro Ltd.

Outside of the office, she enjoys catching up on non-fiction books, watching movies, and cooking for her two young daughters.

Q- What is DEI policy at SAP in India?

At SAP, we proactively promote diversity and inclusion, both within our workplace and in the marketplaces we serve. Our goal is to ensure that our workforce reflects the diversity of the societies and communities we work in, that our workplaces are welcoming for all, and that we serve the marketplace with a focus on rising everyone beyond the walls of SAP.

We make every effort to ensure that all stages of the employee lifecycle are inclusive to enable employee success, hold leaders accountable, and build a diverse ecosystem – both internally and among our partners and customers.

I would like to highlight some of the policies we provide to drive equity and inclusiveness across a diverse set of employees:

Women Returning from Maternity

After taking 26 weeks of paid maternity leave, women colleagues can request an extension for Unpaid leave for up to 16 continuous weeks or Work from a “home office” for a maximum of 16 weeks at 50% capacity and 50 % of base salary.

Flexible Schedule for Parents with Differently Abled Child

• Autism Circle -Colleagues from the Autistic spectrum at SAP are provided a support circle including workplace and personal mentorship. A dedicated member of Autism at Work community engages new Autism at Work colleagues socially and facilitates connections across the location.
• Adoption Assistance– We launched the Adoption Assistance Benefit wherein we introduced financial assistance for adopting parents to help offset the cost incurred as part of the adoption process.  We also cover Adoption Assistance irrespective of our employees’ identities by providing Adoption Assistance for a same-sex partner.
• Medical Coverage for Same-sex Partners: Medical Insurance Policy provides insurance plans to cover SAP employees and their dependents including same-sex partners. Employees can choose to add same-sex partners as dependents.
• Equal Parenting Leaves: To promote equal parenting, our employees can avail of paid paternity leave for up to 40 working days which can be applied in blocks of 5 days (8 tranches) within a year of your child’s birth.
• Gender Affirmation Surgery: It is covered under medical insurance.
• Family Care Policy:  We believe that all our employees and their loved ones are a part of our larger family. Employees can request up to 5 days  of family care leave  to support their family members in situations like hospitalization or illness.
• Gender-Neutral Washrooms: We believe that no one should be forced to reveal their gender and hence our buildings are equipped with gender-neutral washrooms.

Q- How do you embrace equity in the workplace?

At SAP we believe that our strength lies in differences, not in similarities.

Creating a diverse and inclusive culture makes us a better company, fueling our innovation, enhancing our experience of work, and enabling us to succeed in a rapidly changing world. We see and value every individual for what they contribute. And we are committed not just to the principles underlying this philosophy, but the day-to-day practices that bring it to life.

We embrace and encourage different perspectives and believe we are made stronger by our unique combination of culture, race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental ability, and work-life situations. We are proud to have equal opportunities for all people.

• We released a pay transparency policy by which our people can use the internal Compensation Assistant Tool to visualize their own pay range for their job family and career level.
• We launched initiatives to mainstream gender equality in management positions with practices such as the gender balance while shortlisting candidates, ensuring equal gender representation in interview panels, and streamlining the talent pipeline to give equal opportunity to all genders.
• We rolled out a policy for Persons with Disabilities (PwD). This policy covers all persons with disabilities, including those employees who acquire disabilities during their work tenure. This policy also applies to all aspects of employment, be it recruitment, training, working conditions, salaries, transfers, employee benefits, and career advancement.
• Generational diversity sheds our bias towards different generations. The different perspectives and views in a discussion fuel innovation. With over 50% of our employees under the age of 34, we leverage our focused programs such as Scholar@SAP and the Early Talent program to enhance their learning and leadership potential. We have Gen-Myth workshops that bridge the gaps between generations by bringing together employees across multiple generations to break down the myths and subtle biases.

Q- What is the gender ratio at SAP in India and what initiatives have you taken to improve Workforce Diversity?

In December 2022, we reached 35% of Women in the Workplace at SAP globally, a goal we had set in 2017 to achieve by the end of 2022. This is the result of intentional efforts to attract and retain talent despite a tough talent market.

We have curated specialized programs to build a pipeline and visibility of female Leaders within SAP. This program is designed to reach broader audience focusing on women at senior level individual contributors, experts, managers, and managers managing managers’ grades. It focuses on career roadmap, self-reflection, and visibility.

The outcome of the program is personalized action plan based on 360 assessments and interviews, and relationship intelligence results via the Strengths Development Inventory.

Q- Any final words?

SAP wants to live its commitment to becoming the most inclusive workplace in the world. It is a commitment that includes advancing workplace equity through inclusive policies on flexible work arrangements, enhanced parental leave benefits, and a focus on fair pay.

We want to create a safe space where everyone belongs, where our human differences are celebrated, and where people thrive in a culture that empowers them to help run the world better and improve people’s lives.