A New Era for MSMEs: How DEIA is Transforming India's Small Business Landscape

A US Consulate, Mumbai programme helps small and medium enterprises make diversity and accessibility a byword in their organisations.

- by N. Ramakrishnan

Maithili Sagar outlines the vision that her company, Dyna-K Automotive Stampings Pvt. Ltd, has: to strive for a workforce where technical and operational excellence are furthered by a workforce enriched by diverse perspectives and backgrounds of its people. An environment where diversity is celebrated, equity is non-negotiable, accessibility is a given and inclusion is inherent. The aim is to create a workplace that is a model of respect, growth and collective achievement that brings the greatest possible benefit to Dyna-K Stamping, a Pune-based automotive components manufacturer.

Maithili has a key role to play in the company as its General Manager – Data Governance & Analytics, Finance MIS and HR. Dyna-K is nearly 40 years old and has about 100 people on its rolls, of which 55 are women in various functions such as design, accounts, inspection teams on the shop floor and even a few press operators. Besides, it has nearly 200 contract workers. A private limited company established in 1985, Dyna-K is now a $15-million company with 60 per cent of the turnover coming from exports. Its customers are multinationals, such as Bosch and the Cummins group along with other Tier 1 automotive component suppliers.

Dyna-K Stampings is one of the participants in a nearly year-long programme on DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility) funded by the US Consulate Mumbai. The Pune-based Venture Center is the Implementation Partner and PeopleWiz Consulting LLP, a consultancy that helps organisations prepare for the future, the Knowledge Partner. Diversity represents varied perspectives in the workplace from gender, identities, disability and generational differences. Equity is the principle of treating individuals based on their unique circumstances to achieve fair outcomes for all, while inclusion fosters a valued and respected environment for all.

Diversity and inclusion challenges for MSMEs

What is the relevance of such a programme for MSMEs? India, according to reports, is making slow but steady progress in diversity, equity and inclusion at the workplace. However, it still has a long way to go. Women form less than a fourth of the workforce, while only 17 per cent women occupy boardroom positions and only four per cent of the CFOs are women. Only 18 per cent of the MSMEs are held by women. MSMEs are the backbone of the Indian economy, contributing almost 30 per cent to its GDP. The sector employs over 110 million people, second only to agriculture. The problem is that most of the MSMEs are family-owned and given the challenges they face, they are more focussed on profit margins and very rarely prioritise diversity and inclusion practices.

Large companies in India and across the world have started to realise the huge potential and the social and economic benefits that accrue from having a diverse and inclusive workforce, while MSMEs fail to see the benefits to the bottom-line that a diverse human capital can contribute. However, quite a large number of MSMEs are part of the supply chain of large corporations, including multinationals,which now insist that their suppliers too adopt the best global practices, not just with manufacturing and accounting, but with hiring too.

Benefits of a diverse workplace

According to various research reports on the subject of diversity and inclusion, diverse perspectives unleash transformative power in companies; there is a high correlation between DEIA maturity at the workplace and improved competitive position, agility, innovation and brand perception. Maithili points out that DEI is an on-going journey and being part of such programmes allows DEI to remain a fundamental part of the organisation’s culture.

“While we have been on a growth path for gender diversity with a target plan, we are looking at how we can include other areas of diversity and inclusion, especially to consider and learn how we can involve talent that is differently abled but can be a part of a growing company. We felt that this message, interest and culture already signed off by the management need to be heard and voiced at all levels,” she adds.

Robert Anderson, Head – Public Engagement Unit at the US Consulate Mumbai, says the consulate does a lot of work in areas such as DEIA. A number of US companies have their Indian subsidiaries in Mumbai and quite a large number of Indian MSMEs are part of their supply chain. “As small businesses, they are just trying to stay alive and issues such as diversity and inclusion may sometimes be an after-thought.” “What if we could,” he adds, “leverage the expertise of some of the corporates and knowledge partners to mainstream DEIA with the MSMEs.” The objective of the programme, according to him, is that with the expertise, the MSMEs will mainstream diversity and inclusion as part of their journey and put the policies in place so that when their businesses are in a take-off phase, they have a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Protima Sharma, Managing Partner, PeopleWiz Consulting, says there is a solid business case for diversity when it comes to innovation. And, that is where Venture Center, which is a leading technology business incubator for innovative science-based start-ups, came into the picture when the US Consulate called for proposals for the DEIA Catalyst Programme. The programme covers MSMEs from across the country – the cohort has participants from not just the metros and large cities, but from places such as Vellore, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Kishengarh, Chandigarh, Baramati, Kolhapur and Nashik. There are non-governmental organisations that are participating in the programme, which includes a mix of in-person sessions, bootcamps, individual sessions and focussed group discussions. The organisations are from different sectors, including technology, medical and manufacturing. Some of the participants are small, with a team of six or seven people, while there are others that have 120 or 300 employees. The largest cohort member has 800 employees.

Drawing up a roadmap

According to Protima, the programme has five touch points over a 12-month period. It started with an awareness programme in each of the four zones the country has been divided into. The participants were taken through unconscious biases that each one may have, how to break their biases, gender diversity, how to hire talent and the need to be open to hiring diverse talent. Protima Sharma and Ruchira Gokhale, who is a DEIA expert and a resource person for the programme, sit with each participant individually, helping them chart their position on the DEIA journey and where they would like to be at the end of the 12-month programme. The organisers have also created a portal that will be a resource centre where all the material that they might need on DEIA will be available. The portal will have sample policies, inclusive job descriptions, inclusive hiring guidelines, a ready reckoner on best practices and inclusive language guides. There will be material on what other organisations are doing, what they can do differently and a code of conduct.

“We created an assessment tool and a maturity framework saying that from level zero to four, where do they stand. Everybody filled up that self-assessment and now we know who is at what level. We are helping them build a roadmap so that they can go to the next level using all the resources that we have given them,” says Protima.

Barrier-free access

While it is clear what diversity, equity and inclusion mean, there is a lot of doubt on what accessibility refers to. “Accessibility,” says Ruchira, “originates from people with disability and a barrier-free access.” For example, it could be infrastructure accessibility. Are there ramps and all other kinds of accessible infrastructure? It goes beyond that to digital accessibility. There are guidelines on web content accessibility and the websites have to be compliant, so that people with certain disabilities will consume online content. “Universally today, we are moving to barrier free. The barriers could be psychological barriers of bias or physical barriers. Therefore, the focus is on creating barrier-free accessibility,” adds Ruchira.

“At the end of the programme,” says Rob, “we hope there will be at least 10 MSMEs in each region that will assign a dedicated DEIA lead and draft and put into practice new inclusive, gender-neutral policies before their next recruitment cycle.”

According to Ashwini P Arvind Santosh, Employee Success Global Operations Head, Entomo, the company has been trying its best to implement DEIA values. The programme is valuable as it helps the company resolve concerns related to its current setup and associated challenges. It offers advice on necessary compliances and provides guidance throughout the company’s DEIA journey. Entomo, or enterprise of tomorrow, specialises in delivering enterprise software solutions focused on performance, growth, learning, wellness and insights. The company has over 100 employees, with 40 per cent being women. An interesting fact is that 50 per cent of Entomo’s leadership team consists of women leaders, including the CEO.

Benefits to NGOs

WAIC (Where Are India’s Children) is a non-governmental organisation that is working on a child’s right to family through adoption. It humanises children by digitising the records of children in Child Care Institutions (CCIs) or child shelters in Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka to make themvisible to the WCD (Women and Child Development) department authorities for adoption evaluation and a chance to reach a forever family. WAIC is a participant in the DEIA Catalyst Programme.

Meera Marthi, Co-founder and CEO, WAIC, says the top leadership at the NGO is aware of the importance of DEIA, but the programme will help this percolate to the team. There are so many small things that need to be understood and followed. For instance, she says, when we meet a person with disability, how do we interact with them. “When there are children with disabilities, a lot of people end up staring at them. There is so much insensitivity in society. We wanted to know how we can educate our team as well as be more sensitive and inclusive and also make them aware that there are different types of people around us,” says Meera. A more important aspect is, how to include such people in the policy-making process.

While her organisation is doing fine on the diversity aspect, there are challenges here too, she adds. For instance, most of their job requires a lot of field work and it is difficult to recruit women for field jobs, especially in rural areas. This is a huge challenge to overcome. “We want to create roles for everyone and how can we become an inclusive organisation. The leadership was always talking about it and this programme came as a blessing in disguise to get deeper into the how of it,” adds Meera.

The three participants have given a huge thumbs up for the programme and are convinced that the outcome will significantly change the way MSMEs look at DEIA. This is what the US Consulate Mumbai hopes for, says Rob. Protima, Ruchira and Rob hope that the participants will continue to interact among themselves, exchanging ideas, highlight the best practices and learn lessons from each other.