Vijay Mallya scouts for F1 women drivers

New Delhi: For Vijay Mallya, CEO of Kingfisher Airlines, hiring a woman Formula One (F1) driver would be the biggest branding exercise for the company. "For the liquor business we have a large number of women in the branding and marketing team. Now, I am looking for an F1 woman driver. The day I find one imagine the kind of brand value it will brings," said Mallya.

Thirty five-year old Reena Singh was a bit skeptical when she placed her resume on a popular job portal after a sabbatical of three years that she took for raising her daughter. But to Singh's surprise more than five employers showed interest in meeting her. Singh said, "It was unbelievable that employers were ready to hire me with a decent salary".

Even as Singh resumes her work as a financial analyst the case illustrated above is an indication of a paradigm shift in the minds of corporate employers who are more than willing to hire greater number women across verticals, reports India Today.

The IT company, CSC, for example, offers incremental bonus for referring women employees on board. The company is also ready to walk the extra mile for retaining a woman employee.

At the recently concluded India Economic Forum, Indra Nooyi, CEO, Pepsi spoke about her own personal experiences as a woman employee. She said, "The resume of a successful woman looks impressive but no one knows the heart aches and breaks that go in its making and as a woman I understand what other working women like me go through. Pepsi as a corporate offers women employees the best working atmosphere."

Citing an example of one of her women employees who had to recently go on a leave because of some personal reasons, Nooyi said, "I never looked at replacing her. Instead her work was shared by others and once she was back she resumed her duties." While large corporate are doing their bit in increasing their women manpower even small companies such as Thought-Works, an IT consulting firm, is more than happy to hire woman after maternity leave, sabbaticals or study breaks.

Traditionally, sectors such as manufacturing have been slow on hiring women employees but now even these have started hiring women in large numbers.