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India – Executive search firms reporting increased demand for female execs

31 March 2015

Companies across India are aggressively trying to improve gender diversity at top management level, with four executive search firms together reporting nearly 100 live searches for female C-suite executives, double the number of such searches the same companies had last year, reports The Times of India.

Global executive search firm EMA Partners International currently has 26 live searches, compared with 12 a year ago, according to client partner A Ramachandran. Similarly, US-headquartered Heidrick and Struggles has seen a 60% increase in female C-suite searches over the past two years.

For fellow US –based firm Kelly Services, 30% of executive searches from Indian clients are for female candidates, compared with only 10% a year ago. At Japanese firm RGF Executive Search, a subsidiary of staffing giant Recruit, 40% of C-suite search requests are for women.

Multi-national companies were among the earliest to step up the hiring of women at senior management levels. And Indian companies are now following suit.

"Indian promoter driven organisations are on an aggressive bid to get high potential women talent at [C-suite] level," says Anindita Banerjee, Executive Director at RGF Executive Search. "Initially, the whole push came after it became mandatory to have women directors on the board. But this process triggered thinking in this direction." 

"India needs board-level women representation; so companies are trying to create a pipeline one level below," adds Kamal Karanth, Managing Director, KellyOCG. 

While demand for top women talent has gone up rapidly, actual success rate of such searches hasn't kept pace, say search experts. 

RGF Executive Search has seen demand go up by 40%, but success rate is only around 20%, according to Mr Banerjee. Such searches take longer, added Mr Karanth of KellyOCG.