Attrition of women in IT sector doubled compared to men since December

Female attrition has doubled compared to male attrition in India's technology industry since December, as more companies began requiring employees to return to office, data from recruiters and exit interview firms show.

According to data from InCruiter, a provider of exit interview services, female employee attrition has reached as high as 30-40 per cent in recent months, compared to the industry average of around 15 per cent.

Women in mid-career roles (aged 30-40 years) leave the most due to the extra burden of childcare and domestic responsibilities, it added.

Since many of them are still looking for flexible work options, staffing services firm TeamLease Digital reported a 1.0-1.5 percentage point decline in the share of women in the technology workforce.

Data suggest that most women are switching to jobs closer to home or even taking on gig/freelancing jobs that offer more flexibility.

Attrition among women in tech industry

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT firm, revealed in its annual report last week that attrition among women at the company had increased in 2023, even as more people returned to on-premises work. TCS also lost more women in mid-level positions.

While this sparked a debate online, the top three IT firms — TCS, Infosys, and Wipro — said the share of women in their workforce remained nearly unchanged.

Data from TeamLease Digital further shows that attrition among women in the tech industry was eight per cent in 2021, far below the overall figure of 20 per cent.

By the end of 2022, approximately 16 per cent of female employees had left their jobs, compared to the industry average of 15 per cent, indicating that churn among women had surpassed that of men. This has now become even more pronounced.

In 2022, women made up approximately 36 per cent of the Indian technology workforce. However, their share of the technology workforce has declined, said TeamLease Digital CEO Sunil C, "as the market conditions are not conducive to job changes and many candidates who gave up their jobs are still looking for suitable flexible work options."

Work flexibility has been the primary driver of such churn, despite the fact that multinationals and product companies have continued to offer more flexible options, attracting a lot of this talent, he said.

The number of large enterprises in India offering flexible work hours fell to 58 per cent in 2022 from 68 per cent in 2021, data from female-focused networking platform HerKey showed.