Shell India awarded United Nation’s Best Innovative Practices award 2018 for “Women at Workplace” category

Celebrating the recognition, Ms. Mansi Tripathy, Country Head, Shell Lubricants India Cluster, said, “Shell has a proud heritage of celebrating diversity and fostering inclusion. I am proud to be part of an organization that provides women opportunities to grow as professionals, while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Our global theme of ‘Balance means Business’ is built on the foundation that better gender balance leads to greater business performance. On behalf of Shell, I thank the UN GCNI for recognizing this effort.”

The UNGCNI’s case study competition drew participation from over 30 organizations from across Corporates, NGOs, Semi government, Start-ups and B Schools. The jury comprised of experienced individuals including Sarika Bhattacharya- CEO Of BD Foundation, a leading D&I consulting firm in India; Mrs. Veena Swaroop, Ex- Executive Director Human Resources for Engineers India Limited and Dr. Manushi Chaudhary- Academician from the Birla Institute of Management.

The winners of the award were judged on the basis of a case study highlighting organization diversity & inclusion (D&I) practices. Shell India’s presentation on, “Balance means Business” highlighted the company’s 3C model (Compliance, Care & Choice) through real life experiences of its women employees who shared personal stories to bring to life the impact of Shell’s policies on their careers as well as the role of leaders and enabling environment. Be it reaping the benefits of the home working policy while leading the HR portfolio for Asia Pacific; or benefitting from a six-month sabbatical to pursue dance and spirituality, the Shell women stories further brought to life the tangible value created by the company’s D&I focus.

Added Mr. Tarun Varma, VP HR, Shell India, “We accept this prestigious recognition on behalf of the 7000 colleagues who are powering progress together every day across Shell’s lines of business and services in India. We truly admire and respect the many roles women play, both personally and professionally. We re-affirm our commitment to making Shell a truly inclusive workplace where each of us is motivated to bring our whole self to work, irrespective of gender, race, age or sexual orientation.”

Shell’s focus on other aspects of diversity ranging from opportunities for especially abled people, differential lifestyle choices and orientation including for LGBTQ especially struck a chord with the jury. The case study also brought out the uncompromising focus by the Shell businesses in India around safety & security and state of the art facilities, that create an enabling environment for diversity to thrive.

Shell India’s full suite of programmes on capacity development and mentoring were acknowledged and appreciated by the jury. This was also viewed as a successful formula towards sustained improvement of women representation at senior levels. Initiatives undertaken by Shell Foundation and examples such as the NXplorer (an awareness building programme focused on food - water - energy nexus) and Re-Energize (a programme to support women, who have been on a career break due to assorted reasons, to start a career with Shell) also helped set the company apart from the other entries.