Let me first of all introduce Y-Axis as a company. We help Indians pursue a career abroad and mostly through immigration – through a PR Visa or a Green Card.
Today we are one of the largest immigration companies in the world. Every month we counsel about 20,000 Indians on opportunities abroad.
What is unique about our success? That I started it in California, started in an apartment – that is true but what is not what I am here about. That we are one of the earliest and the most successful adopters of cloud computing technology in India is not what makes us special.
What makes us special is that we are run by women!
It was built by women. Specifically 5 women at the top – who are now in the Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors consists of women and I am the lone man. Our branch offices, our department heads – our Finance Department, our Technology for which we received the highest technology award are all run by women.
We are a fast growing company and we open a new office somewhere in India or the world every 3 months. And our team is now 600 of which a majority are women.
Women join us because they see the success of other women in the company.
When we were introspecting what could be the single most important reason for our success – Empowerment.
At Y-AXIS, our counsellors and process consultants hold in their hands the destiny of another. Every day they face clients who are seeking our counsel to go abroad. It’s real. They are serious. And when they talk to us, our counsellors know how serious and sensitive their job is. They are directly responsible for the change in the life of an individual and their families. It is this that transforms them.
The fact that it is a day shift helps a lot. I have some interesting stats of the hiring done in the last 3 months. Of the 90 odd staff we hired, most were women and most of them were returning moms. The reason they quit their previous jobs was primarily because it was a night shift.
Jobs in India today seem to be either highly technical or a nocturnal activity. So for a large section of the women these are off-limits. Who wants to come to work at 4 AM to work in New Zealand times? Who wants to come at US Times? 4 PM? Even if they join – how long will the party last? The jobs can be monotonous, boring and impersonal.
I read a stat that India losing about 20% of its white-collared workers every year because women choose to become stay-at-home moms. The standard reasons are simple: motherhood, teens and board exams.
Most of our employees return to work. We always have the door open for them. We would rather they return for our selfish reason – we trained them and they are our valuable resource. We cannot lose them to competition.
On the other hand – they feel comfortable to return because for them Y-Axis has always been their second home. It is one that makes them feel like they are more than a maid or as Havell new ad, a kitchen appliance. It is what makes them answer the question that most women who have done their daily chore and lying on the bed and asking – Is this all? Is this all that life has to offer? We give them that reason to carry on. To look forward to another day.
The success of these women we have learnt is their ability to juggle between work and life. Between being a professional and a mother and a wife. They have figured it out. The daily commute, the husband, the mother-in-law, the children. They do the balancing at every day. When they make it to work – and give it the 8 hours – they made it happen. They have to squeeze it in. There is no other way. It is a choice between staying at home and stagnating and coming out to the world and feeling alive – feeling special.
We don’t do anything in the name of diversity. We do it in the name of business and that is why it works. We don’t pamper anyone. We know it spoils them.
We as an organization know that in contributing to the organization lies individual accomplishment and fulfilment. It is reaching that challenge in a true sense that both the organization and the individual is made and the customer is rightly served.