Precision puts women in demand at mobile handset factories

Higher precision, focus, and productivity levels of women are making them more sought-after employees than men at mobile handset assembling factories in the country where the fairer sex already accounts for more than 50 per cent of the workforce in many cases, with several manufacturers asking to specifically hire more women.  

While women have traditionally made up the majority of the workforce at garment manufacturing factories, more women are now making their way to the factory floors even in industries like automobiles, electronics, and aluminium plants.  

Gender diversity is improving in electronic manufacturing in an organic way because women are a natural fit for the roles, said workforce solutions and temporary hiring firm Adecco India's chairman and managing director Vidya Sagar Gannamani.  "Electronic manufacturing is clearly one industry where companies are asking for women who are trained graduates, ITI or diploma holders to manufacture small electronic appliances."  

Simply put, women are preferred because of their precision, consistency, and quality, he added.

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"We work with one of the largest mobile handset manufacturing plants in India. And the company wants us to hire 70-80 per cent female employees," said ManpowerGroup India's senior director of sales and global accounts, Alok Kumar. The staffing and recruitment firm added that the absolute numbers are in thousands.

One or two new contract manufacturers are going to set up their factories outside Chennai soon to make electronics for one of the best brands in the world. It looks like they are also going to follow the same trend, he added.
 
"Women workers' attention to detail and dexterity works well in the warehouse. For example, in electronics manufacturing, mainly mobile phone manufacturing, more than 50 per cent of the workforce is women. It has been seen that their productivity and attitude to work are also good. The entire logistics and e-commerce sector is also learning from this experience of the electronic manufacturing sector and hiring women for warehousing roles," said CIEL HR Services director and CEO, Aditya Narayan Mishra.
 
The work requires continuous sitting for 2-3 hours at a stretch with a focused approach. Women are also found to have more dedication and stability in their jobs, added Kumar.

The demand for women employees has gone up even further after the pandemic. With reverse migration of male workers from big cities to hometowns, these companies re-strategised their hiring. So, now they are willing and more receptive towards hiring, training, and deploying a female workforce," added Kumar.

Recently, Ola Electric announced a 10,000-strong all-women workforce for its upcoming two-wheeler factory in Chennai. Others like HeroMoto and MG also reportedly have a sizeable chunk of women on the shopfloor. Foxconn group company Rising Star, Micromax parent Bhagwati, Titan's watch factories, and Vedanta Aluminium also reportedly have women manufacturing devices, appliances and managing smelting plants and crane operations.

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