Deloitte’s Women@Work survey highlights organizations’ increasing focus on women’s equal opportunities and workplace safety and welfare.

The survey represents the views of 5,000 women across 10 countries, including India. Now in its fourth edition, the survey explores some of the key workplace and societal factors that have a big impact on women’s career paths.

The loyalty, productivity, motivation, and belongingness scores of women employed by gender equality leaders are three times greater than those of women employed by laggards.

Here are the 5 key takeaways:

Inclusive practices make a concrete difference: On a scale of 100, women working for Gender Equality Leaders (GELs) scored their loyalty at 76, productivity at 75, and motivation and sense of belongingness at 71.

These women professionals are more likely to recommend their organizations to other women.

They feel far more satisfied with the mental health support, and are comfortable talking about their mental health in the workplace.

They are also much more optimistic about their career prospects and confident that being a woman is not a disadvantage in their organization.

Women working for “laggards” perform significantly poorly on all these parameters.

Priority areas for organizations in India: Return-to-work approaches need to factor in unique situations. The transition to full-time work has resulted in difficult adjustments for many women professionals.

Forty-one percent have asked for a reduction in their hours

31 percent say it has negatively impacted their mental well-being

36 percent think less of their employer

These parameters are better for those who are returning to the office in a hybrid setup.

Organizations need to be more supportive of professionals as they harmonize work with life commitments.

Nearly 96 percent believe that requesting or taking advantage of flexible working opportunities will affect their career progression.

91 percent feel they can’t talk with their managers about challenges with work/life balance.

94 percent don’t think their workload would be adjusted accordingly if they were to take advantage of flexible working opportunities.

4. Male professionals need to be encouraged to share the load at home: Inclusive practices should improve male professionals’ allies in work and home, enhancing policies related to parental care and adult caregiving, and implementing facilities like nanny reimbursement.

Women in India are still shouldering the bulk of the responsibility when it comes to childcare and caregiving for adults.

The instances where the partner shoulders these responsibilities or where there is an equal split are higher when the woman is the primary breadwinner.

Even in such situations, there is a far higher reliance on paid help in India than with global counterparts (31 percent in India vs. 6 percent globally).

5. Safety concerns:

Forty-six percent of Indian respondents cited personal safety at work or when traveling to/from work as a top concern.

A little over a quarter of respondents feel that they could be attacked or harassed due to the location or neighborhood of their workplace.

Although to a lesser degree, other concerns are related to harassment or uncomfortable behavior by clients, harassment while traveling to work, and harassment by a colleague.

Saraswathi Kasturirangan, Chief Happiness Officer, Deloitte India, emphasizes the importance of promoting equal participation of women in the workforce, focusing on behavior change, addressing microaggressions and gender bias, and investing in areas beyond control. This includes extending zero-tolerance policies to vendors and customers, implementing night-time travel policies, and providing sensitization training.

“Much has been said about the business case for inclusive practices. These findings corroborate that point of view with hard facts. If an organization truly wants to grow, all its people need to be able to put their best foot forward. When your policies targeted at growing the careers of women professionals translate into action, you will be much better placed to grow, because you’re getting the best perspectives and a driven, gender-diverse workforce. Moreover, and importantly, you’re nurturing a nourishing and safe workplace,” she says.