NEWS AND INSIGHTS

IPDC Finance Limited won the award for the category of Most Progressive Organization at the 5th Women Leadership Summit & the 6th Inspiring Women Award 2021.

Women in Leadership - WIL organized the third Women in Leadership (WIL) Fest 2021 in light of International Women’s Day 2021 from March 8-9, 2021. The 6th Inspiring Women Award (IWA) is one of the key components of the fest and aims to recognize the aspiring and leading women in the corporate sector of Bangladesh, under different categories, and hence identify inspiring role models for women.

The Summit and Award were held from March 23rd – 24th, 2021 (Tuesday - Wednesday) virtually at 3:00 P.M. (23rd & 24th March 2021) & Award Ceremony at 08:00 P.M. (24th March 2021).

IPDC takes pride in being one of the most female-friendly organizations. They received the award for the category of Progressive Organization for adopting female-friendly policies, supporting female employees in their career path, and offering a congenial work environment for pursuing their aspirations.

The last 10 years have seen the numbers of women in IPDC increase immensely. The management committee has four female members out of the eleven total members, which includes the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer, Head of IT & Business Transformation and Head of Retail Business, which is significantly higher compared to six years back when there was just one female member of the management team. There are 121 female employees out of the 582 permanent employees, that’s 20.8% of the total permanent employees being women. They provide all kinds of benefits and facilities for women, including equal work opportunity, flexible working hours, work-from-home, maternity support, guideline for male employee behavior, medical facility, and many more.

Another example of IPDC’s focus on women empowerment is “Shushoma”, a platform created for female employees of the organization, where they can reach out to the female leaders of the organization for all kinds of issues, ranging from personal to career mentorship and even general guidance or advice. IPDC also collaborated with Her Story “Amio”, which is a part of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence campaign, allowing women employees to voice their stories. Women employees also have their own prayer room and bathroom where proper sanitation is provided.

IPDC took numerous steps to foster gender diversity, including making recruitment processes more inclusive; flexible working for women with children, which can prove vital to keeping career momentum and progressing up the corporate ladder; mentoring schemes to boost the confidence of new employees and helping them realize their full potential; and sessions with professionals for advice and guidance for both personal and professional issues.

Managing Director and CEO of IPDC, Mominul Islam, stated, “At IPDC, we create a culture that embraces diversity to overcome gender inequality at work. We believe gender diversity is not the responsibility of one individual; it’s an issue that every member of the company needs to engage with.”