ICICI Bank has launched an initiative that allows women employees to work from home for up to a year. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Chanda Kochhar said the iWork@home could be extended for more than a year based on the requirements of the employee.
The initiative allows women employees to access their required operating systems in a safe and secure manner, creating a seamless office-like environment. The bank has developed the technology platform for this programme in-house, along with students from IIT, Delhi. Facial recognition technology will ensure data security and privacy. Kochhar said the initiative aimed to give a stronger support system to manage the challenge faced by young mothers, expectant mothers, women suffering from medical conditions, etc. The bank has also launched an initiative which allows young women managers, while on official trip, to take their young ones up to three years and their caregivers along with them.
“Women who would have otherwise quit due to maternity, childcare or other reasons are now requesting for this option so that they can continue to work with the bank from home and are also progressing at the same pace in their career as other colleagues,” Kochhar said. Launched only a few weeks back, employees, under this programme, carry out multiple tasks which include checking documents for loan disbursement, image-based verification of cheques for clearance and processing of export-import documents for payments, etc.
The bank also introduced new benefits under its “Advantage Woman Savings Account”. These include unlimited free ATM usage at all banks, cash back subject to a maximum of Rs 750 per month on usage of debit card at departmental stores; it also provides 30 per cent discount on first-year locker rentals.
