LankaBangla Finance plans to increase the ratio of women it employs to 25 percent by 2020 as it strongly believes females equally contribute to the growth and development of a company.
The non-banking financial institution has 1,546 employees, comprising both permanent and contractual staff, and about 20 percent of them are women.
These female employees hold positions in the back office as well as the heads of departments, according to the company.
The head of the legal affairs department is a woman, who is also a member of the management committee. Besides, the heads of the liability operations and the corporate liability department are also women.
“The contribution of men and women is equal. Even sometimes the female employees are better than their male counterparts,” said Md Shariful Islam Mridha, head of the human resources at LankaBangla Finance.
On International Women's Day, the company will arrange a function where its female employees will share their thoughts and experiences through stories.
At the function, Jaitun Sayef, a successful woman and an independent director of LankaBangla Finance, will reward the top five stories as the chief guest.
“We are promoting women. We want them to work in the managerial positions of the company,” said Mridha.
“It is not that we are promoting them just because they are women or we want to increase the ratio. The truth is that they are knowledgeable and have strong background and experience on a particular area. We are promoting them because of their performance and experience,” he said.
He said the employees of LankaBangla do not treat the women as “female colleagues”. “They see them as the part of the organisation.”
Mridha said if women are given proper work environment they can even take up challenging tasks.
LankaBangla Finance spends Tk 1.5 crore every year for training and development. The company has 19 branches and it plans to open 10 __more this year.
It also plans to set up a full-fledged daycare centre in its new corporate headquarters in Tejgaon.