Interviewed By Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee, Team MBR

Ms. Afreen Huda is a seasoned Human Resources (HR) professional with more than 22 years of experience in her professional area who has worked in many esteemed organisations, namely Reckitt, Robi Axiata, Standard Chartered, Unilever, and so on. Currently, she is serving as the Group Chief Human Resources Officer of IDLC Finance PLC. After obtaining the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration from the Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka, she joined BRAC, and her journey in the professional world started. Team MBR was fortunate enough to be in conversation with Ms. Afreen Huda, General Manager and Group Chief HR Officer of IDLC Finance, and receive her take on the leadership of women in the corporate world.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: In recent times, women have successfully managed to climb the corporate ladder and land top positions at some of the most renowned firms because of their outstanding leadership skills and qualifications. Would you kindly share with us how the corporate culture in the country has facilitated the growth in the number of female leaders?

Afreen Huda: If we take a look at multinational companies, women have always been there, at least at the mid-level and operational levels, for the last 4 decades, though only a handful have made it to the C-level positions or have been successful entrepreneurs. Examples that come to mind are Ms. Rupali Chowdhury, for instance, who has been serving as the Managing Director of Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited for quite a long time. The advertising industry has been dominated by strong female leaders like Sara Zaker and Geeteara Safiya. We also see corporate figures like Rubaba Dowla and Shwapna Bhowmick trailblazing the way for more women to follow. However, there is a long way to go before we are able to boast comparative participation in board rooms. For that, we definitely need to emphasise the role played by diversity and inclusion. D&I is a notion that has only attracted much attention over the last decade or two. The concept has eased in changes that have proved to make the workplace conducive to building women leaders. Back in the 2000s, most organisations used to offer maternity leave for two months only, and paternity leave was not there at all. Now maternity leave is offered for six months at most organisations, and many organisations have started to offer paternity leave as well. Workplaces did not think of offering crèches back in the 2000s. Now, at least most of the multinational companies offer crèches or nurseries at their workplaces. Some organisations are now appreciating the issues of women persevering through the pain of menstruation and have introduced leaves accordingly. Also, to ensure diversity and inclusion, some multinational companies strictly adhere to the ratio of males and females stipulated by their parent companies. So, I have to say that organisations have started recognising the uniqueness women bring to the table, which helps see the organisation through a different lens, and taking more transformational initiatives to leverage inclusivity. The transformation initiatives are designed to give women a sense of safety and security where they can focus on contributing their best. As a result, more women who possess the required qualifications have started appearing in leadership roles recently.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh has reported that 48% of the enrolled students in public universities are female and the rest 52% are male, which reflects gender parity in tertiary-level education. Do you think that the demographics of our workplaces reflect the gender parity that is evident in tertiary-level education?

Afreen Huda: No, I do not think so. To analyse this scenario, you first need to understand in which functional area most of the job seekers are being hired. Undoubtedly, it is sales in all the industries. Sales is creating more employment opportunities than any other function. However, the country’s infrastructure is not conducive to hiring female candidates. Working in sales involves frequent field visits, meetings with distributors, and working at remote offices that do not have amenities like head offices do. So, women hesitate to join sales. Unless we can encourage women to join the function where the largest chunk of job seekers are being hired, the parity we see at tertiary-level education can never be achieved at workplaces. However, before that, there is much infrastructural development to be done to make the jobs women-friendly. HR practices in our country are a decade old, except for some multinational companies. We need to study the best HR practices around the world and reshape our corporate culture accordingly. Only then will we be able to encourage women to take over all kinds of job roles and achieve gender parity at workplaces.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: A report published by the International Finance Corporation and the Dhaka Stock Exchange in 2020 states that 17.70% of the directors on the boards of listed companies on the Dhaka Stock Exchange were female in 2018, which is the highest in South Asia. Would you kindly shed some light on the role of women as directors on boards to ensure better corporate governance, as claimed by many researchers?

Afreen Huda: Actually, in a good number of cases in our country, the female directors received the directorship through inheritance. In some of the large conglomerates, women have appeared as successors and taken over positions on the boards. However, I look at it very positively. Instinctively, women are better managers than men. Their roles in their families have helped them to develop the qualities to nurture and hold together. It eventually results in better decision-making and empathy towards colleagues. Women are better than men in terms of emotional intelligence, too. It makes women think from different angles before making any judgements regarding anyone. The uniqueness of women adds different dimensions to the decisions they make. Hence, the presence of women on the boards helps to derive better decisions than the boards would have made otherwise.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Bangladesh has jumped to 59th position from 71st position in 2022 in the Global Gender Gap Index 2023 among 146 nations. How do you envision women as leaders in their respective workplaces in light of the recent advancement of the country in the Global Gender Gap Index? Would you kindly share with us the challenges that women face to achieve gender parity in leadership positions? What measures are needed to be taken to remove the barriers?

Afreen Huda: I firmly believe that women will progress as leaders at their respective workplaces. However, the first challenge they will face is their own mindset and willpower. We need to treat employees as resources or human capital and not as gender-defined personnel working for the organisation. It is up to the woman as to how they would like to be perceived in their workplace and in society at large. They have to have the willpower to go beyond conventional positions, which have been demarcated for women, and vie for higher grounds. Then comes the aspect of changing the mindset of the organisation. They need to understand that while hiring a person, they are not deploying the personality but rather the set of skills and competencies that the person possesses. Hence, it is not about being gender-defined. But rather being identified by the skills and competences innate to the respective person. Women must be treated as resources like men are. To help the women in the team perform, line managers should be able to empower and encourage them to exercise their decisions and ideas. Secondly, workplace cultures and environments must be improved. There should be freedom of expression and freedom of choice. The days of raising eyebrows and whispering as soon as a woman passes by are waning. Women should have the freedom to pick any attire to wear, as long as it is modest and does not violate the attire etiquette for workplaces. Gossip culture should be eradicated. If these can be ensured, we will be able to foster a more woman-friendly environment. At the very same time, women must be able to understand the magnitude of the tasks to which they have been delegated. Just showing up at the workplace will take them nowhere. They must put in all their efforts with the utmost sincerity.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: According to the data of the central bank, 16.32% of the workforce of around 2 lakhs in the banking sector are women as of June 2023. From your perspective, what are the reasons behind the underrepresentation of women in the banking sector, and how can we significantly increase the inclusion of women at banks?

Afreen Huda: There is a stereotype prevailing in our society that women are only good at jobs that involve customer service. Hence, when it comes to roles involved with customer services, banks and financial institutions happily consider women for those roles. But when it comes to roles in sales, such as relationship managers, these organisations hesitate to hire women for those roles. It is very natural because these roles require frequent movements and attending offices in remote areas with fewer amenities. On top of that, there are extended working hours at banks and financial institutions. However, if someone works smartly, he or she does not need to stay late. We need to inspire ourselves by global trends in various working philosophies and offer to our colleagues the philosophy that serves the purpose of the organisation and at the same time enables better work-life balance for our employees. Unless our banks and financial institutions can offer a better work-life balance, encouraging women to join the workforce will be a big challenge. 

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Though the workforce in the readymade garments sector demonstrates gender parity, the number of women in managerial and leadership positions is much lower in comparison to men. Why is the scenario quite opposite in cases of managerial positions in the ready-made garments sector, in your opinion? How can we overcome this situation?

Afreen Huda: I do not have much idea about the ready-made garment sector. However, in layman’s terms, meeting with merchandisers, going from buying house to buying house, etc., are not that women-friendly in the context of Bangladesh. If someone gets charge of a garment factory that is already built, that is a different case. But building a garment factory from scratch is not that easy for women in the context of our country. Readymade garment factories deal with international buyers in huge quantities. The consequences of one wrong decision can have dire consequences. Perhaps this is the reason why the factory owners do not rely on women because of the stereotypes they believe in about women. Having said that, we do have successful women leaders in the garment industry: Rubana Haq and Shwapna Bhowmick. 

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: The local startup scene has experienced the rise of several female founders and co-founders. Would you kindly share your thoughts behind the development of an entrepreneurial mindset among women while playing various roles in the corporate world successfully?

Afreen Huda: Transitioning from corporate life to the life of an entrepreneur is very refreshing. Forming a startup gives the founder the authority to lead and implement his or her own ideas. It also enables the founders to have the feeling of doing something for the country by creating employment opportunities for others. They are not accountable to anyone. Moreover, when someone works on their own projects, they are always motivated to go the extra mile. I believe these are the reasons why the startup scene has seen many female founders and co-founders come up.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: As a seasoned HR professional with experience at multiple esteemed organisations, you have come across various organisational policies and practices. Would you kindly share with us how policies should be designed at corporations in terms of pay, benefits, working hours, and leaves to facilitate the career advancement of women?

Afreen Huda: Pay and benefits should be at parity for all. However, policies regarding working hours and leaves are something that can be tweaked to promote diversity and inclusion. Flexible working hours should be there so that women can comfortably manage their homes and workplaces. Organisations must have platforms where women can raise grievances without fear of losing jobs. For mental wellbeing, workplaces can employ psychologists so that, irrespective of gender, employees can receive counselling to deal with the stress and mental issues they are going through. For physical wellbeing, yoga and meditation can be introduced at workplaces. In first-world countries, these facilities are very common. These should be made common practices at our workplaces too.