GE organises WATT as a women’s network initiative

GE organised an event Women and Tech Trends (WATT), as a GE Women’s Network initiative on June 11, 2012 at the GE John F Welch Technology Centre, Bengaluru. The event was organised to discuss the role of women employees in all the fields including healthcare as well as focus on various issues they face and find ways to solve them. The afternoon session of WATT focussed on healthcare and had eminent experts who shared their views on the problems being faced in the Indian healthcare sector today as well as the problems being faced by women.

The inaugural address was delivered by Munesh Makhija, CTO, GE Healthcare, India, who shed light on the difference between men and women and how it is important to have both in an organisation. This was followed by a session with Kelly Lafnitzegger, Senior HR Manager, Global Research who spoke on Women in Science & Engineering (WISE): Powering Growth. This was further followed by a fireside chat on Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus…Diversity in Workforce between Dr Gopichand, MD, GE India Technology Centre, Kelly Lafnitzegger and Priya Chetty Rajagopal, Vice-President and Partner, StantonChase International; Convener, CII Women’s Business Leaders Forum.  “Women are in many ways better than men. For instance, they can multi-task, communicate well and build strong relationships. These elements are of crucial importance in a company like ours and so we would always want to have women employees at GE. It is the job of a company to ensure that the employees are happy and do not face any problems. As women have to take care of their family the likelyhood of them quitting their job after having a family is more than that of men. That is where the role of the company and the manager comes into place. We need to co-operate and alter our ways to ensure that a women employee is not leaving the organisation due to family reason,” said Makhija.          

Jasleen Kaur Batra (jasleen.batra@infomedia18.in)