Work with startups at Innovation Valley Post-Maternity

Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society, the innovation wing of Sunrise State, Andhra Pradesh has planned an initiative to help startups connect with women who are desirous of resuming their professional life post-maternity break. Acknowledging the massive challenge women in their post-maternity period face while trying to balance their personal and professional lives, AP Innovation Society is creating a platform where their skills can be honored and utilized efficiently by the startups for the overall growth of the community. By providing flexible work timings and facilities like work from home, the goal is to connect startups with women who have prior experience.

The biggest challenge we face in Andhra Pradesh is the shortage of experienced workforce. Work from home gives us the flexibility to not only attract great talent that otherwise might not want to travel to a location but also allow to explore the talent pool across the globe.

The Poster for this initiative was launched today in the presence of Nara Lokesh, Minister for IT, Panchayati Raj and Rural Development and P. Vijayanand, IAS, Principal Secretary to the Ministry of IT and Winny Patro, Chief Executive Officer, Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society at the Premises of Sunrise Towers, Innovation Valley, Rushikonda, Visakhapatnam.

This initiative benefits startups and also women in parallel. Startups can’t afford to hire a full-time professional to reach their work requirements. Hiring workforce with good acquaintance would be of great expense thereby resulting in poor guidance. And also, women post-maternity do not prefer to move out of their zone for every reason so, and hence keeping this in mind we wanted to initiate work from home to encourage women, who have experience and the enthusiasm to work, post-maternity.

The number of women who have expanded their careers into entrepreneurship post-maternity has increased significantly in the last ten years. A lot of women who have the urge to work are still not able to reach their targets due to their environments. This is a great platform for every such woman to come forward and bounce back into their careers. Flexible schedules are another bonus to work remotely with the startups, also resulting in a stress-free lifestyle.

Many big firms have introduced work from home option for their employees so as to acquire talent from around the globe and increase the efficiency of work. Work from home is an amazing opportunity to not only the women but also the startups, as for them to have an experienced employee remotely can limit absence and save costs which is the most important factor for a startup.

The firms can have increased insights into the local markets when hired from different places. Office space is a huge issue that most startups face, and hence hiring people to work from home helps them overcome this constraint.

AP Innovation Society is playing a key role in this process by collecting the requirements of the startups by understanding what profile they are looking for, mapping them with the profiles of women who are desirous of resuming their professional life and finally connecting them to the startups.

The recently established partnerships with Israeli, Finnish and Hong Kong Ecosystems have ascribed more visibility to us in these dynamic and progressive environments. Further, the initiative has been lauded by the Local Media Fraternity.

“Women are effective enablers and multi-taskers, more so after childbirth and sabbatical because they know what it takes to drive a dream with meticulous time management. AP Innovation Society identifying this trait and empowering women is highly commendable,” shares Deepa Balasubramanian, CEO, The Sedibus.

Registrations are open and women who are seeking to avail this opportunity can register on http://bit.ly/balanceforbetter . Post registrations, the applicants will be connected with Startups who are looking for a workforce.