Axis Bank seeks applications from ‘homemakers’

To fill 15 positions in its HR department and in the process redefines housework

Axis Bank has reserved 15 vacant positions in its human resources department for ‘homemakers’. If this hiring programme — titled ‘HouseWorkIsWork’ — is out of the ordinary, what led to it is even more unusual.

A homemaker, Pallavi Sharma sent in a CV that spelt out how her responsibilities in the Sharma household — which is her own — qualified her for the role she had applied for.

Rajkamal Vempati, president and head — HR, Axis Bank says Pallavi’s CV set them thinking, and encouraged them to be open to hiring homemakers coming right out of a career break, or without prior experience, provided they have the requisite qualifications and job-oriented skills.

This hiring exercise is being driven by Pallavi, now an Axis Bank employee. It is inclusive, having been extended to not just women, but also men, and those with other gender identities. And also those with different sexual orientations.

“We recognise that homemakers could be of all genders. Though majorly, it is women who are seen in the role of a homemaker: a thing we hope will change with more and more women taking the plunge in corporate skies,” she says.

“We have received hundreds of CVs from women, men and LGBTQIA+ homemakers,” reveals Rajkamal and notes that the hiring team would make the effort to connect and evaluate each of them.

The minimum qualification is graduation and work experience can range from 0 to 15 years.