Telenor Pakistan Wins Awards for Gender Equality

In recognition of its diversity and inclusion initiatives, Telenor Pakistan has won the Employer of Choice Award for Gender Balance by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Pakistan Business Council (PBC) and another accolade at the OICCI Women Empowerment Awards while competing against 39 other organizations. Both award ceremonies were held in Karachi recently where Umair Mohsin, VP Circle South at Telenor Pakistan received the Employer of the Choice award and Lene Gaathaug, Chief Human Resource Officer at Telenor Pakistan, received the accolade of first runner-up at OICCI Women Empowerment Awards. “This recognition on two different platforms validates our efforts towards enabling females in the corporate sector” said Irfan Wahab Khan, CEO at Telenor Pakistan. “We are proud to receive these awards and thank PBC, IFC and OICCI for the honor,” said Lene Gaathaug, Chief Human Resource Officer at Telenor Pakistan. The Employer of Choice Awards for Gender Balance recognized Pakistani employers that demonstrate a commitment to equal opportunity for women in the workplace. To be awarded, organizations were required to demonstrate how they are addressing gender equality across a number of benchmarks including leadership, flexible working, learning and development, remuneration and performance. The OICCI Women Empowerment Award recognized organizations demonstrating diversity and inclusion best practices that set high benchmarks for visible and genuine executive commitment and enablement of female employees along with initiatives that maximize the potential of female talent while also influencing the outside world to take up similar initiatives. Over the years, Telenor Pakistan has taken solid measures to make its workspace enabling and empowering for women. Besides facilities like flat six-month paid maternity leave, an in-house daycare center, driving classes for female employees, and endless opportunities to learn and grow, the organization runs programs like ‘NayaAghaaz’ to promote inclusion and prepare women to start afresh after a career break.