Aditi Puri Batra, Country Manager, Intuit QuickBooks India

“At Intuit, we believe that innovation flourishes in a safe and inclusive environment wherein employees feel empowered to speak their mind. We want employees with a wide range of life experiences to bring new perspectives to the table, so great ideas can emerge. We also believe percentages merely do not define gender equality. When employees of all genders and identities feel they belong at Intuit is when we can truly realize gender equality. To bring this about, we conduct anonymous employee surveys, globally across our offices, including in India, asking them if they feel that they belong at Intuit.

Further, women comprise one-third of Intuit’s Board of Directors, and the CEO staff is at parity. Our goal is 100 per cent pay equity. We are constantly vigilant and are taking action to improve our pay equity status on a regular and ongoing basis. We have already expanded the practice of not asking candidates about salary history beyond California to all of the U.S., and plan to do the same in our global sites.

To foster gender equality, globally we have invested in talent initiatives in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) like Girls Who Code, Code2040, and Grace Hopper etc. In India, we launched Intuit Again, an initiative that inspires and provides an opportunity to women technologists to return to work after taking a break in their career for care giving purposes. Through this initiative, we also provide training in emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) among others. Another important step, we took last year was when we announced gender affirmation related support benefit for our LGBTQ employees in India who want to go through transition.”

We are leveraging AI and ML in our tax filing and personal finance products that are available in some global markets to improve Customer Experience (CX) and provide personalisation. On the enterprise products side, we are experimenting with Natural Language Processing (NLP) to offer enhanced CX. Our chatbot, QuickBooks Assistant, helps our customers in India to be GST-compliant via useful insights like how to apply for registration or responses to any queries they may have. Most importantly, we continue to innovate and evolve our security measures and protocols to pre-emptively stay ahead of bad actors without causing any disruptions to our customers’ businesses.

On the personal front, women need to demonstrate that money is as important for them as it is for men. They can do this by taking financial decisions themselves rather than shifting the responsibility to the men in the family. Women should define their money goals and investment objectives. If they are married, they should manage their expenses jointly with their spouse and participate in financial decisions such as taking loans, making investments and even tracking the progress of their investments. Secondly, they should not allow the men around them to believe that the primary responsibility of the household lies with women.”