Social networking major Facebook has decided to scale up operations of its Indian arm, a strategically located operations centre in the city.
Facebook India has grown from 8 million users to 50 million users in the country as the social networking site has turned out to be an effective communication tool for users on the move. This is evident from the significant increase in the number of mobile phone owners who constitute the major chunk of Facebook’s users.
“We are scaling up operations in India, through our centre in Hyderabad. But being an operations centre, the growth will not be like services’ companies,” Facebook India director-online operations Kirthiga Reddy said. Facebook, according to her, had no night shifts in any of its centres. “The work in these centres is like relay race. Each team should handle the baton and we are able to deliver 24X7 support this way,” she said. Ms. Kirthiga said Facebook had a healthy mix of men and women employees and this diversity was reflected at different levels of the organisation. The right environment provided in the office had ensured the right mix. “Thinking high about their careers is possible in Facebook,” she said. Gender specific differentiation was not the only reason behind lesser number of women in top corporate jobs. “Women tend to underestimate themselves. Studies have proven that only a handful of women are prepared to leave their jobs when they are offered another exciting opportunity,” she said.
A majority of them are hesitant to take new assignment in spite of the prospects and excitement it offers. Failure to negotiate effectively over their prospects was another area that needs to be addressed. “They (the corporates) are willing to pay if you negotiate. While men overestimate their performance, women often underestimate the amount of work, their contribution, they do for the organisation,” she said. Less than five per cent of women are succeeding in reaching higher positions as they are averse to think about choices. As a result, the number parity witnessed at entry level jobs could not be seen at the higher levels where the number of women becomes slimmer.
