The Aarambh programme is designed by Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) to hire, train, and integrate women into the Level 1 Sales pool. Through Aarambh, we learned, they’re employing a unique hiring approach, including open-source hiring from industries such as ed-tech, e-commerce, and non-sales FMCG companies. All this allows them to tap into the pool of fresh MBA graduates and adopt lateral hiring.

Why does this matter? Across industries, sales are a male-dominated sector. It's well-known that women face challenges in entering the field and finding roles in which they can thrive. Aarambh aims to change that. "I have to take charge and make my place in business to have the concerned stakeholders take me seriously," Nandini Sundrani, an Aarambh trainee, told the program. "They can’t take me lightly just because it’s ‘a man’s job’ here in sales."

GCPL couldn’t agree more, and Aarambh is crucial to how they see the future of sales. At present, the programme has 22 trainees.

He told us that he envisions sales roles as offering leadership opportunities from day one, since salespeople are closest to consumers and constantly receive feedback. He firmly believes that women are well-suited for success in sales, provided there's a supportive environment.

As part of the programme, they provide additional headcount to divisions for a period of 6-12 months until independent territories are mapped to individuals. Women-friendly territories within each division are identified to ensure that women receive preferred territories, especially in relation to life changes that may impact their choice of geography, including marriage, parenting, and family care.

For the onboarding approach, given the diversity and non-linear sales experience of trainees, the company trains their focus on getting the onboarding model right with an individualised approach that includes training, geography mapping, and guidance.

Since trainees have diverse backgrounds, the onboarding approach of the Aarambh programme focuses on individualised training and guidance. Their current aim is to get their onboarding model right and to build learnings for future sales trainees and women talent.

So far, Aarambh has received over 450 applications, resulting in 87 shortlists, 40 interviews, and final selections of seven candidates for the Aarambh programme.

"I am an accidental engineer but soon I realised I was good with people, so here I am at a sales training programme at Godrej,” said Shivangi Singh, with prior experience in education tech and a passion for resolving problems of work-life balance. Her motivation to make the shift was shared by Radha Reddy, a fresher from Karnataka with an MBA in Marketing and Analytics. Nayana Vijaya Priya, a microbiologist with a love for exploring different cultures and challenging herself, was excited to work in a team with members who have diverse skillsets and talents.

The differences in their backgrounds are representative of the variety of experiences brought to the table at Aarambh. They also represent the range of talent and quality that Aarambh hopes to foreground at GCPL.

Text by Prithvi Vatsalya. Image provided by the GCPL team.