Where are the women Lookers?
No wonder so few women want to join the motor industry when all they can see above them are men.
A missed opportunity to do something about this image was at leading UK dealership group Lookers’ new Guild of Excellence staff awards. As you can see, not one winner was female…
Wouldn’t you think a UK dealership group ranked at No 5 in 2010 and who clearly depends on the female purse would have wanted to be seen as a female friendly employer who recognises the contribution of their female staff. Especially knowing that women are the gender spenders who so often feel ill at ease in such a male dominated industry?
Apparently not. This might be because Lookers’ Excellence Award winners are chosen based on performance measures such as profit contribution (with customer satisfaction a given surely) which is a management and dealership benchmark standard. Whereas more lowly individuals are recognised, of course, but monthly and subject to being nominated by colleagues for having gone beyond the call of duty.
Regardless of gender, I would still have thought it made sound business sense to be seen to encourage and reward female staff in ALL Awards categories. Especially females who are nominated as FOXY Choice approved Female Business Ambassadors and go on to represent the best interests of women customers in their respective dealerships.
However, putting my passion for celebrating and supporting more women in our industry to one side for now, may I congratulate the following dealerships and their managers who are the first winners of Lookers 2010 Guild of Excellence categories as follows:
- General manager/dealership of the year, sponsored by GardX – Paul Jenkinson, from Sheffield Ford
- Sales manager of the year, sponsored by The Warranty Group – James Tayler, from Park Royal Land Rover
- Service manager of the year, sponsored by Shell – Jason Hallam, from Brighton Mercedes-Benz
- Parts manager, sponsored by Auto Trader – Cyril Morrison, from Lisburn Vauxhall
- Bodyshop manager of the year, sponsored by IRIS – Martin Sharratt, from Blackburn VW
- Sales person of the year, sponsored by Premia Solutions – Andrew Rowe, from Chelmsford Land Rover
- Financial controller of the year, sponsored by Deloitte – Sukh Khatkar, from Tonbridge Mercedes Benz
- Business manager of the year, sponsored by Santander – Matt Hine, from Birkenhead Vauxhall.
Well done guys and I look forward to you getting some serious female competition in the very near future.
FOXY Steph
