Tag Archives: female friendly employer

female friendly

Jolly George praises female friendly employer Toyota

george_toyota2The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, praised Toyota’s provisions for childcare in the workplace this week during his visit to Toyota’s Burnaston car plant in Derbyshire.

Mr Osborne, joined by Exchequer Secretary Priti Patel, toured the on-site Bumpers Nursery and spoke to some of the women engineers who use it..

By making a nursery facility available to local employees in Derbyshire Toyota is setting out its stall to attract young women to consider a career in UK manufacturing.

nurseryThe nursery is called Bumpers and looks after 70+ youngsters aged from three months to school age. Toyota provides the building and the nursery is operated by Kidsunlimited.

In its most recent Ofsted inspection (2013), Bumpers was rated “outstanding”.

Mr Osborne said:

“It is brilliant to see an iconic company like Toyota actively supporting working parents by providing on-site childcare for staff. One of the key barriers to work for parents is finding convenient and affordable childcare. That is why we are introducing tax free childcare but there is still more we can do which is why I will be looking at this issue at this year’s Autumn Statement.”

Tony Walker, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Manufacturing UK said:

“Toyota UK is delighted to welcome the Chancellor to Derby to meet mothers who use our on-site nursery, Bumpers. We are extremely proud of Bumpers and its outstanding rating awarded by Ofsted.

“We want our staff to feel welcomed back to work and that their children are well looked after. Toyota UK is committed to an inclusive, family friendly place of work and the provision of an on-site nursery is just one example of the opportunities open to our employees.”

FOXY says:

This isn’t a new facility but it is a clever source of competitive advantage from a manufacturer employer that is clearly more aware of gender change than many and has made this a strategic business case.

Yes this is a family friendly initiative but the real beneficiaries are hard working Mums who can concentrate on their career knowing their children are safe and close to hand. And who knows, some may even follow Mum into a Toyota career in due course. Providing To find outorthey work hard at their STEM exams of course!

NB: For more about Bumpers in Derby and their Open Day on Friday 21 November go to http://www.kidsunlimited.co.uk/nurseries/bumpers-derby/

women in the motor industry

The motor industry needs MORE WOMEN

WeNeedYouI run FOXY Lady Drivers Club and if the motor industry was more female friendly in the first place I doubt we’d exist as it was borne out of our daughter’s bad garage experience quite a while ago now!

Nowadays things have moved on for FOXY and yet the industry still needs many more women in it to make it ‘seem’ a more female friendly place for future employees and customers alike.

I use the word ‘seem’ because a lot of the female apprehension I encounter is stereotypical, out of date and there are many female friendly employers who are harnessing the advantages of having women in their workforce. Most of these are in front of house customer service and sales roles where our natural people skills can come to the fore.

Sadly, as a result of this ‘no go’ perception, which is often influenced by out of date parents I hasten to add, too many young women are missing out on some really exciting career opportunities in an industry that is crying out for them; even if it doesn’t realise it or know how to go about recruiting us.

This is particularly bad news for the industry of course because female graduates are outperforming their male counterparts in many disciplines but they are less interested in (or knowledgeable about) motor industry careers.

Start at the top

beale1Yes we need to start by recruiting more Women Board Directors at the top of the motor industry in the male dominated boardrooms of vehicle manufacturers and dealership groups.

Knowing that there are now more women drivers than male drivers on US roads (how many Board Chairman realise this I wonder?) and that the UK will likely follow suit, it’s about time that more UK Boards realised that a male-led agenda doesn’t make them a female friendly employer and that female shoppers are increasingly favouring businesses that clearly understand and meet their needs.

Getting it right for females is therefore a HUGE business opportunity and should surely be a strategic item on all Board agendas; especially knowing the shift to girl power and her financial influence on others is happening during their watch.

The message for female students

JLR_0525The industry needs to get its message out to young women at grass root levels as well. Companies like Jaguar Land Rover’s ‘Inspiring Tomorrow’s Engineers: Young Women in the Know’ course are leading the field here for sound commercial reasons. Women don’t have to get their hands dirty or wear overalls although how else would female engineers, like those in the photo, start their career other than by a hands on induction programme?

And well run garages don’t have to be dirty although far too many still are grubby places in my experience. Having said that I’ve been encouraged by many of the immaculate FOXY Lady Approved accident repair centres I’ve visited recently.

Other than this, all businesses should look at their female friendly employer credentials and have these added to their recruitment campaigns to give them women appeal. Sadly this will be a very short list for most.

Barriers to female appeal

We have women running motor racing teams, excellent but rare apprenticeship schemes for females, women heading up motor industry associations, running their own garages, car dealerships, car parts and leasing companies and so on. But why are we still seen as the exception and not the norm I wonder?

Why, for example, aren’t there more women in car showrooms selling us cars? And accompanying women on test drives. I’m told it’s an antisocial job and women don’t want to do the hours. But nobody asks the ‘right’ women about the hours they could work, even if these are shorter shifts. Or gives them the chance to show what they can do.

I say the ‘right’ women because all too often I come across females who have been employed for their looks rather than their work ethic. I say this with sincere apologies to all those good looking, hard working and ambitious females out there – I am sure they understand the point I am making which is that the ‘wrong’ female employees simply reinforce the stereotypical perception too many men have of us on the shop floor to begin with. You must employ the RIGHT females and they must always be the BEST recruits even if they lack industry experience and need training.

Sadly the industry has been such a male stronghold for so long that too many men can’t imagine there might be a different/better way to do their business. Which of course is likely given an open rather than closed mindset.

Are you a female friendly employer?

Finally, and to make my point crystal clear in case I haven’t been so far ;)… I recall a recent Twitter exchange with a Chairman of a leading dealership group who was too busy to see me but asked me to meet two of his senior female management colleagues.

I duly discussed our FOXY Lady Approved female friendly scheme with them to be told, in confidence, that they could not endorse that business as a female friendly one. So the Chairman still thinks his business is a female friendly one but it clearly isn’t and sadly his senior management ladies don’t feel able to tell him this…

I suspect they aren’t the only leading Group to have this dilemma, or for female staff to feel they can only admit this to an outsider, in strict confidence.

FOXY

My LinkedIn profile

PS To find out more about the many career opportunities in the motor industry I recommend the Autocity website .

To find out about the many apprenticeships in the motor industry I suggest you start with the IMI’s programme.

women

First to offer FOXY employee benefit scheme

Safe and Sound is the first employer to sign up to FOXY Lady Drivers Club’s employee benefit scheme, designed to help reduce staff stress levels to do with all aspects of their everyday motoring.

Every female member of staff has been given a free membership of the Club by Buckinghamshire-based WMS Group who owns Safe and Sound, and all male colleagues are encouraged to nominate a foxy lady to receive their staff benefit.

“FOXY is becoming the female voice of motoring in the UK because someone needs to speak up for our gender on occasion” says founder and MD Steph Savill. “For example, too many female motorists have found themselves ripped off, patronised or sold something they didn’t need, either in garages or car showrooms. I’m deeply encouraged to see Safe and Sound come on board with the FOXY ethos as well as supporting their female team members in such a caring way.”

What Women Want

Safe and Sound was developed in 2010 after WMS Group conducted extensive research into consumer behaviour which revealed that all buyers wanted reassurance that their car was road legal, safe to drive, didn’t have a hidden past and was being sold at a fair price.

It was also clear that many women had the final say on the car purchase and yet they were more likely than men to struggle to find a dealership they could trust not to sell them a dud.

So Safe and Sound has become a transparent programme which addresses these buyer concerns and promotes good businesses, much as FOXY is doing in its own way.


Staff benefit scheme

Our staff are delighted to have received their FOXY Lady Drivers Club membership,” says Steph Colinswood, Safe and Sound’s marketing manager “as many of them know little about cars.”

“Having access to the Club reassures them that they’re equipped with the knowledge and empowerment that comes with this level of motoring support. As a female-friendly employer we also believe lifetime Club membership for only £23 represents terrific value for money, especially as it doesn’t just cover the member but also her entire household.”

“By working with FOXY, we’re helping to spread their message and look forward to funding memberships for many more female employees in the future as WMS Group continues to expand. As a not-for-profit organisation, FOXY is unbiased and honest, and like us they’re passionate about the motor industry and making a stand for female equality. We’ll do all we can to help FOXY promote their fantastic business and are excited to be working with them.”

Coincidentally, last week WMS Group welcomed its first female account manager, responsible for seeking new dealerships to work with in this traditionally male-dominated industry.

To find your nearest Safe and Sound dealership, visit www.SafeandSound.co.uk.

If you are a business interested in joining the Safe and Sound network, see www.SafeandSound.co.uk/dealers.

To find out about FOXY Choice’s female friendly garage network, visit www.foxychoice.com

women in the motor industry

Dragons Den Devey and Diversity

Last night Dragons Den’s Hilary Devey aired some fascinating gender issues in a BBC programme called ‘Women At The Top’

What impressed me most was that she started out thinking that the status quo was a female choice but she soon changed her mind faced with clear evidence that a 50:50 gender balance (in her own company) was more profitable for the employer and probably a happier place to work. All this and to be told by gender consultant Avivah Wittenberg-Cox that she’d used her female strengths to benefit her business running her ship her way or else!

Of course real life isn’t an ideal world in any male dominated industry like Hilary’s logistics one and we’re much the same in the motor industry. A few feisty females in top Board positions but we’d probably struggle to make 5% let alone 50% as an industry average for Female Board Directors overall. Having said that I do think things are getting better in a few female friendly working environments, especially at middle management and in customer service roles.

Queen Bee by nature or nurture?

Undoubtedly Hilary is a Queen Bee in her business and industry. She knows she has brought fame and fortune to her business by virtue of her gender and talents but she doesn’t promote that when advertising for staff. I think she’ll change this now because if she would like to recruit the best person for the job, this means including females, and women like to see ‘women like them’ (or women to aspire to be) in their employer of choice. This is a lesson other male dominated businesses should address where they can, as well as promoting other female friendly credentials to potential recruits.

It isn’t good enough in my book for high flying females in male dominated industries to say ‘I haven’t found any discrimination in my career’ when it’s obvious that it exists all around them when they look. What they should be asking themselves is ‘what have I done to make this business a more female friendly place for others to follow in my wake?’

The way I see it, female Board members, no matter the industry they work in, need to represent the best interests of their customers (a likely 50:50 male:female split) and to get customer services right they must address their needs and expectations. This often means influencing the culture of a business from within especially if it is such a male dominated one as in the motor industry. Clearly the business case suggests that diversity needs to be a top level strategic objective for Boards; I have yet to find it to be so in the motor industry.

Is it worth the journey to the top?

Women who read this and who work in a naturally female friendly industry like fashion, health and beauty, won’t get this or appreciate the different business culture in a male dominated industry. This is where women have to fight to get to the top, often by being more blokey than the men they are competing with. But they shouldn’t have to do either; their talents should be nurtured, recognised and appreciated. But nurturing, recognition and appreciation aren’t natural male jargon whereas ‘demanding’, ‘relentless’ and ‘gravitas’ are the more likely terminology, as the financial recruitment adverts discussed in the programme illustrated. The ideal recruit clearly was a man!

But when she finally gets to her Board Nirvana, that’s when the fun and games can start, especially if she is the first female there. She doesn’t think like a man and if she’s there to be make up the numbers she won’t be listened to when she has a different point of view. In such instances she won’t last the course and she’ll consider herself a failure whereas it probably isn’t her fault. And the male status quo merchants will nod wisely because they always knew a man would have done a better job!

The female choice

It’s not a one sided game of course. Women can have babies and they can have a career. Yes they can have both and it can be done. But it shouldn’t be at the expense of the employer.

Hilary returned to work soon after having her son and I did too after 6 weeks. Needs dictated we both did. Neither son has suffered I’m sure but we both probably wish we could have spent longer in that unusual and special state of motherly euphoria.

But we’re talking about real life and I believe that some women can be more honest with their employers after the birth of their child, knowing how generous maternity and paternity leave is today. I’d like to see those that plan to return to work for a SME appreciate the sacrifice that employers make to keep their job open for them. This is a costly exercise but worth it in the end for them both of course. Those that can resume some sort of work at an earlier stage, using technology as I did, should start to do so if only to show an employer that she is doing her best to say thank you – and for having chosen a family AND a career. Those that have no intention of returning to work after the child’s birth do their gender a disservice by waiting until the last moment to let their employer down.

That’s when childcaring Mums (or Dads but there are fewer of them) have to settle for a job not a career; like the 4 out of 10 Mums with degrees who accept lower jobs than they are capable of.

For me the star of the show was Proctor & Gamble who showed that a huge organisation could turn its culture around in ten years, making it the female friendly employer it undoubtedly is today. Easier for big companies than small said Sir Stuart Rose (ex of M&S) but I can’t help thinking that having a committed female at Board level, with a mandate to achieve this in the UK, was a key factor in leading this change.

What next?

I hope leading luminaries in the motor industry were watching this programme and took it seriously.

Next week Hilary looks at ways to make businesses, including her own, more female friendly including the matter of whether to impose quotas to get to the magic 50:50 formula.

Happily the business case is clear but when the Mum at Ford spoke about feeling guilty when she left work at 5pm for family reasons (and then worked c3 hours that evening after her children went to bed) I can’t help thinking that the way to retain the best staff has to do with a more flexible outlook towards technology.

But either way, let’s embrace diversity everywhere in British business, making a start at Board level in the many male dominated industries that remain, including the UK’s motor industry. We need the improved ROI that women can bring.

FOXY

car dealerships

Good jobs for girls in Gateshead

Leading franchise car dealership Vertu Motors is advertising 19 new jobs at its Gateshead headquarters to handle increasing sales enquiries from across the UK. Men and women are equally as welcome to apply of course but I noticed that the majority of staff working in their North East call centre are female so clearly these roles have considerable appeal for local women who must also see Vertu as a female friendly employer.

The majority of the vacancies are to book cars in for car servicing, MOTs, mechanical and accident repair work via their contact centre but there are also two roles for receptionists.

Vertu Motors was the first Top Ten UK Dealer Group to sign up to FOXY Choice’s female friendly garage network in 2011. They commit to ATA, Kitemark and OFT quality schemes so they instantly ticked our criteria for measurable quality standards. They also seem to employ more than the industry average of female managers and service staff. So it wasn’t at all surprising that they wanted to display our FEMALE FRIENDLY logo to reassure local women and promote their time saving and stress busting services both inside and outside FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

Joining the FOXY Choice female friendly garage network was therefore a shrewd tactic to grow its car servicing, MOT and repair work and profits by marketing these more effectively to women and through them to their family and friends.

During the early part of the recession Vertu had specifically targeted older vehicles through lower pricing; a foxy strategy that recognised that many motorists driving older cars suspect that they cannot afford dealer prices.

As an aside – this is no longer always the case. At least if you go to a dealership you can be sure that the mechanics looking after your car have been trained to manufacturer standards whereas this isn’t necessarily the case with independent garages because anyone can set up a garage business without a license, the industry isn’t regulated and mechanics don’t have to be qualified. Which is why the industry makes so much of its complaints procedures I suppose.

Vertu has 83 dealerships and passed the £1 billion turnover mark recently.

Even Robert Forrester, Vertu’s Chief Executive Officer (seen in the photo), has been surprised by the extent of the Group’s continuing progress in such tough trading times.
“When four of us founded the Group from a single office in Newcastle in late 2006, it was difficult to imagine that we would quickly employ nearly 3,000 people across the UK.”

Undoubtedly Vertu is doing better than many in bucking the trend. In my experience, businesses that are lean and flexible are quicker to spot sales opportunities and respond to demand.

Assuming that Vertu employs more women than men in these customer service positions, this proves they are both a female friendly employer and entitled to their place in our female friendly garage network because of this. I say this because women (customers) tend to trust women (staff) more than men in a male dominated industry like the UK’s garage industry.

It therefore makes sound business sense for car dealerships’ MOT, car servicing and repair work to be trusted by women, knowing they are the gender spenders and that the aftersales side of the business is the one that makes the lion share of the profit, not the car sales side as it once was…

FOXY