By Samantha Roff, managing director for Venson Automotive Solutions
#InspireInclusion is the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) and while there has been a marked improvement in ambition to support this aim in the last few years, there remains a substantial gender disparity in the fleet industry.
When we discuss attracting more women into the fleet sector, at Venson we are careful to remember that rather than focusing on gender quotas, putting the right person in the job is fundamental to business success.
Only this way will the fleet sector continue to develop more highly experienced, highly regarded fleet professionals, who just happen to be women.
As IWD promotes the #InspireInclusion message, effort to promote gender diversity in fleet mustn't be the premise of women alone.
Equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) are vital factors for enhancing business performance within any organisation and without true representation of society, how can the industry be expected to adapt and develop to meet its needs?
So, as the number of women in the automotive workforce was teetering at just under a fifth, it was refreshing to see the launch of the Automotive Council’s best practice guide last November.
The guide aims to equip the industry with the tools to enhance gender diversity across all business levels with the ambition of ensuring the automotive workforce constitutes 30% women in six years’ time.
However, there are practical steps that can be taken now, to make fleet roles more accessible to all.
Venson has previously discussed the importance of promoting automotive careers from grassroots, within education from primary to tertiary.
Our recent survey found that a third of women said the automotive sector was not even promoted to them as an option by family or teachers, or careers advisers.
Banging the drum for women in automotive to school age girls remains important.
The same survey, however, also highlighted that younger women aged between 18 and 24 are the most likely to consider a job in the automotive sector (34%) and just over a quarter (27%) of 25–34-year-old women say they would think about it.
This means that flexibility of working within the fleet industry must adapt and develop to enable employees with other commitments to combine work and home life more easily.
Job share and part-time work is central to Venson’s employment terms and we have employees who have worked with us for over 17 years, having been full time and then part time to accommodate changes in their lives. Retaining experience and knowledge, where you can, is a benefit for all in the workforce.
It is this philosophy that must be adopted more widely in the industry. This would make the fleet industry a more appealing career option for everyone – not just in the sales and customer service sectors, but also technical and workshop roles.
Although Venson has its own vehicle workshop, to date we have been unable to find female mechanics. However, with the company’s attitude towards employee loyalty and flexibility, which actively supports and encourages career progression, coupled with greater promotion of automotive roles for women at grassroots, we hope that women mechanics will soon be the norm not an exception.
Of course, it is not only women for whom part-time hours are an issue, following the pandemic, flexible working has become much more embedded in the world of work.
Flexible working could help employers tackle skill shortages, even in roles traditionally seen as non-flexible, by being open to different solutions - from flexitime to job-sharing or term-time working.
By advertising flexible working options in job adverts, the fleet industry opens the door on recruitment to a much wider talent pool.
As the fleet industry transforms, its workforce must also adapt. Being able to respond to the effects of industry changes on fleet users requires a dynamic, flexible and inclusive workforce.
Having fleet careers that can be seen to be accessible, and fulfilling will ensure that the generations coming through, make a role within the industry their first choice.
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