The key to operating a successful business is to ensure it includes the best people, experts, that have a deep knowledge of their specialist field, and the way to achieving that, is to select them from the broadest and most diverse talent pool.
My time in the automotive industry has been relatively short as I only joined it in 2015, when I became the Finance Director of Hella Limited, then Managing Director at the beginning of 2020. Initially, I was amazed at the lack of diversity when attending industry events. That is not a swipe at what has been, as the world is ever-changing, however it clearly highlighted that there was a huge opportunity for change, which I firmly believe is for the greater good.
At Hella we are in a relatively unusual position in that our Senior Leadership Team is a 50/50 split of five males and five females. However, one of my priorities is to bring a similar mix to our sales teams, which isn’t there at present.
Now I certainly do not want to achieve this to tick boxes, instead I want to ensure that we attract a more diverse range of people to apply to join our company and subsequently the widest pool of talent from which to select the very best candidates. It follows therefore, that the more varied the pool, the more likely the successful applicants will be female.
I am very much looking forward to becoming a Silver Member of the Automotive 30% Club and am keen to play a proactive role and to listen and learn, as much as to contribute. I want to ensure we can meet our objectives of attracting the very best talent and to understand what the barriers are that either prevent females deciding to enter, or lead them to not want to stay in the sector, and therefore what we can do to overcome them. In short, I am determined to help shape a more diverse workforce in the automotive sector.