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Breaking down bafflers

25th October 2007
Page 22
Page 22, 25th October 2007 — Breaking down bafflers
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Involving women in the road transport industry appears to be a tough challenge.

Roanna Avison went to the Women in Transport 2007 conference to find out why.

WOMEN IN

TRANSPORT 2007

PART ONE

Last week Skills for Logistics (SfL) and the Freight Transport Association hosted a conference in London entitled Women in Transport 2007 Better Balance, Better Business. Delegates concentrated on a simple question: why does the road transport industry struggle to attract and retain female staff?

Road transport is dominated by white males over 45and research indicates that a staff shortage may be looming. The solution to this, according to Lucinda Ward, director of marketing and research at SfL, is to encourage diversity Most employers are now facing a skills shortage,and half of them believe the industry has barriers that put off women, ethnic groups and the disabled.

Barriers to recruitment Ward suggests the recruitment processes used in the industry are not designed to target and educate these groups: "A large number of small and medium-sized operators do not have professional HR functions and employers have inflexible working processes.

"If our industry is to achieve a more diverse workforce," she told delegates, "we need to consider job design. shift patterns, the comfort and cleanliness of working conditions and cultural issues."

Nikki King, UK MD at isu7u Trucks, asked the conference why people in road transport shy away from employing women.

-The responses we get are things like 'they'll just settle in the job and get pregnant'," she said. "But how many men settle in jobs,receive training and then leave to join a competitor?"

King gave another excuse she has heard for not employing women: "They'll keep taking time off if the children are ill." But she rubbished this argument, saying that in her experience women with children tend to crawl into work rather than take sick leave when they themselves are ill in case they subsequently have to take time off to look after their children. "We also hear people say'she hasn't worked since having children'," King reported."But my answer to that is during that time she has learnt life skills; management skills; time management; the ability to A Nikki King: MD juggle four jobs at once; anger management; and mediation skills. She's had her children and is now looking for a serious career for the rest of her life."

King said women tend to look at things differently and she suggested that as the understanding of the importance of 'emotional intelligence' grows in the workplace, women are in demand for qualities such as empathy and understanding.

But she added that women also face more challenges, because as well as bringing up children they often end up caring for elderly relatives: "Employers need to consider things such as home working, job sharing and flexible hours to keep this important element of the workforce in the industry." King concluded that women are under-represented at senior management leveland of those that do make it that far, many then chose to leave.

Dr Kim Peters, a research fellow at the University of Exeter, pointed out that most research has focused on the barriers women face as they climb the career ladder: "But we decided to look at the choices women are making that perhaps means they are underrepresented at senior level."

Leaving high-powered jobs Peters says her research shows that a large percentage of women are choosing to leave highpowered posts because when women are appointed to a leadership position it is disproportionately likely to be a relatively precarious and stressful one.

Looking at the FTSE 100 Cranfield index from 2003, which rates companies based on how many women they have on the board, six of the top 10 are under ollsuzu UK performing, while all the bottom five which have no women on the boardare 'over-performing'. "Further analysis showed companies whose share price was over-performing appointed men to the board," Peters reported, -while those with under-performing share prices were more likely to appoint women to the board.

"So when women break through the glass ceiling they are likely to be appointed to leadership positions that are risky and this is the glass cliff. This could explain why women choose to leave management roles," she concluded. •

• See next week's issue for part two of our report on Women in viransport 2007.


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