At FM Conway we recognise that diversity is key to a high-performing workforce and in 2020 launched our EDI Strategy, All Great People, which outlined eight key goals to ensure that FM Conway supports people from all areas of our community. One of our goals focused on the recruitment, retention and promotion of women.
Now a female owned and led business, we recognise the need to inspire change for more women in transport and in addition to our online female forums we have begun hosting bi-annual events for our female colleagues. Every female from across the group is invited and over 100 women attend each event at our head office in Sevenoaks, to meet and share experiences and ideas.
“Our aim is to create an inclusive environment that allows people to develop to their full potential, and this will put our business on a more sustainable footing in the long term,” says Executive Group Chair and CEO of the FM Conway group Joanne Conway.
At the latest event, Joanne discussed her journey to becoming Chair of the business, and guest speaker Sevenoaks MP Laura Trott MBE delivered an inspiring talk on life as a woman working in a political and male-dominated environment. We also hosted break-out sessions to enable honest and open discussions on female health topics such as menopause and fertility, support for improving work-life balance, safety on site and confidence building workshops. Following the safety on site session we have also partnered with Streetwise defence and have delivered training to our women on how to keep themselves safe both while out and about and in the home.
As a transport and construction business, females make up 15% of our workforce and we are committed to ensuring that we support and celebrate these individuals as well as attracting more women into the business. We have made a pledge to increase our female workforce to 30% by 2030. Successes have been significant, as evidenced by the 2022 EDI interim report: 43% of the apprentice population and 35% of successful candidates on the Great Leaders career development programme are female. However, the proportion of females in site-based roles is much lower, so there is still work to be done.
Ella Cole, Head of EDI, spoke openly about the challenges of recruiting and retaining women in the transport industry, and the work being done by the company’s new female forum to overcome these challenges. “We want to make sure we’re listening to females within the business, celebrating everybody’s achievements and making sure women working in a male dominated environment know they are appreciated and valued,” she says. “Female advocacy is also key to ensuring our women feel included as is the critical support of all our people in the business who are helping us to drive change”.
To learn more about FM Conway please visit their website
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