Klober Celebrates Female Leadership: Women in Construction Week

Klober, is showing its support for gender equality across the construction industry as it celebrates its highest ever level of female leadership in over 60 years.

However, the business says there is still a way to go with regards to wider female representation across the sector. 

With 6-12 March playing host to Women in Construction Week, and 8 March marking International Women’s Day, Klober is shining a light on its ambition to help attract more women to the sector.

Most notably, Klober has revealed its senior management team now comprises 66% women and 37% of the company’s wider roles are filled by women, spanning logistics, warehousing and sales management.

Pauline Manley is Klober’s Marketing and Portfolio Director and was the first female director to join the senior management team in 2019. Since then, the business has appointed three more women into senior roles including Tessa Viller – Head of Brand and Communications, Layla McCourt – Divisional Sales Manager, and Jenny Gallon – Warehouse and Logistics Manager.

Pauline highlights a study conducted by researchers at The Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, D.C., companies with 30% female executives are around 6% more profitable. She says: “This is evidence for the global debate over the scarcity of women in decision-making business roles. Leadership groups with people from mixed backgrounds, ethnicity and gender are more successful because the challenge is stronger and ultimately leads to more rounded decision making.”

A recent report from global HR services company, Randstad revealed that although there have been improvements in female leadership positions, 43% of companies surveyed still had an exclusively male board of directors in 2019. With females only representing 12.5% of those employed in the construction industry according to a report by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Klober has reason to celebrate its 66% record.

The 2022 theme for International Women’s Day is #BreakTheBias. Pauline comments on Klober’s interpretation of this: “While we’re very proud of our representation of women in Klober, there is still much work to be done to attract more women into construction. It’s a thriving and exciting sector to work in yet grapples with a bias towards men going back centuries.”

Klober aims to help break the construction bias by improving its own approach to gender equality. It will do this by reviewing how it describes new roles during the recruitment process, considering transferable skillsets from outside of the construction sector.

Pauline adds: “Training and apprenticeships are key. Once a woman is in the industry, she needs to see career progression. Providing training and development gives them that opportunity for success. We will proactively be looking at the way we describe roles and the images we use. I also think we need to be more accessible at all levels and this has to start with better communication and good careers advice and training.”