At present, research suggests that the logistics sector still remains a male-dominated space despite the rise in the number of women in the rest of the business world. However, there is a growing number of statistics and trends emerging to prove the true worth of placing greater numbers of women into logistics jobs.
The spotlight has been recently shone on gender diversity across UK businesses, with senior staff reassessing the imbalances in their boardrooms and across the pay scale. With household names such as the BBC publishing the salaries of its top talent, and now Tesco actively confirming they are considering more and more females for their senior level roles, the focus has now turned to the public sector, where the RAF has recently announced that women can now undertake close combat roles for the first time in its history.
And yet, we find that the logistics industry is consistently falling behind. The sector is believed only to have 10% of women working at the board level, and female participation across the industry currently runs between 20% and 30%. Why? In this blog, we’ll dive into the barriers, benefits, and more.
Benefits of more women in logistics
While women face significant barriers, there are many reasons to tackle this. Here are the key reasons why it’s worth fostering an inclusive and encouraging environment for women in the logistics sector.
A more female logistics industry is a healthier one
Several major studies in recent years have indicated that greater numbers of female leaders – including board members, managers and supervisors – are associated with improved business outcomes.
The 2009 Women in Supply Chain report, for instance, found higher levels of productivity, safety and financial returns when women were more prominent in leadership positions. The PwC Transportation report, meanwhile, discovered that companies with the greatest numbers of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 16% in return on sales and by 26% in return on invested capital.
Such findings indicate that embracing gender diversity and inclusion stands to deliver a much more fundamental benefit to logistics organisations than merely the opportunity to demonstrate social responsibility.
Gender diversity expands perspectives, talent pools and more
Greater gender diversity encourages diverse perspectives and innovation within teams, leading to more creative problem-solving and well-rounded decision-making. Furthermore, it expands the talent pool for the industry, which is particularly important as logistics continues to grow in demand.
Women in logistics often possess strong communication and interpersonal skills, enhancing collaboration and reducing conflicts within teams. Additionally, having women in the workforce better aligns companies with their customer base, as women represent a significant portion of consumers in various industries.
Promoting gender diversity can boost employee morale, productivity, and job satisfaction, ultimately improving a company’s reputation and competitiveness. Moreover, it ensures compliance with legal requirements in some regions and supports long-term sustainability by creating a diverse and adaptable workforce capable of navigating evolving market dynamics.
What can the logistics sector do to tackle the challenge of gender diversity?
No one doubts the profound role that the logistics sector plays in the global economy, with some 125 million people currently working in the sector around the world. However, women comprise just one to two per cent of this workforce.
Even in the UK, where the gender imbalance is less dramatic, barely a quarter of the 1.5 million people working in the logistics industry are female, according to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).
Melanie Hall, Vice President of Life Sciences at DHL Supply Chain, points out:
“Logistics permeates every industry and business sector in the world – retail, life sciences, fashion, technology, construction, transport and so on”.
With this level of societal impact and the incredible job-role diversity involved, why have women not been better represented in an industry currently employing some 1.5M people in the UK alone?
Industry-wide research, such as that done by the UK Commission on Employment and Skills, highlights the need to make the logistics industry more attractive to women as a long-term career choice. Melanie believes the key is not only attracting a more diverse workforce but, importantly, ensuring “a focus on hiring women in positions where they have visibility to inspire and encourage other women into the industry” with many senior female members of staff acting as important role models for more junior members, and then going on to assist in the recruitment of more females into the business.
PWC, in their Transport & Logistics 2030 report, add an interesting dimension;
“Attracting more women to the male-dominated transportation and logistics sector won’t be easy, but companies that succeed will have access to a rich new labour pool”.
However, it should not stop at simply hiring more women or creating more female internship programs. The industry will only be able to attract and retain talented females by promoting the opportunities available to them and providing flexible arrangements to those who may require them. There has historically been a poor understanding of the career opportunities available to women within logistics and supply chain and the types of work that roles may involve. But, in an ever-changing supply chain, new roles are emerging from the shop floor to the C-Suite, which is consequently driving the need for an enriched and enlarged set of skills. This may only be made possible with alternative ways of thinking and accepting these new approaches.
The efforts to place more women in logistics jobs
Even in the face of such strong evidence of the performance improvements that the better gender equality outcomes stand to bring, the persistent reputation of the transport and logistics industry as a ‘non-traditional’ one for women, with few relevant career opportunities, has hampered efforts to bolster gender diversity.
This does not need to be the case. Logistics jobs in the 21st century often amount to much more than ‘moving and lifting’, with business development and customer-facing personnel required alongside the more stereotypically expected drivers and warehouse operatives. Furthermore, logistics impacts every one of the world’s industries and business sectors, ranging from life sciences, fashion and retail to technology, transport and construction.
Advances in technology such as hydraulic lifting equipment and automatic gearboxes, together with such trends as the retirements of existing workers, higher levels of education and better technical training among the sector’s new entrants, also lend themselves to a boost in the number of women represented in this for-so-long male-dominated area of innovation and transportation networks.
Want to attract women to your available roles?
As experts in logistics recruitment, supply chain recruitment and procurement recruitment, the Bis Henderson team believes we will see a steady increase in gender diversity over the next ten years. Our association with The Novus Trust has proven the level of interest from young people looking to join the Logistics industry is growing, and we’re already seeing the ratio of female to male job application candidates changing as the industry begins to catch up and realise the creative and cultural benefits to a more balanced workplace.
Contact us now to see how we can assist you in tackling occupational sex segregation and ensure a diverse recruitment process for your procurement, logistics or supply chain roles.
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