Celebrating International Women’s Day, JMG style

Automotive 30% Club members, Jardine Motors Group, marked the annual International Women’s Day, with a series of events which saw nearly 200 colleagues come together to network, debate and share their aspirations for change.

As part of the events, colleagues were asked to make a pledge to drive action for change. Some of the key themes that came across in the pledge cards were around celebrating brilliance by finding a positive in each day, not being afraid to state your ambition, reaching out to connect with others, challenge others more, and recognising that asking for help is not a sign of weakness.

Events were held in Milton Keynes, Liverpool, and Essex and had a great balance of panellists with internal contributors from across all levels of the business supported by external guests from Merseyside Police, Bentley and Mercedes-Benz. The common themes shared by all were the importance of supporting each other, asking for help and power of mentorship.

Colleagues also spent time in roundtables to share their brilliance, talk about what more the business can do to support colleagues in realising their full potential and ambition, as well as what they need to change for themselves.

In continuing with the progress Jardine Motors Group has already made around gender diversification, Group HR Director Clare Martin, comments:

“For us, the events were a chance to inspire and empower colleagues that they really can achieve their aspirations, no matter who they are. We really want our teams to drive change for themselves, as well as giving us valuable feedback on what else we can do as a business to support this.

“Some of the statistics we shared at the events around the progress we’ve made over the last few years, shows how far we have come in terms of having 29% of female managers and the split across male and female colleagues on our management training programmes. For example, 37% of colleagues on our Finance Academy in the last two years have been women, and on our First Line Manager Programme, the figure is at 31% females.

“However, this isn’t just a box-ticking exercise for us. It’s about having the right skilled people in the right roles, and we won’t recruit or promote a woman just to hit a target. But what these events really highlighted, is that we have some amazing and brilliant colleagues in our business, who just need the permission to ask more, challenge more, and not be ashamed to state their ambition and shout about their brilliance. It’s by doing the right things like this, that we’ll reach the 30% target and exceed it.”

Jardine Motors Group is consistently focused on its gender diversification and the events were part of a sustained programme of activity, which this year also includes: sponsorship of the UK Automotive 30% Club’s Inspiring Women Awards; Ambassadors of Retail Week’s Be Inspired initiative; partners with Speakers4Schools, an initiative to inspire and reach young people on their career choices; the Women Ahead mentoring programme to connect female colleagues with a mentor outside the business; panellist contribution by Clare Martin at the Women Automotive Summit taking place in Stuttgart in June.