Selco Builders Warehouse has launched a new Women’s Forum designed to help highlight and encourage the ongoing career progression of women in the company.
The opening meeting was held on International Women’s Day in Coventry with many of the merchant’s 19 female branch deputy managers and two female branch managers in attendance. Amongst the topics discussed were the individual career paths to date of the attendees, as well as the way Selco is viewed externally by potential female employees of the future.
Sally Kerr, Selco’s Head of HR Operations, is chairing the new group and said: “We are delighted to have launched the Women’s Forum and it’s another important step towards us becoming a fully diverse and inclusive workforce.
“We’ve made some important progress in recent years and are proud that 90% of the current managers and deputy managers who are female have come through internal promotion. That shows that the career progression is there and we are encouraging all of the Women’s Forum attendees to continue their upward progression of their career path within Selco.”
Sally added: “In addition, we want to lay out a programme which encourages other females to follow suit and move through the ranks. There is no better way to get feedback on that than by speaking to the people who have already achieved that progression.”
The Women’s Forum will meet at least quarterly and Sally confirmed there were also discussions about launching a second cohort. She said: “We hope to be able to open up another Women’s Forum for other females who work within Selco, either throughout our branch network or Support Centre.
“We want to ensure we are getting the feedback of a broad cross-section of the workforce, regardless of their position of employment.”
