Geodis eyes 25pc female leadership role by 2023
DUBAI, March 3, 2021
Geodis, a leading global logistics provider, has established an employee mentor programme as part of its drive towards diversity.
The company has set a goal to achieve 25 per cent female fulfilment leadership roles by 2023 on the eve of International Women’s Day.
Only 13% of senior leaders in the logistics industry as a whole are women. This is despite females scoring higher in leadership competencies than men, according to a Novosensus survey in 2020.
"The logistics industry urgently needs a greater degree of gender diversity and inclusion to recognize, reward and profit from the talents of its female workforce and to improve its record of attracting women of superior ability," remarked Mario Ceccon, Geodis’ Group HR director.
"The industry’s image is one of traditional male leadership, lack of upward mobility for women and unattractive to aspiring young females," she stated.
Geodis, she stated, was committed to contributing positively to gender equality and increase the number of women in leadership positions.
Its own progress in this regard has seen levels of 13% in 2017 grow to 18% currently and the drive to 25% by 2023 will continue, she added.
Through its Geodis Women’s Network (GWN), mentor Programs have been evolving in regions across the globe over the past four years. The GWN has three pillars that support its activities: career development and mentorship; inclusive leadership and connecting people. The Mentor Program builds on the first of these pillars.
Each mentee has a mentor from within the company assigned to them for the duration of the Program. They engage over a series of informal and more formalized sessions during which inter-action is consistent in being constructive, confidential, respectful, open-minded and frank.
In the Americas region a pilot was established in 2018 to trial a Mentor Program in partnership with the professional development experts at Dale Carnegie.
The Program has evolved in content and has grown in numbers of participants across the US, expanding into the Latin American organization for this year’s schedule starting in April. In 2021, there will be a total of 218 teammates involved, both mentors and mentees.
