women wholesale

Sir, The gender pay gap has opened an interesting can of worms in wholesale.

Wholesale is not the ‘sexy’ side of fmcg, so it’s difficult to attract females into a career in the sector, let alone to senior level roles. The challenge is to make senior roles more attractive - flexibility plays a big part in that. Directors have told us they struggle to get people through the door when they post a job. So we worked with research consultant Him to launch a new report: ‘How to Market Wholesale Jobs to Women’, which offers advice and tips to help.

One of the most interesting findings was that 58% of MDs said they wanted women on their boards, but only 14% of them believed their company was actively recruiting females. But 68% of HR departments said they were, which suggests a potential disconnect.

Whatever your recruitment or pay strategy, it must run through the entire business if you want it to be successful.

Our report will hopefully encourage businesses to join up their thinking and reconsider the language, images and key words they use in recruitment adverts, making sure they are shared on the right platforms.

It’s great to see our sector walking the diversity talk. We are making fast progress - the FWD has already completed an investigation into how flexible working can be applied in wholesale.

It’s never been a better time to work in our sector; I have no doubt we are on the right tracks to a better diversity of talent at all levels.

Elit Rowland, founder, Women in Wholesale

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