MDs at manufacturing firms leading the charge to future proof the industry

The managing directors at two Yorkshire manufacturing firms say they feel the perceptions of the sector don’t match the reality and they want to forge ahead with ensuring the next generation take up roles in the “exciting” industry which can develop into a “rewarding” career.

Victoria Hopkins, managing director of Hopkins Catering in Pudsey and Joanna Robinson, managing director of Mansfield Pollard in Bradford, entered into the manufacturing industry by chance and love their careers; now they are challenging people across the region to think differently about the perception of manufacturing and urged education leaders to base the curriculum around real-life experience and STEM subjects in order for skills to be retained in the area and future proof the industry which is so important to the Yorkshire economy.

They were speaking at TheBusinessDesk.com’s Women in Business – The Manufacturers – Lunch on Friday; which attracted 130 delegates. They were joined on stage by Karen French, the head of Squire Patton Boggs’ manufacturing group in Leeds. French acts for corporate real estate clients across a breadth of businesses, working closely with manufacturers across the region, and is passionate about ensuring the sector is future-proofed and sees females also “rising to the top.”

Hopkins’ grandfather started the family business she now runs 60 years ago. She came from a long line of men and was the first girl to be born for five generations. She said her grandfather was very chauvinistic, believing the business wasn’t a place for a woman.

Hopkins added: “It wasn’t something on my radar to join the family business. However, I started to study business. I studied part-time and brought a lot of what I was learning and applied it in within the business and found not only did I enjoy it but I had a flair for it.

“I worked my way up through the business, although it’s a family business it’s not always a given that you get promoted to become managing director.”

Robinson trained as an accountant. She said that nobody ever taught her about engineering or manufacturing, either
at school or at home, and that was often the same for people of a similar generation – who often were encouraged to go into university or other academic routes which had led to “missing generations” in the industry now. She was employed as the financial controller at Mansfield Pollard in July 2000.

Robinson said: “I really worked my up through the business, I became finance director. I realised quite early on, being a woman, that to make a significant difference or make a change within the business you have got to be credible. You have to learn. When I went in to the job, I didn’t know anything about engineering or manufacturing.

“But I realised quite soon that I had to earn the respect of the people around me; probably more so than guys coming

L-R Victoria Hopkins, Karen French, Joanna Robinson, Kayley Worsley

into the business. I had to really knuckle down and start to understand it. I will never be technical or be able to design an air manufacturing unit but women can have an understanding. We have the same ability as guys do.”

Talking of her own experience when entering the sector, Robinson said: “I personally found it an old-fashioned industry. When I started there, I was one of five ladies – all in accounts – there were no women in any other parts of the business. It has been important to me to try and highlight that women can achieve anything. More and more women are now coming into my business. But it is really difficult. I don’t have the people coming forward for the roles, if I did I would employ more. But on the other hand, I have to have a balance so it doesn’t look like a crusade for a female workforce but it’s about having the right people.

“But change is coming. I have three female board members – so a 50/50 gender split. That is pretty unheard of in the manufacturing sector. The time is now.”

Hopkins added: “As for the perception of manufacturing and engineering; the glass ceiling that we are talking about I have never had – maybe I was blissfully unaware. I have always forged ahead and in my opinion it is to do with ability to do the job rather than your gender.

“Now is a really exciting time for women in manufacturing and engineering. I am a governor at UTC in Leeds – I go in there to talk to girls studying there – I ask them what people think about you being in the UTC? They say ‘nothing.’ To them, it really isn’t an issue but I think it’s more us and our generation that think of it as an issue.”

Hopkins said she felt a huge responsibility to inspire the next generation. As a large employer in the Pudsey area, contributing significantly to the economy, keeping and creating skilled jobs in the region is incredibly important to her too.

French added: “There are really good women and ladies out there. The key thing, and there are exceptions, is that the majority of those roles are in-house legal or CFOs. It’s not exclusively that. And it is great they are working in the sector.

“But I think the debate today and the debate out there is how we encourage females and males to to go into engineering or manufacturing roles themselves.

“We want them to consider engineering or manufacturing as a career. It is clearly an exciting career to have and one through time and I never personally considered. It is a serious part of the debate as to how to address and open everybody’s eyes to the opportunities in this sector.”

One member of the audience asked how to attract the “missing generations” back to manufacturing who may have been steered away from a career in manufacturing in order to pursue university education. Panellists said that that was an incredibly important area to look at, and one they couldn’t suggest a resolution for right there, because for people to re-train could be seen as a risk but one that would be rewarded by a long career.

Another audience member said they had come across females being told negative messages about what manufacturing involves and it wasn’t a place for females. The panellists responded saying they were amazed this view was still held but it was very much a minority that felt this way; they urged the older generations to change their views of the traditional manufacturing scene and encourage people of all ages to consider the career.

Hopkins said: “Manufacturing and the perception of manufacturing is very much about what we do – working in a factory and bending and shaping metal. But it encompasses so much more than that – it is clothes, bags, textiles, food. That is the barrier I see; people don’t understand that breadth or choice in manufacturing.

“We are trying to overcome that by exposing the younger generations to what manufacturing means. The curriculum needs to be an application of knowledge in the real world. They are then inspired at a younger age.”

The panellists said that introducing a more flexible working approach would definitely attract people and that is something both have introduced to their businesses where possible. Robinson, said, however, that this could be trickier than in other industries as the business needed to run to set timescales and produce a certain number of products; keeping the factory floor moving and operational during certain hours was imperative to achieve the productivity and output needed.

French added: “70% of decision making in the UK in terms of what we buy is made by women. Why don’t we get more women making the decisions in the manufacturing business?

“There are barriers and it is different. I think the perception of the industry and the industry itself needs some changes , in particular how it chooses to represent itself as it is such an exciting place to work.

“There are no actual barriers in females rising to the top – there is nobody saying you can’t do it and they absolutely should.”

Robinson said that they had invested in further technology and that this could play a part in attracting people, including more females onto the shop floor; however it wasn’t the only answer.

Hopkins said it was harder to introduce robotics throughout the business for her as it was a bespoke process.

Of what women bring to the manufacturing workplace, Robinson said: “I welcome women and there are certainly no barriers in my business for them to join. I don’t positively discriminate but I welcome the opportunity to see women coming for interview. I like to get women in the business. From a culture perspective – it changes the dynamics in your business. I have one women on shop floor and her presence there changes the shop floor. There are more women in the offices, yes, but there is no reason why we wouldn’t see more join in manufacturing roles.”

Robinson and Hopkins both said that it was often the case that staff get poached because of the skills gap; and Hopkins has a vision to set up an academy to solve this in the future.

French added that the equality in the sector was important to the businesses she visited and was a priority. However, she added that manufacturers are also at the moment balancing so many external influences; exports and Brexit being just two, that addressing this is area one of a whole range of issues to navigate in order to be successful.

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