When Andy, Nik and I set up S&G Response 13 years ago in our mid 20’s, survival and success were our key objectives and focus.
As we have evolved and diversified S&G Response since, we have been acutely aware of the importance of diversity of view to help with our success. It probably helped that we each have strong, independent mothers and sisters who inspire and positively influence us.
You only need to go to one of our Industry events to realise that we are in a male dominated sector with the motor industry. This is backed up by an industry-wide report published by Deloitte in 2020 which confirmed that only 20% of employees within the motor industry were women. We therefore feel a sense of responsibility and pride that the % of women within S&G Response has been steadily increasing and now stands at 45% overall and 48% of our senior and junior management team.
We do not employ or promote based on gender, our ethos is that the successful person is the one best suited for the role. However, we do ensure that diversity and inclusion is a topic of conversation within our Board and Executive Meetings. We are also delighted that we have so many intelligent and thought provoking females who are involved in both of these forums.
There are many successful and valued women at S&G who help make it a friendly, innovative and family orientated culture, but I wanted to mention a couple:
- Erica, who welcomes all visitors and onboards all new members of staff, along with the responsibility for internal engagement. If you have been to S&G, you will know Erica.
- Anne, our Head of HR and People who is spearheading our People and Culture plan to provide all staff the best environment and opportunity to grow and develop.
- Carmen who was one of our 1st employees and has now been with us for over 10 years, within our Accounts department.
- Linda, who was our 1st Female manager and has been strategically involved in our management accounts since 2015.
- Debs who was our relationship manager at our bank and has now been a key part of our finance team for the past 4 years.
- Danielle who started with us as an apprentice back in 2015 and is the newest member of our management team.
- Rachel, who is our current (and for the 2nd time) Leadership Champion from our staff nominated Annual Values Awards.
All our people make a massive contribution to the ongoing success of S&G. It is the diversity of not only the gender but of the cultures, ethnicity and demographics which creates different perspectives and contributions to our decisions on a daily basis and provides the future foundation of our growth.
