Women’s forum launched by builders’ merchant 

The forum’s inaugural meeting was held on International Women’s Day (8 March) in Coventry with many of its 19 female branch deputy managers and two female branch managers in attendance. 

The discussion included the individual career paths of the attendees, as well as the way Selco is viewed externally by potential female employees. 

Sally Kerr, Selco’s head of HR operations and chair of the new group, 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. 

“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 group will meet at least quarterly and Kerr confirmed there were also discussions about launching a second cohort. 

“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,” added Kerr. 

“We want to ensure we are getting the feedback of a broad cross-section of the workforce, regardless of their position of employment.”