When only skills matter: The drive for balanced gender leadership in supply chain

In recent decades logistics has welcomed a more modern and inclusive workforce in which women play a leading role. Nevertheless, full parity has yet to be achieved. To reach that point some deep-rooted preconceptions must first be overcome, using the kind of structured process now championed by industry leaders such as FM Logistic.      

According to recent data, women occupy only 31% of senior management positions in the supply chain industry. At FM Logistic, a commitment to transforming this situation has led to the creation of a new approach to human resources that aims to ensure that skills – and only skills – are what matter. 

“It’s about people, ultimately,” explains Laëtitia de Montgolfier, Group HR Director at FM Logistic: “It’s not about pallets, flows or trucks, it’s about partnership, and training teams to deliver excellence.”

FM Logistic’s approach is to start at the top. The Group has committed to achieving gender parity in its top management by the year 2030. Succession plans for leadership roles must now feature at least 50% female candidates.      

Setting this target at the very top has seen change cascade throughout the business. This is because the goal requires a strong pipeline of potential female leaders at every stage of their career development. To generate this pipeline FM Logistic has put in place a comprehensive human resources strategy to ensure that internal career paths are both accessible to women and strictly skill-based.

The strategy is underpinned by metrics. The HR division monitors quantifiable key performance indicators, tracking the female participation rate in leadership programmes, the number of promotions awarded to women and overall retention levels. One key achievement is that 50% of the participants in the company’s career development programmes are now women. 

Another way of expanding the pipeline is a targeted mentoring programme for female managers who possess the skills for even more senior roles. FM Logistic’s pilot initiative – seen as a crucial instrument for active career building – pairs this female talent with mentors, both male and female.

“The purpose is to expose these women to senior women – and men –  they may not be used to interacting with,” says L. de Montgolfier. “It’s to get them to talk about their career development and to ask questions like, ‘How do we build the future together? Where would you like to invest your development? What are your blockers? What’s it like as a woman manager in the firm?’”

The idea behind this programme is not only to accelerate the progression of female talent. For male leaders acting as mentors, it also helps them better understand the challenges women face in the logistics industry, in the process enhancing their own management and leadership skills.

But how does a company attract more women into an industry that many women might overlook due to perceptions of male dominance? Achieving lasting change requires a concerted effort to tackle the hidden biases that invariably influence hiring, development and promotion decisions – the unthinking assumptions, the social networks and the way even a choice of wording can encourage or discourage certain groups. 

For these reasons, FM Logistic is rolling out comprehensive unconscious bias training for its global teams, alongside an objective and structured interview process that accurately assesses a candidate’s long-term potential. Again, its approach lies in championing skills over gender and dismantling systemic and cultural barriers to entry.

Helping to change the way colleagues think about gender roles is FM Logistic’s “By The Way” campaign, a creative communications strategy that confronts workplace gender stereotypes by featuring real employees discussing their roles and their defining professional skill sets. Only afterwards do they “by the way” disclose their gender.

L. de Montgolfier notes that gender assumptions differ between roles. “We interviewed the operations director in France who said, ‘Well, I’m strategic and I’m operations director and, by the way, I’m a woman.’ We did the same with an HR manager in France who said, ‘I am analytic, I’m an HR manager, and, by the way, I’m a man.'”

By using the psychological impact of surprise, this campaign has helped to foster an environment where opportunities are defined strictly by capability. “We really wanted to focus on the fact that only skills matter,” L. de Montgolfier emphasises. 

Diversity at FM Logistic extends beyond gender. It is woven into the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy to foster a culture of social inclusion at its operations around the world.

For example, the French division’s achievement of maintaining a workforce consisting of more than 10% disabled employees serves as an aspirational benchmark for FM Logistic’s other regional offices. Additionally, the company hosts internal forums to discuss initiatives and share best practices, which are grounded in three fundamental pillars: People, Planet, Partners. 

FM Logistic’s approach offers a scalable blueprint for the broader logistics sector. By deconstructing stereotypes, enforcing objective human resources practices and nurturing an environment of mentorship, the company is demonstrating that a diverse workforce is a key driver of operational excellence.

As L. de Montgolfier notes when summarising the company’s ethos: “If you can be yourself while contributing to the long-term success of your company and your own career, thanks to the company’s collaborative and supportive culture, know that you are in the right place.”