Juliet Thomson, Chief People Officer, Menzies Aviation

With a predominantly male workforce made up of 73% men and 27% women, our attention for this year’s International Women’s Day and beyond is allyship.

We’re aiming to help our 36,000+ colleagues around the globe understand what allyship is. This is to inspire and empower them to show up as allies at work and drive positive change through supporting women and other underrepresented minorities in the workplace.

We will be sharing colleagues’ experiences and stories across Menzies’ social channels from both sides of allyship to highlight the various ways it has made a difference to people’s careers and lives.

Allyship for me, is about advocating for those who don’t have the same advantages that you have. It’s about listening to the challenges that those who are underrepresented face and understanding how you can help colleagues who face headwinds different from your own.

Supporting women to thrive
In my role, I am responsible for making Menzies a great place for our people to work. An important part of this is creating a diverse workplace where every employee can reach their full potential free from bias and discrimination. A report by Change Catalyst found that 92% of people feel allies have been valuable in their career, and those with at least one ally in their workplace are nearly twice as likely to feel like they belong and be satisfied with their workplace culture and job role.

Allyship helps break down barriers and leads to higher engagement, improved productivity, a greater sense of belonging and higher employee retention. Small everyday actions can have a big impact, and everyone has an important role to play.

Menzies has committed to having 25% of our senior leadership roles held by females by 2025. We are sitting at 19% so we have more work to do. One initiative that is driving progress is our Women in Leadership programme, which includes education for line managers on the part they can play as allies to women in their teams, and I’m pleased that more of our leaders will get the opportunity to participate this year.

We have also committed to 40% of our middle management roles to be held by females by 2033, which is our 200^th anniversary. The data for this year shows we have 31% of women in these roles, compared to 28% in 2022, so we are heading in the right direction but it remains an area of focus for us.

Why do we want to increase the number of our female leaders? The stats speak for themselves, research shows companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability.

At an operational level, it’s great to see our teams across the globe collaborating with our airline customers to provide all-female aircraft turns to highlight the career opportunities available to women. Until Menzies and the broader industry improves gender diversity we must keep championing the fact that women can take up any role within aviation – gender should never be a barrier.

Aviation is a growth industry and supporting more women to join our sector and progress their careers is not only the right thing to do, it’s necessary for our business and the broader industry to thrive.

#IWD #Womeninaviation #allyship #EmbraceEquity