No matter where you look in the transport and logistics sector, things are always changing at a rapid pace. Whether you’re tracking its evolution over the past 20 years, 10 years, five years, or even 12 months, it is an industry that is always moving forward.
Businesses rise and fall, technology advances to new heights, and leaders and shot callers rotate in and out of the industry to consistently change the face of what is happening, but one thing that never changes is the need for new, hard-working professionals to forge their careers in the landscape.
CEO and Managing Director of the Australian Logistics Council (ALC) Dr Hermione Parsons is a key driver of improving employment outcomes in the industry and bolstering it against the increasing national and international freight task.
Her career to date has involved her in almost every aspect of supply chain and logistics management, from education to governance, and everything in between.
As part of that desire to not only expose the often-invisible supply chain and logistics industry as a strong career option for people across the country, Parsons has also been a driving force behind the now ALC-integrated Wayfinder program, which aims to – at its core – engage more women at all levels of the sector.
The Wayfinder Freight Heartland tours have seen the ALC take women from Melbourne, Sydney and, most recently, Brisbane, to key sites for an insider look at some of the industry’s biggest players to great effect.
Speaking to ATN ahead of International Women’s Day, Parsons says she’s noted significant change in the broader industry’s approach to women in the sector even in the past few years.
“When I started my career in this space, I was coming from a perspective of having just finished a Master’s degree in urban planning focusing on port/city interface and logistics, and then I did a PhD in supply chain and industrial change,” Parsons says.
“I came into my career as a strategic planner in the supply chain space. I was doing supply chain re-engineering in the fresh fruit and vegetable industry through the creation of a B2B trading system.
“That meant I was working with very senior operators of major businesses, whether they be medium-sized enterprises or corporates, and then I was working in the public sector.
“The common thread there was that being a woman in that industry was extremely rare, and people were not used to females being in that industry or in decision-making roles, and that had its challenges, but it never dissuaded me from my enthusiasm.
“Something I totally agree with, however, is that the culture of business has fundamentally changed over the last 25 years, and that’s a very welcome change.
“Five years ago, that change was already happening, but I’ve certainly picked up significant change in the past 10 years.
“10 years ago, the catch cry was we needed to attract women to the industry and people used the awful expression of ‘make it sexy’, but that’s not what it’s about.
“It’s about making sure the industry is not hidden and about creating and living an image that is appealing for people of all backgrounds to join.”
The Wayfinder program has acted as a perfect vehicle with which to quantify that shift in mentality over this past decade.
When it was started in 2017 it was an entity separate from the ALC, but its status as a fully integrated program has given a fundamentally sound concept an added degree of gravitas.
“When we created Wayfinder there were still some parts of the industry that were old-fashioned, sexist, and disinterested,” Parsons continues.
“When we started the preparatory phases for it in about 2015, we were taking it to various associations, and some of the comments from people – not people we work with now – were along the lines of ‘there are lots of girls in the office, so we don’t need it’.
“But very quickly we had major corporations joining up, and they’ve stuck with the program all the way through because their CEOs and corporations were already committed to diversity and ensuring women would want to be part of the business.
“In the last five years it has been the companies that have embraced it, and there is a very serious commitment to create change in the industry that everyone should be proud of.”
That fundamental approach to change has helped push the ALC’s efforts at improving diversity within the sector away from anything that resembles tokenism and has instead steeped it in the desire to improve industry outcomes in the face of increasing challenges.
Currently, women represent 32 per cent of the Australian transport, postal and warehousing workforce, and 22 per cent of global logistics professionals, however reports constructed by McKinsey and Deloitte found tangible, quantifiable benefits to continuing to aim for a more diverse range of experiences, judgements, beliefs and people in the workplace.
These findings indicate gender-diverse leadership teams are 25 per cent more likely to outperform their peers, while organisations that champion inclusivity are twice as likely to meet or exceed financial targets and three times as likely to be high-performing.
Parsons says while events like International Women’s Day offer a timely reminder of both the progress made and work to still be done in the diversity space, it’s important for programs like Wayfinder to avoid the ‘tokenistic’ tag.
“My view on life is that if something is tokenistic, I’m not interested,” she says. “Life’s too short to waste your breath on tokenism.
“I believe absolutely that teams are much stronger if you have people from different backgrounds.
“Through our Freight Heartland tours we have experienced so much kindness and passion from men and women in the industry who want to continue to paint it in a positive light.
“What we’re trying to do is lift community understanding about this huge opportunity that exists.
“People were there to talk and share their love of the industry with our people on the tour, and these are the human issues that are really important.
“The generosity, the kindness, the professionalism, and the safety.
“When people see these qualities, it makes the industry extremely appealing.”
So now, as the Wayfinder program continues to go from strength to strength, what’s next?
So far three Freight Heartland tours have been completed with exponentially increasing success – although the presence of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and resultant closure of Port of Brisbane necessitated a chunk of the Brisbane tour be postponed and rescheduled.
Parsons says the continuing success of the program is allowing its organisers to zone in on the parts that make it really fly.
“The Brisbane tour was very interesting for its difference to the Sydney tour, which is itself was very different from the Melbourne tour,” Parsons says.
“Each one is about local community, and it has been an interesting experience seeing all three freight heartland regions work differently.
“Of course, we’ll be delivering more this year, and we’ll keep testing it and testing it, because there is not point in doing it if it’s not working.
“The feedback from the participants has been fabulous, the feedback from companies has been utterly positive, and we’re extremely happy with how it’s going.
“At the Brisbane event we were delighted to see different government departments actively engaging to bring different job seekers together and invite them to come on the tour.
“We had a mix of about 50 people on the bus, whether that be coordinators of government programs, women we had found through charities like Dress for Success or various multicultural associations, and people who had been referred by family or friends.
“I believe there is some real success happening here, and the feedback we’re getting reinforces that.
“There will always be laggers in change, and there will always be people who want to hold onto the old ways, but what I see is an industry that has fundamentally changed and is continuing to change in its acceptance and value placed on teams and diversity for not only good business reasons, but also for ethics and integrity.
“It makes me very proud.”
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