Made in Group members from across Yorkshire and the Midlands gathered recently for a fascinating discussion around the theme of "People and Skills". This meeting had a particular focus on inclusion, as members shared their experiences in this increasingly important area of focus for the manufacturing sector.

Here's a detailed summary of the key points discussed:
The discussion group chaired by Fiona Tatton, a member of the Made in Group team, who opened the session by outlining the importance of tackling the challenges around inclusion by working together and sharing best practice in a ‘safe’ space such as this meeting as no single organisation has all the answers and all participants have important knowledge to contribute (sometimes without realising the importance of the fresh perspectives they bring!). The session fell within Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2024 and Fiona made the point that many Made in Group members are finding great success by understanding that there is no one "right" way of thinking, learning, and behaving, and the most successful firms in this regard perceive differences as strengths, coming to appreciate team members own unique abilities as superpowers rather than deficits.

Luke Allsopp, Commercial Manager at Frederick Cooper in Birmingham echoed this sentiment, explaining that neurodiverse colleagues have proved exceptionally skilled in terms of attention to detail when carrying out tasks in the business.

Luke also shared the firm’s success in building a more gender balanced business by challenging perceptions that careers in the paint spraying and powder coating space are performed by middle aged men. Encouragingly, the firm’s gender split is now 60% male and 40% female.

(Luke and colleagues at Frederick Cooper are hosting a Made in Group factory tour on 11th July and Luke strongly encouraged attendees to register to come along so they could discover more about the organisation’s commitment to inclusion.)

Corinne Brown of Shrewsbury Colleges Group, a new member of Made in the Midlands, shared the colleges’ commitment to gender balance. The Colleges in the Group have four women teaching engineering (as well as six teaching in construction) but she mentioned the tendency for women in the space to be photographed often. Fiona agreed that in her experience there is an additional ‘burden’ for women working in underrepresented areas not only to do their ‘day jobs’ but also to be prepared to be photographed and to share their stories, serving
as ‘inspirational women’ who are blazing a trail for others to follow, whereas male colleagues can concentrate on their core roles without worrying about this additional workload.

Corinne also gave an additional example of the Colleges’ support for deaf students. (The Colleges offer a wide-ranging package of additional learning support for many different students, and this includes providing British Sign Language Support (BSL) communication support workers for deaf students.)

Tom Marren, Director at WOMAG, discussed the company’s commitment to inclusion of all underrepresented groups but reiterated the challenges for the weighing industry as whole.

Tom discussed the need to identify the areas of the industry that made the most interesting and engaging case studies. Fiona agreed that, in her experience, the businesses which are most successful in attracting more diverse talent do so by creating a compelling narrative and establishing which parts of the work they do will be of most interest to new audiences. Fiona mentioned the success of organisations she has worked with who have organised open days as a way of broadening the appeal of roles, for example.

Rob Lomax, Sales Manager at Wakefield Acoustics, discussed the tendency of female staff to join in office-based roles but the need to broaden the appeal of shop floor roles. Fiona gave the example of a woman within her network who joined the automotive industry as an acoustics engineer. Women with an interest in these areas do exist but it’s a case of building a long-term plan to connect with them in order to broaden out the pool of talent.

Jacqueline Watkins of Hyfore Workholding shared her experiences of being made extremely welcome by the organisation but reiterated the challenges being faced by the sector in trying to achieve better gender balance when recruiting apprentices, for example, who are almost without exception male.

As in previous discussions relating to inclusion, most of the organisations present had already developed relationships with local colleges as a way to find apprentices but it was felt that many young women had already discounted STEM careers at an early age due to being forced to make choices and specialise too early.

Jacqueline is a purchasing specialist but she also has a business development remit and she echoed Rob’s message about the tendency for women to enter office-based rather than shop floor roles.

Fiona referred back to her presentation at the start of the meeting where she’d mentioned manufacturing organisations who were trying to bring in more women to shop floor roles, and in doing this providing proper WC and changing facilities, but that there were also organisations who were misusing women’s WCs as additional storeroom space.

In some instances, these spaces were kept locked so male colleagues didn’t use them, resulting in female colleagues having to request a key, often from a male colleague, in order to gain access. Fiona commented that it is humiliating practices like these which contribute to a culture making the women who are present in male-dominated sectors feel unwelcome and more likely to leave.

Fiona also reiterated the importance of providing properly fitting PPE for female colleagues and gave an example where a pregnant staff member in one organisation had to wait three months to be provided with correctly fitting PPE, which is clearly unacceptable.

There was active conversation and debate but this meant there was more to discuss so Fiona offered to pick up with members offline after the session to provide an overview for the attendees of Made in Group’s inclusion pledge as a means for members to commit to learning about and implementing equality and diversity best practices. She also outlined how signatories can access bespoke Made Futures / Made Equal branding and social media assets, as well as post their vacancies on a Made Futures job board.

The Made in Group continues to organise a wide range of events throughout the year, facilitating knowledge exchange and fostering a competitive edge. These events, ranging from online sessions to face-to-face meet-ups, feature industry experts and thematic discussions aimed at enhancing competitiveness and productivity.
Don’t forget, members can go greener by attending six events and the Made in Group will plant 25 trees towards their goal to plant 10,000 trees.

For those eager to join our meetings and access these invaluable insights, simply log in to your dashboard and navigate to the events page. Not yet a member? Join us online by visiting www.madeinthemidlands.com/register or www.madeinyorkshire.com/register and become a part of a thriving community committed to fostering business excellence.