Australia’s oldest car company, Holden, has pledged to balance its gender books by 2022, with chairman and managing director Mark Bernhard saying the Melbourne-based company wants to achieve “gender equality” in five years.
“We have so many talented employees at Holden, and after attracting more women applicants in 2016 than in 2015 and 2014 combined, we are now at 27 per cent of our corporate workforce represented by women,” said Mr Bernhard in a statement.
“We now need to aggressively work to further improve. That’s why today we are announcing it is our goal to have a gender-balanced workforce within five years. To attract the best minds, both male and female, to build a successful future for our company.”
It’s a bold goal. Currently, Holden says that 27 per cent of its total work force of approximately 1100 people (across its headquarters, engineering and design departments, regional offices and spare parts operation, but excluding manufacturing staff) is female, while 30 per cent of senior managers in the business are women.
It’s also worth pointing out that the company prides itself on a culture where, in its words, a pay gap does not exist, thanks to “explicit policies” designed to prevent it.
Holden is currently repositioning itself for a future as a vehicle importer, rather than a manufacturer, with its last remaining plant in Adelaide closing later this year. Some 1000 manufacturing worker jobs will go when the plant shuts down for the final time on October 20.
