We are absolutely delighted to be named A Best Workplace For Women 2022.

Making the workplace inclusive is crucial to all of us at Fleet Alliance, and we think that’s reflected in the overall complexion of the Fleet Alliance workforce which is split 53% to 47% female to male.

We believe that’s particularly noteworthy, because our business is immersed in the male-dominated automotive industry, something that we think needs to change.

The Best Workplace for Women 2022 award follows our 10th Best Place to Work award from the Great Place to Work Institute.

For the record, the qualifying criteria for the Best Workplace for Women requires a minimum of 25% of women in the workforce (for Fleet Alliance it’s 53%); a minimum of 20% women in mid-level management (at Fleet Alliance it’s 40%); and a minimum of more than one women on the board of directors or at executive level (for Fleet Alliance that’s 33%).

But it’s more than just numbers.

Creating the right environment and culture has to work across the board. All our staff responded to over 60 survey questions describing the extent to which Fleet Alliance creates a ‘Great Place to Work For All’. Eighty-five percent of the ranking we achieved is based on what the women who work for Fleet Alliance reported about our workplace, and how fairly those experiences compared with the men working for us and their reports.

So it’s getting the balance right for all. Another way of describing it, we believe, is simply that we’re all equal.

This environment is nurtured by the core ‘Fleet Alliance Loves’ programme that anchors the working environment at Fleet Alliance. It is based on these four principles:

• Fairness,
• Trust,
• Engagement, and
• Respect

All employee actions, regardless of the level of seniority in the business, are underpinned by these Fleet Alliance fundamentals.

A recent global report from Deloitte entitled Women @ Work 2022 demonstrated the value of a fair and inclusive workplace. It noted that, particularly during the pandemic, women were more prone to burn out, choosing either to find employment where hybrid or more flexible working was offered, or simply left the workplace altogether.

The flip side to this were those employers where inclusivity was key, who found that such cultures that supported employees and promoted mental wellbeing, provided far higher levels of engagement, trust, and career satisfaction.

It’s exactly this sort of culture that Fleet Alliance genuinely wants to foster.

Laura Muir, Head of AR & Partner at Fleet Alliance, explains what it’s like to work at the company and what makes it so appealing.

“When I first started in the industry 18 years ago, it was very male dominated and I find that’s still often the case when I speak to other organisations. But not at Fleet Alliance.

“Here you feel at ease in an office where there is a lot of respect – we can openly discuss issues such as mental health, gender equality, sexuality and menopause without fear.

“I don’t feel there are barriers to progression, either. I’ve never felt uneasy about promotion because I’m the ‘wrong sex’. On the contrary, it’s empowering when you see women in the office that are in positions of management.

“I think much of this is down to the open-minded attitude that permeates from the top down: everyone is treated equally – it’s an environment that’s very welcoming.”

This is the second time that Fleet Alliance has been named in the Best Workplace For Women, demonstrating what we hope are consistent values and, in a wider context, forms part of our highly important Environmental, Social and Governance agenda.

While Laura has been part of our Fleet Alliance Loves culture as it has grown and developed over the years, what’s it like for women who are new to the business? We asked recent new starter, Charlie Strand, what attracted her to working at Fleet Alliance.

Charlie says that it was actually the employee welfare commitment that caught her eye in an article on LinkedIn, the social media platform for professionals.

“The post I saw was about a staff financial welfare seminar. I was really impressed by the fact that here was a business doing things that were genuinely helpful for the company’s employees. So I continued to watch and follow the company with the hope that a career opportunity might be posted. At the same time I did some reputational checks that suggested Fleet Alliance really was invested in its staff wellbeing. And then a job opportunity came along to manage the company’s social media and I was successful in my application.”

Charlie has now been with Fleet Alliance for five months. So how does she view the company now?

“It’s way better than I thought it was going to be,” says Charlie. “I thought it was going to be good, but this is super good. I’ve worked in some large corporations before but never has it been so easy to approach senior management and have conversations that aren’t always centred around work.”

While Charlie has yet to make use of a ‘duvet day’ – a day which you can take off from work if you’ve had a bad day previously for whatever reason without lengthy advanced notice – she is planning a volunteer day working for a charity.

“This is a great example of Fleet Alliance actively helping an outside organisation. I’m going to work with The Marie Trust – a Glasgow-based charity assisting homelessness, preventing homelessness from recurring and young people’s mental health – an area that I believe is highly important. It really helps give a different perspective on your working life.”

Providing that alternative viewpoint on work and the role of business in a society is central to the values that drive Fleet Alliance, along with fairness, trust, engagement and respect. It’s part of what makes Fleet Alliance A Best Workplace for Women 2022.

It’s also what makes us simply a Great Place To Work.