Automotive News Canada - December 2020 - v2 - 12

* D E C E M B E R 2 020

LEADING WOMEN ROUNDTABLE

GENDER GAP:

THE PANELISTS
RETAIL ROUNDTABLE

IS IT WIDER?
Panelists see ominous
signs despite the
industry's intentions
By STEPHANIE WALLCRAFT
TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

AT A TIME WHEN CALLS FOR
diversity, equity and inclusion are
building around the globe, the gender gap in the auto industry appears
to be widening, said panelists during
Automotive News Canada's second
annual Leading Women Roundtable.
" I would like to say that there's
been a tremendous amount of progress, " said Maria Soklis, president of
Cox Automotive Canada and Brazil.
" In fact, there is research that supports that a lot of women who are
in the industry actually feel that the
industry has regressed. "
Soklis was among a group of
automotive manufacturing and
retail executives who participated in
two 45-minute online discussions in
December that focused on women in
the auto industry.
Soklis's concerns were echoed by
Shelley Fellows, chair of Automate
Canada, an association representing Canadian companies involved
in industrial automation. She also is
a former vice-president of Windsor,
Ont.-based AIS Technologies Group.
" We founded our company back
in 1994 [and] saw some of the very
focused efforts by the large automotive manufacturers to enforce
diversity upon their supply chain, "
Fellows said. " Those efforts coming
from the top, the customer, to the
supply chain have backed down.
" We've also seen a reduction of
women in that automotive work
force and in that manufacturing
work force. It's really unfortunate. "

NO BALANCE, NO HOPE
According to research conducted by financial-services company
Deloitte in partnership with sibling publication Automotive News,
the most prominent factors pushing
women out of the industry are a lack
of work-life balance and a perception that women are overlooked for
advancement. The survey, conducted in September, sought input from
700 female and male respondents in
Canada and the United States.
Statistics Canada's most recent
survey of household time use, conducted in 2015, found that on a daily
basis women spend 54 minutes more
than men doing housework, perform
19.4 per cent more child care duties
and spend three times more hours
caring for adult family members or
friends.
These additional responsibili-

Top issues that prevent people
from considering a career in the
auto industry

Lack of diversity, equity and inclusion

64%

VIEW THE ROUNDTABLE
SESSIONS ONLINE

www.automotivenews.ca
Click the Events & Awards tab

22%

Lack of work/life balance

Lack of flexible schedule

53%

ties as one of three key reasons that
they would leave the industry if they
could restart their careers.

50%

43%

37%

WOMEN
MEN

Lack of opportunities for advancement
37%

23%

" Dirty and dangerous " image
34%

27%
C E : D20
E L O I 30
T T E A40
ND
0S O U R10

A U50
TOMO
60T I V E 70
N E W S 2 0 2 0 D I V E R S I T Y, E Q U I T Y A N D
INCLUSION IN AUTOMOTIVE STUDY

ties are even more challenging for
women to balance when they lack
flexible working schedules - a key
factor that pushes them into industries where those supports are present, the Deloitte study said.
" It's important from an organizational standpoint to just let women
know that they can reach out to
other women that are on their team,
or other men, and they have that
support, " Andria Zanchin, executive vice-president of Ontario-based
Zanchin Automotive Group, told the
retail roundtable.
The Deloitte research also found
that while 91 per cent of the women
surveyed cited an industry bias
toward men for promotion into
leadership, only 47 per cent of men
agreed this was a problem.
Meanwhile, nearly half of the
women surveyed cited the lack of
fair job advancement opportuni-

I would like to say that there's
been a tremendous amount
of progress. In fact, there is
research that supports that a
lot of women who are in the
industry actually feel that the
industry has regressed.
MARIA SOKLIS

Cox Automotive Canada
and Brazil

LOSS OF TALENT
Health care and technology were
named as desirable alternatives
because they were perceived as leading sectors for attracting and retaining a diverse work force.
" If a young woman entering the
work force looks at an industry that
doesn't appear to be supporting the
advancement of women, then they
80 choose to go elsewhere, " said Lorrie
King, a partner at Deloitte Canada. " If
we think about the amount of top-level talent that is being lost to those two
industries, considering how much
the auto industry is moving toward
advanced technologies, we are putting
ourselves at a huge deficit. "
Hyundai Canada CEO Don
Romano, who participated in the
automaker/supplier roundtable,
took the industry to task for its long
history of objectifying women.
" Think about a hundred years
of auto shows and women dressed
in scantily clad outfits. We have to
come to grips with the fact that we
do not have a good reputation that
entices female applicants to come
over to the car business. " - ANC

* Sarah Hindle, general manager of future retail, Pfaff
Automotive
Partners. Hindle
has overseen the
rollout of digital
sales processes for
Pfaff, a group of 21
dealerships representing mainstream, luxury and ultra-luxury brands across Southern
Ontario, Alberta and British
Columbia.
* Joy Quaile, customer experience team manager, Hyundai Auto
Canada. Quaile
oversees a team
of eight employees responsible
for working directly with
Hyundai customers on a daily
basis.
* Andria Zanchin, executive
vice-president, Zanchin Auto
Group. She set
up and oversees
the in-house marketing team and
other initiatives
for Zanchin Auto
Group, a group with 34 dealerships in southern and eastern
Ontario.
* Laura Zanchin, executive
vice-president,
Zanchin Auto
Group. She is
responsible for
advancing customer-centric policies
and procedures for Zanchin
Auto Group.

MANUFACTURING ROUNDTABLE
* Maria Soklis, president of
Cox Automotive
Canada and Brazil,
which offers digital marketing,
software, financial, wholesale and
e-commerce solutions to the
automotive industry.
* Shelley Fellows, chair of
Automate Canada, an association representing Canadian
companies
involved in the
industrial automation industry.
Fellows was a former vice-president
of Windsor, Ont.-based AIS
Technologies.
* Diane Reko, CEO of Reko
International
Group, a supplier of tools and
molds, machining,
and automation
processes based
in Lakeshore, just outside of
Windsor, Ont.
* Don Romano, CEO of
Hyundai Auto Canada. Since
taking over the
role in 2014,
Romano has overseen implementation of policies and
procedures aimed
at diversifying Hyundai Auto
Canada's work force.

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Automotive News Canada - December 2020 - v2

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