Media Release: Sept 2015
Knowing first hand and from friends and associates the barriers working women face on a daily basis as they are pulled from one place to another in work and at home, female entrepreneurs Jenny Pollock and Emma Shute are delighted with the impact their women’s development initiatives and coaching and mentoring programmes have brought to women across the region through their inspirational with profits social enterprise Women to Work.
Whilst studying the MSc in Organisation Change and Consultancy – Coaching and Mentoring at Sheffield Hallam University a few years ago, the two founders were quick to form a friendship which would be long lasting and the foundation of their growing business. Now in its 2nd year and going from strength to strength, Jenny and Emma know they have the capabilities and knowledge to provide a service which meets the needs of both the individual women and the organisations they work for with the aim of improving gender balance and enabling women to be fully engaged, motivated and fulfilled in their working life either independently or within an organisation.
Responding to the Women’s Business Council statement “While women need work, work also needs women. By equalising the labour force participation rates of men and women, the UK could further increase GDP per capita growth by 0.5 percentage points per year, with potential gains of 10% of GDP by 2030”, Women to Work is perfectly positioned in the current marketplace and economic platform to offer a range of sustainable engagement and development initiatives for the organisation and the individual women within it.
Jenny comments, “The bespoke nature of our work and our flexible approach means we will work closely with an organisation to meet their individual organisation’s purpose and objectives.”
Emma continues, “We recently ran a highly successful women’s development programme with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue. The programme had a two stranded approach to support the development of individual women within the organisation to develop a mind-set, network, toolkit and set of resources to use positively to manage their personal development and work life, both in the immediate and longer term and to support the development of the organisation itself to identify organisational and personal barriers, enablers & solutions to women’s development in the service”.
The programme was delivered over four months and resulted in a research report disseminated at the Women’s Development Conference in February 2015 attended by over 85 men and women from 28 different Fire and Rescue Services.
Hibou Drusden, HR Manager at SYFR said, “Working creatively and using co-production approaches they helped women at SYFR and I, as HR professional and project lead, to design a Women’s Development Programme which successfully empowered 32 diverse female employees, fire fighters and managers to boost their confidence and achieve more from their working lives. The active learning approach within the programme was extended to an action research strand which allowed the women delegates to conduct and publish research and a programme for action for women’s development within the Fire and Rescue sector.“
Women to Work leading the way in effective change management for sustainable engagement of women in the workplace. Organisational programmes can be bespoke in nature, designed to meet the individual needs of the organisation and their female workforce. However, Women to Work now have three new ‘ready to go’ women’s development programmes due to be announced shorty – supporting women from recruitment to retirement. To find out more, link directly with Emma Shute and Jenny Pollock and visit www.womentowork.co.uk
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Editors Notes
For further information:
Contact: Lucinda White, Pure Awards Creative 07900 571189 / info@pureawardscreative.com
Emma Shute, Women to Work, 07881 645738, emma@womentowork.co.uk
Jenny Pollock, Women to Work, 07739 096963, jenny@womentowork.co.uk
Website: www.womentowork.co.uk
Twitter: @womentowork
Photos:
Jenny Pollock
Emma Shute
Women to Work: Background
Women to Work focuses on women’s development, both ‘into’ the workplace and ‘within’ the workplace.
Supporting individual women with children to define and create a fulfilling work life and organisations to create sustainable engagement of their female workforce.
A with profits social enterprise, Women to Work believes in the commercial and social imperatives for individual women, organisations and society as a whole behind improving gender balance and enabling women to be fully engaged, motivated and fulfilled in their working life either independently or within an organisation.
Women to Work offers support to organisations through bespoke solutions such as coaching & mentoring scheme design and delivery including ILM accredited programmes; sustainable engagement of women in the workplace workshops for managers; maximising talent & engagement workshops for women in the workplace and one to one coaching. We offer an opportunity for organisations to look at what they are currently doing and what they can do to maximise female potential; to consider the commercial and social importance of a gender balanced organisation; to create sustainable engagement of their female workforce and identify the subsequent commercial benefits and measures of success.