Ford Increases Recruiting And Training Of Woman Engineers In Asia

In the past five years, a number of women at Ford operations across Asia Pacific has risen more than 125 percent and increased the number of women in senior leadership roles. The company said it's further accelerating its efforts to diversify its workforce and strengthen its overall talent bench in engineering and other disciplines.

"Women have been traditionally underrepresented in the auto industry, particularly in Asia, and we see that as a massive untapped opportunity," said Dave Schoch, president, Ford Asia Pacific. "Recruiting and retaining the best talent is a big challenge in Asia. Increasing women in our workforce are not only the right thing to do; it's key to winning in China and other fast-growing Asia-Pacific markets."

The initiatives of the Asia Pacific include:

• Ford's leadership team in the region has made driving diversity and inclusion a core value as it is a critical enabler to innovation and business success.
• Ford has been a strong supporter of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) programs to address the underrepresentation of women in these fields of education.



• This month the company launches a new Diversity Alliance Committee that will bring together and grow some existing initiatives such as STEAM and Professional Women's Network.
• As part of its commitment to a flexible work environment, Ford recently launched a new telecommuting policy in China to complement other flexibility initiatives such as new mothers' lounges and on-site day care in some locations.


• Ford has put in place training and development programs to help prepare female employees for higher leadership positions.
• Ford has launched an unconscious bias training for the majority of its 13,000 employees across Asia Pacific. Unconscious bias is the concept that individuals have subconscious preferences for people that can unintentionally influence both behavior and decision making if not recognized, including recruitment and promotion decisions.



• Ford India is partnering with local organizations to enable returning women employees to make a smooth transition back to the workplace after a long absence and is piloting a program called "InSight" to facilitate the female talent pipeline for higher leadership positions. These programs have helped Ford India be named as one of the ‘Best Companies for Women in India' by AVTAR Group in 2016.