Earlier this month, Plastics News had its first in-person event since February 2020, as the Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum took place Nov. 11 and 12 in Austin, Texas. I'm sure many of you are thinking: "Of course it was a women's business event, because women make things happen." (Same. Also, thanks to the guys who were there to support the speakers, colleagues, sponsors and who are regular allies to women in the industry.)
Here are just a few brief items from the forum.
Suzana Keller's life changed when she was 14. Her hometown of Sarajevo – in what was then part of Yugoslavia – was suddenly the center of a civil war. She and her family became refugees and soon found themselves living in a single room.
So at 17, she took the opportunity to study in the U.S. and quickly learned that life was not everything that Beverly Hills 90210 had made it out to be. But she went on to graduate from Louisiana State University (in less than three years because her family couldn't afford more years of tuition) and joined consulting group Ernst & Young. Now the chief procurement officer for Coca-Cola Bottlers' Sales and Service, Keller says she set herself a rule.
"Whenever [supervisors] said, 'Who wants to do X, I'd raise my hand, and then I'd figure out how to do it," she said.
Women, she added, often don't want to speak out "unless they are 200 percent certain that they're correct. Men have no problems saying yes and they don't know what they're doing."
"Be brave because you all are brave," Keller added. "I'm not afraid to fail. I don't make the same mistake twice. If I make a mistake, I say that's on me and learn from it."
Families have support systems — coaches, teachers, grandparents, neighbors and friends — to succeed and help children, said Kasie Strong-Fairbarn, global account and sustainability manager for flexible packaging maker Paxxus Inc. Companies have a board of directors to provide guidance.
So Strong-Fairbarn has created what she calls a personal board of directors who provide support and guidance. That board goes beyond having a work mentor or sponsor.
Different people fill a series of roles: cheerleader, connector, trusted adviser, wellness coach, career coach, mentor, sponsor.
"When you're working with other people, the load gets lighter," she said. "With that comes confidence."
The shortage of workers in every industry has been making headlines for months. Reva Katz, managing director in Deloitte Consulting's human capital organization transformation service, says that isn't likely to end anytime soon.
Studies predict a "rolling 2 millionish shortfall" in the number of workers will continue potentially for decades.
"Two million doesn't seem like that much but these are going to be consistent open roles," Katz said. "Manufacturing lags in diversity. For manufacturers to fill these roles, they have to think differently, to reach out to different demographics."
That means doing more than simply having a seminar on reaching out to women and underrepresented minorities. Instead, employers must develop specific action plans to not only expand their outreach through new recruiting channels, but also plan on how to retain those workers once they're hired.
"How do you move the needle on recruiting if you're not actively working to reach out to women?" she asked.
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