To mark International Women’s Day, BigChange is launching two new awards to celebrate women in the field service sector and to support attracting more talented women into this industry.
Many of our customers and prospective customers tell us that their growth is limited by the scarcity of skilled tradespeople in the UK. While BigChange’s application delivers significant productivity savings, and enables our customers to grow using their existing resource pool, there is an urgent need to increase recruitment into the sector. One challenge is that women make up only 1% of tradespeople so half of the workforce is barely represented. However demand is acute: as well as there being a national shortage of skilled tradespeople, and an aging workforce, a Chartered Institute of Building survey also suggested that a third of people would actually prefer to hire a female tradesperson.
BigChange faces similar challenges in recruiting women into Technology, although the problem is not as acute as for skilled tradespeople. However we also see the huge benefits of increasing the diversity of our developer community, with women offering different perspectives and diverse teams operating more collaboratively and cohesively. BigChange’s Chief Technical Officer, Andy Fielder, marked this IWD by saying ‘ Recognising the importance of gender diversity in software development teams is crucial for boosting performance. It not only elevates productivity but also contributes to a happier team environment. The fresh perspectives and creativity that women bring to the table help us better cater to our users.’
BigChange’s Purpose is ‘To transform lives by accelerating growth and sustainability in our community’ and by increasing the talent pool in our customers’ field service workforce we all benefit. The importance of diversity and inclusion is also called out in one of our five company values: Big on Inclusion.
To reflect our commitment to Big on Inclusion, we are launching two awards for our customers and all businesses working in the field service industry. The first is for Outstanding Women in Field Service, to recognise the amazing pioneering women working as technicians, engineers and operatives in the industry. The second is our ‘Big on Inclusion’ award where we will support one of our customers by funding their work to promote diversity including supporting an apprenticeship to bring in new diverse talent into their workforce.
The winner of the Outstanding Women in Field Service Award will receive £2000 and their employer will receive an additional £1000 to invest in diversity programmes within their business. The winning company for the Big on Inclusion Award will receive a package of support to further invest in their diversity plans including coaching, £2000 of investment funds and support with apprenticeship training costs
Applications and eligibility details will be released on the BigChange website on Wednesday 13th March. The deadline for applications will be 31st May 2024 with shortlisted nominees announced in July, followed by in-person assessments and visits. The finalists will be invited to our end of year Awards party where the winner will be announced.
