Women in Manufacturing At Herga Technology

Herga Technology can be described as a company that goes very much against the national trend of UK manufacturing businesses when it comes to the gender split between male and female workers at all levels.

Overall 55% of our site members are women; this is nearly four times the national average for a manufacturing company which is just 15%. 

The photo to the right shows some of Herga’s key women totalling a remarkable 169-years of service (Being watched over by our Ambassador of Courage Val Goodman)

Interestingly the contract type split between men and women is exactly the same on full time contracts at 39.80%, but 5 times more women are employed on part-time contracts than men and this split which balances cost with flexibility has created and supported transformational change in manufacturing efficiencies over the past 2-years.

Although futuristic in vision and performance change, Herga has the backbone of (roughly) a combined 993 years of service with 36.10% of the total employees having served at Herga for more than 15 years and an age range of 19 to 72.

Women in Management Manufacturing Roles

Now part of the Acal plc Group, we have 5 manufacturing departments from our single site in Bury St Edmunds and 4 of these are headed by women. These ladies collectively manage over 60% of the total site staff. Not only are these key departments headed by women, they are fronted by over 108-years of combined Herga experience. This really makes it heavily one sided for poor Keith in Stores; a single male supervisor in a female dominant manufacturing business and to challenge Keith even more, his wife Pam also works here part-time, he really should be in the Queens New Year Honours List!

Keith and Pam Shepherd with a combined 44-years at Herga

(clear who wears the trousers here!)

When Herga then considers a senior process engineer supporting manufacturing activities, a head of Sales, a senior member of Customer Services and a Manufacturing Co-Ordinator, all of which are positions currently held by women; this adds another combined 74-years of experience and contributes to a business that runs further and further away from the UK manufacturing industry norm. On top of this we are achieving a 25% business growth calendar year to date. “So all this talk about women being able to multi-task must actually be true…” says Ed Charlson, Operations Director.

The photograph below shows Karen Docking our Process Engineer with 27-years of service and Kate Sandlan our Sales Manager who has been with Herga for 21-years.

More Women in Manufacturing

It’s not only management and support staff; a female presence, or more so dominance, runs through our manufacturing lines. Below shows Carol Garrod and Sue Gooday who both continue to work in our Pneumatics Department having been given 20-year service awards back in 2015.    

Ed Charlson, our Operations Director has been working here at Herga since January 2015, he is very proud of the company and how far it has come in the past few years, he says “Herga is about a collective balance of not just talent but of potential, it’s about what you could or may do in the future rather than whom you are, what you have done in the past, or how national averages portray the gender balance in UK manufacturing. Herga is a business more likely to read between the lines of a CV and gauge the possibility and promise much more than the past.”

Although we are very much a forward thinking, new age business, Herga never forgets its core value and the critical importance of creating a pool of both talent and potential that supports gender equality and extends diversity.

With a very visual open book policy on performance and communication, we believe we may have a never been seen before Quality Management System that verges on film and theatre but the company never forgets its existence, purpose and goal as a “manufacturing partner of choice”.

Ed also adds; “The message here from Herga, who employs 4 times the national average of women in manufacturing is “Hard hats and High Heels” to what remains a male dominant industry. The female voice here is strong and at times probably worthy of a noise survey but it’s about what we do and what we stand for rather than the make-up of our DNA…”