Women Elevating Women in Supply Chain

In our newest podcast episode, we listen in on a speech given by Meredith Singletary, Senior Director of HR, at the supply chain conference Manifest. During her talk, she explores important issues women face in the supply chain industry and workplace through compelling personal stories.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to all business, no boundaries, a collection of supply chain stories by DHL supply chain, the north American leader in contract logistics. I'm your host will Haywood. This is a place for in-depth discussions on the supply chain challenges keeping you up at night. We're breaking beyond the boundaries that are limiting your supply chain. Let's dive in today. We are listening in on a speech given by Meredith Singletary, senior director of HR at DHL supply chain. This speech was recorded at the logistics conference, Matt in Las Vegas during her talk, she addresses working as a new mom, trusting your intuition and work life satisfaction through compelling personal stories, ready to be inspired. Let's dive in.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Thank you for having me and to all the men who looked at the agenda of events and said women elevating women. Yep. I'm going to that, right? That is an impressive thing for you to think and do. And we are glad that you guys are all here. I can't tell you how important it is that men are a part of this conversation. And I encourage Courtney to make sure, uh, that we invite to do. And if it feels like, I don't know, a little weird, cuz this isn't what like most supply chain conferences feel like, right? There's a lot of female energy in here. Just know that's how we feel in all the other sessions. Right? So when we go, I walk through the, the conference halls this morning, how have 1, 2, 3, all dudes, right? All guys. And here I come. And so it, it does feel a little different, but I love that you're here and we appreciate you pushing yourself outta your comfort zone. And I know maybe some of the things that Luanne and Courtney were saying, I feel a little off putting or gosh, is that really true? But I really appreciate that you would come and listen and try to learn and see what you can do to help elevate women. So thanks for being here. So, so I wanna tell you a little bit about me. So I am with DHL supply chain been there about 15 years. I would say for the first 11 years I was an HR manager and I was, I wasn't like a woman in supply chain. I was just like a woman in supply chain. Right? I'm just coming to work every day. I'm a, I'm a working mama. Anybody else working mothers in the house? I know we were talking about that earlier. That is a significant piece of what it feels like to be in the supply chain industry a lot of times. So I work and I have a family. So when I started with DHL, I had a small child, a toddler who is now driving. And since I've worked there, I was pregnant. Had another child had to go out on maternity, leave, came back, shoved a breast pump back and forth, got the opportunity to be in meetings where we would go call on customers and we'd have dinner afterwards. And it's like me and 17 dudes. Anyone else? Yep. So yes. That's your experience. Okay. Yes. So I go, I tell my husband all the time, well, me and all the guys are gonna go out. Right. But I'll be home later. So that is what the experience is. Lot of times for women in supply chain. And I didn't really understand how significant that was, that I was a woman in supply chain just coming to work. Right. I just was going to work. I had a job and, and I was showing up to work and I, I didn't really learn about what that means until I took on this role. So three or four years ago, I got a call from our senior vice president of HR. He said, Meredith, I wanna give you a promotion. I'd like for you to take on diversity and inclusion for DHL. And I'm like, Hmm. Yeah, that doesn't sound like me. I don't, I don't feel like I'm qualified. So what we were talking about earlier, women only they putting their name in the hat. If they're like nine or 10% of the boxes get checked. Does that resonate with you guys? Yeah, we don't feel it. So men, if you're like, what? So we don't feel like we're gonna put our name in the hat. We are not like 100% qualified in this case. I did not have any experience in leading diversity and inclusion. So I'm like, why are you kind to me? And he said, Meredith, we know you, aren't an expert in diversity inclusion, but you are a woman who's been coming to this organization every day. Right. And you know what the experience is and you know how to navigate our organization. You know how we work and we want you to go learn whatever you need to learn. Right? So we wanna invest in you. We'll help you to grow your knowledge on the diversity inclusion side, but we want you to take on this role. And there's a lot of consternation. Clearly. I said, yes, right here I am. And I have to tell you, it has been some of the most rewarding and engaging work of my career. I have gotten to do what I consider to be incredibly meaningful work culture, changing work. Right. I get to do cool stuff. I've been on podcasts. I tell my kids, I'm a social media influencer. It's not true. They believe me. Thanks. Right. But I have been on multiple podcasts. I now get to speak at a conference in Vegas with ludicrous. Thanks, Courtney Lee. That is also going very well with my children. But I've got to do a lot of really cool things in this world. Now, Reese Witherspoon has a speech that she's given. Some of you may have seen it, but she talks about how she can always tell when she gets a script that had no women involved in the creation of a script, she says, there's a line that you'll see. And now you guys will notice it, right? What happens is there's like some big crisis situation and the woman looks up and goes, what do we do now? And she goes on to say, now what woman do you know in a crisis situation that actually has no idea what to do. Right? So they actually tell small children. I know that I told my children when they were young, if you're in the trouble and you don't know what to do, who do you go see a woman, find a mom, right? If there's a woman out there, go find her and she is going to help you. I know that she will. Right. And I believe not to be true in general about women is that they have women's intuition. Anybody refer that it's a thing, right? They know, I knew when this job was offered to me that it was gonna be good. I didn't know how good, I mean, Lu to Chris. Good. I did not know that, but I knew it was gonna be good. And I was very nervous. I'm very glad I took it on. Now. Here's the other side of the story recently? I haven't actually told this story. Why not start with 250 friends in Vegas? Right. Recently we had an opening come up. So that same SVP who came to me, he said, so he has decided to retire. So we had to backfill his and my boss got the job. So they have elevated him to the job. The minute that announcement went out, my phone started ringing, oh my God, Meredith, are you the next VP? Have they given you the job? Are you the one? Are you gonna do it? So very clearly, I'm the, he apparent to the next vice presidential. I, I am qualified for that job. I check those boxes. I know that. And I know that it's a job, uh, that I would enjoy and it's work that I know I would want to do three or four years ago. If you had said, Hey, Meredith, there's a VP role coming out. You think you're gonna take it? Be like, hell yes, that's me. I'm the next VP. I'm ready. But I didn't even apply to this one. And it's been hard to make that decision, but I've sort of listened to that. Intuition to the women's intuition. When you get the, for me, I have to sort of get a little quiet and really think about it. I've had to talk to some of my mentors and sponsors to think about why, but I'll tell you, I know it's not the right role. And I know it's not the right time for me. So my oldest, the one who's driving now, she's gonna be leaving my home in a year and a half. I have a lot of work to do to make sure she's ready for that. Yeah. A lot. And I wanna spend my time doing that more than I wanna spend my time in the boardroom with the vice presidents. I have my youngest Lily. I've traveled her entire life with my work. And then with COVID I was at home and she has developed what I would call separation anxiety. She does not want her mama to be gone. Even when I get to hang out with ludicrous, she does not want me to leave. She had, you know, she doesn't like it. It when I'm gone. And I know that's not gonna last forever. I know that, but it is what it is right now. And for me it took some time and I, they haven't announced who that person is yet. And I'm sure that there was gonna be some feelings when that happens. Right. That'll be a little bit tough for me because it's work. I know I'm qualified for and it's work. I know I want to do, but I don't think we should elevate women just for the sake of elevating women. It has to be the right role. It has to be the right time. Right? So for me, that's not what it is now. And that means I need to be here. Right. And I get to continue doing what I consider to be really cool culture changing work. So that's how I got here. That's why I am with you guys on stage today. That's my story. And I'm excited to pursue what I consider work, life satisfaction. So a lot of you hear that term work life is balance. If they'll heard that right already. Oh, I won worklife balance. I don't know what that is. Right? Like it sounds like, oh, today I put equal amounts into my work in my home. I'm perfectly balanced. That is not what I feel like. I mean, if you feel that way, maybe you should come up on stage. This is not what I feel. I feel like I want a treadmill. That's like running maybe too two clicks too fast for me in those days. Right. Because I'm at work and I'm at home and I just got a call from the principal and you know, I gotta make sure we're doing the thing, whatever it's my, my brain is always going all the time. So I try not to pursue work life balance, but I look for work, life satisfaction. So for me, there have been season in my life where I have focused more on my work and there have been seasons in my life where I focus more on my family. So for me right now, I'm going to choose a family because I know I work for a really great company that is growing by leaps and bounds, and there are going to be more vice president roles available in the, I know it. And I know I will be in one of those. It's just not now. So that's, uh, that's my story. We are doing a lot of things on the diversity and inclusion front that do often, uh, include elevating women and pushing for more women in leadership. You have, have a, a handout there from Sally talking about the fact that we're pushing for 30% of leadership representation of women by 2025. So I helped to work with groups that helped to figure out how we can do that and how we can put the right women in the right roles at the right time. So I met with ERG, it's an employee resource group. We call it whisk women in supply chain. And I met with our whisk group last week. And I said, what do you think I should tell everyone about what are you most proud of that we've done? And here's what they said. The first thing they were most proud of is that we have invited men to this conversation. So historically I don't think that men have felt welcome in the diversity inclusion space, right? They, they have felt welcome in helping to elevate women, frankly, cuz it feels weird because they're in a male dominated world and they're just kind of used to working with other men and it's a little different and we have been very intentional to make sure that if we have a luncheon, we invite the men, I encourage Courtney to do it. And I'm so glad I did so that you guys could all be here with us today. We, I like to say, but as an invitation, it's a luncheon for the women and the men who support them. Right. And that's what you guys are all here today. So if we have a virtual event, we invite women and we invite men and we talk about both and how they can contribute, uh, in that way, if we're having, uh, you know, mentorship and sponsorship talking about that, we had a recent event where we feel focused on that and what does that mean and how women and men can help support each other. So that was the first thing, uh, that they wanted me to do. And, and it has been, uh, really exciting to see the passion that has come out with the men who come to the table really with this kind of work. So I, our CEO, who is male is incredibly passionate about, uh, pushing women further and about diversity and inclusion work altogether. So he and our entire board and all of our presidents have learned to facilitate unconscious bias training. So on any given Tuesday or Thursday, if you log in and you wanna learn about unconscious bias and there is time and attention given to gender bias and what that looks like you can log in and our CEO might be teaching you or one of our presidents. And it's a really visible showing that diversity and inclusion is important to them. That elevating women is important to them and you can see it. It's a, it's an investment in time and they have to protect their calendar, which is not easy. Right? And they have to say, no, I can't come to your meeting on Tuesday at 10, cuz I'm teaching unconscious bias training. And it's a really significant message. Speaking of investments, one of the things that I might be most proud of in this work has been our increase to our maternity and paternity policies. So when I had Lily, 13 years ago, I went out, it was considered a disability and I went out for 12 weeks, six weeks were paid at 60% and the rest was unpaid. I see some women shaking their hands or their heads. Yes, you feel that right? So I was unpaid and, and for a lot of people that is a really difficult thing to do. So we announced and how we did it was really special. But we had a virtual event where we invited men and women and we announced on the 100 year anniversary of the women's right to vote in the United States that we were gonna invest in our women. And we were gonna give the full 12 weeks at a hundred percent of pay. Right. So that is how you put your money where your mouth is. Right. That is how, oh yeah. There's a very clear statement that DHL has made, that we are looking to elevate our women that are women are important to us and that we want them to go out on maternity leave and come back and continue working for us. Right. It's been a key and strategy. Another thing that we have done that has been particularly cool and fun has been partnering with the girl Scouts. So we view girl Scouts as future female leaders and they do distribution work. They get those delicious, thin cookies. That's all, all of us. Right. And they have what they call mega cookie drops. And it is exactly like the work that we do every day. They bring in massive amounts of cookies and they have troop leaders coming through in like giant Suburbans. And they are cuing out those Suburbans within mens and Samoas and they it's a whole process and we help to volunteer with them. And when we do, we help to make their processes better. We helped them to make it a little bit more efficient and we help to show those little girls that supply chain is an industry that they might be interested in. And it's something that they have done in their life. Right? So we actually have a podcast, uh, it's mentioned on your, on your sheet, but it's called all business, no boundaries. And there is a two part series on our partnership with the girl Scouts called from cookies to careers. And we talk about what the, the work is that we're doing there. So all of that and more, we've got, you know, college recruiting to targets. We there's, there's a lot of work that we are doing in an effort to elevate women. Uh, and it is coming to fruition in our data in that we are growing our women in leadership, uh, year over year. So year over year, we went up by one percentage point, which when you're in a really big company, that's a lot more ladies leading our company, right? When you go up by that kind of, uh, increase. So we are on track to hit 30% of our leadership being female in 2025. And we have all of this work and more, if you have more ideas, see me after I'm listening, right? We're trying to figure out other things that we can do, uh, to help get more with'em in, into the supply chain field. So it, it is done with the help of very passionate volunteers with the support of our board and with the excitement that I know that, that these women are able to contribute even more to the supply chain industry. So thank you for your time partner and Luann. You wanna join me up on stage?

Speaker 1: 17:34

That concludes season two of all business, no boundaries. If you like this episode, please share it with a friend or colleague and rate us on apple podcasts. We will be back in January with all new episodes, but in the meantime you can re-listen to your favorite episodes@dhl.com slash a B N B podcast or on your favorite screening platform.