Maersk, a prominent shipping and logistics company, embodies the ethos of All Hands on Deck. Kirti Gupta, Customer Experience Head of Maersk, provided insights on how her organization is fostering a path of gender diversity in an industry traditionally perceived to be male-oriented, at the 2023 Best of the Best Conference by Avtar and Seramount in a breakout session titled The Road Ahead: Nurturing Women’s career in logistics.
Maersk has three integral pillars, each with respective initiatives, that enable women to become equal contributors in the workforce. The first pillar is Attract and Recruit. Under it, the Reach initiative focuses on recruiting women from tier-two cities. Reach gets support from the Anchor Your Career initiative, which enables leaders to tap into a talent pool from within and outside the industry.
The WARM and Back2Work programs are pathways for women who wish to join the workforce after a career break. The former caters to the Maersk alumni, whereas the latter accommodates fresh talent. These programs initiate returnship with a project-based model and facilitate a smooth transition for women as they glide to permanent roles with more ease and enhanced confidence.
Lastly, the Equal at Sea program creates a safe space for women onboard as crew members. The unique initiative is an industry-first focus on empowering and supporting female crew members and their families.
Maersk’s second pillar – Build Capabilities – involves networking initiatives. Using programs such as Strategies for Success, women share their dynamic challenges, learnings, and solutions, fostering a collaboration of experiences. Additionally, the Beating Bias initiative equips recruiters and managers with training that helps them identify biases within themselves and the organization.
Lastly, the pillar of Allyship creates support systems for employees across the gender spectrum. Maersk also has six unique rainbow-colored containers among its large fleet of transport materials to emphasize the need and practice of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on and off the sea.
