An interview with Irizar UK Sales Director Julie Hartley offers insight into how the industry can help both men and women to unlock their full potential
What prevents someone from achieving their full potential within their workplace?
Lack of confidence plays a big part, according to Irizar UK Sales Director Julie Hartley. Reflecting on what she feels stopped her from being more ambitious early on in her career, she says that, like many people, she was guilty of not fully believing in herself.
“A lot of people, male and female, struggle with self–confidence. I think that’s one of the biggest things that holds women back from breaking the glass ceiling and fulfilling their true potential,” she says. But things could be different.
A solid career
Despite that, Julie acknowledges that few people would probably believe that she had struggled with self-confidence.
Her rise to Irizar UK Sales Director has progressed logically: Growing up in Coventry in the 1980s, a centre of manufacturing, was what pushed her into a four-year long business technician apprenticeship with agricultural machinery manufacturer Massey Ferguson, and was the first step in a career that spanned agriculture, trucks, and finally the coach sector.
Julie was the only female apprentice during her time at Massey Ferguson. Anecdotal evidence suggests a prevalence of attitudes that probably wouldn’t fly in most workplaces today: “My training officer said at the outset that I would have to work twice as hard as the boys to achieve what they could. That was like a red rag to a bull.”
Duly encouraged, after time spent on the shop floor building tractors and learning to weld and grind, Julie did a spell in engineering, before moving into sales and marketing roles. “It was a very comprehensive apprenticeship across all elements of the business,” she explains. “Being the only female apprentice, I did get a lot of attention, which you might call harassment these days. I developed a style at that point very early on to ‘muck in’ and become ‘one of the lads’. I found it easier to be like them than not – give as good as I got, learn to have shop floor banter with the guys. It was a challenge, but I had fun.”
While Julie briefly found a niche in using her artistic side to produce diagrams for training brochures, ultimately she wound up working for a Massey Ferguson parts company in a sales support role dealing with markets across Australasia, Latin America and Africa. That led to a role at Volvo Trucks in Warwick in its parts department, supporting the dealer network.
After the better part of a decade spent at Volvo Trucks, Julie got to know Paul Sainthouse at Dawsongroup, who offered her a role in the rental and lease space within coach and bus. A position in vehicle sales for EvoBus cemented her as a figure within the coach industry. Now she is one of its most recognisable figures as Sales Director for Irizar UK.
Julie says she feels blessed to have not been out of work since beginning her apprenticeship at the age of 16, saying there were never any hurdles within her career progression that couldn’t be overcome. But some self-doubt remains, even today. “My career growth has been organic, but that may be why it took me longer to get in the position I’m in now. I never originally had aspirations to become Sales Director. I sometimes wonder where my career might have taken me if I hadn’t joined Irizar UK,” she says.
Julie cites Irizar Group’s business ethics, and a certain Latin warmth, as being a key factor in why the relationship works so well. “Irizar doesn’t simply talk about corporate social responsibility,” she explains. “It takes action. Being a co-operative also gives the company a very special quality. All its members benefit from that.”
“My training officer said at the outset that I would have to work twice as hard as the boys to achieve what they could. That was like a red rag to a bull”
Industry challenges
Women working in the transport sector, and those who have reached management level, remain low in number compared to men (the Confederation of Passenger Transport Impact of COVID-19 on our People and Culture workshop recently revealed that only 22% of transport workers identify as women) and Julie says she would like to see more women in roles like hers and in sales roles.
“This is a great industry for women,” Julie believes. “Transport has always been a very male oriented sector, and there could be many reasons for that – perhaps the subject matter just doesn’t attract women. But I have had a successful career out of this industry, and I love the job and the business I work for. Other women need to believe that too.”
Equally, Julie feels that women – and men, too, for that matter – might struggle with confidence, which both holds people back from joining and from progressing. “I’ve noticed through the years that assertiveness and confidence don’t come naturally to a lot of women, and I’ve certainly had self-doubts of my own. ‘Am I good enough? Will I be able to lead? Will the guys listen to me?’ are questions I’ve only recently had the confidence to answer. And I’ve had to work really hard to work on building that confidence. I’m sure there are a lot of people – male and female – who feel the same way.”
So what can the industry do to empower people to reach their true potential? Personal development training can help, Julie suggests. Equally, celebrating successes, regardless of gender, is important. “We work in critical environments and sometimes don’t take enough time to celebrate people’s successes. That needs to be done. The industry needs to recognise people’s value within their organisation.”
Encouraging not just women but all young people to the industry also requires giving them confidence that there are no limits to individual career progression. “I have had to push through some barriers,” Julie admits. “But not to the point where I wanted to turn back. I feel like I’ve been accepted for who I am and for the knowledge that I have.”
Knowledge, especially, has been a critical ingredient. Julie believes women sometimes find themselves under increased scrutiny when it comes to vehicle knowledge. “One of the challenges for women, I think, is that there are still men out there who see a woman and don’t expect them to know their way around a vehicle. One of the things I did as a sales representative was really understand my product down to the nuts and bolts. I advocate that for anybody in sales – it isn’t enough to have a great personality. You need to truly understand your product.”
Passionate about people
Recruitment continues to be a tricky subject, and Julie admits that coach and bus is not always on the radar for women or young people. She confesses that her passion is not for vehicles, either. But what she is passionate about is the people who operate them. And therein lie clues as to how the industry already has the potential to celebrate its own diversity.
“I love this industry,” Julie says. “It’s quirky and full of amazing people, who are different and diverse from each other. From large established operators to fledgling businesses and everyone in between. What we can forget is that there are, in fact, a lot of women in our industry. There are a lot of families, and that’s what appeals to me, and what I think makes the coach sector so special. I can’t imagine wanting to work anywhere else.”
In that respect, there may even be more successful women in coach and bus than there are in many other transport sectors, often working behind the scenes and contributing to decision making. “The husband and father of a family-run business may be the one who buys the coach, but it could be the wife and daughter who are facing up to customers, operating tours, and dealing with finances.”
See no barriers
Julie’s main piece of advice for anyone worried about progression within the industry, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or otherwise, is to not look for the barriers. “Very often, they’re imagined,” she argues.
“Those who know and understand what they are talking about, are able to demonstrate their knowledge and prove their worth both to themselves and to their organisation will find that this industry is incredibly accepting,” she adds. “We should also enjoy the fact that we are in a remarkable industry that allows people to have great careers.”
As for the manufacturers, most, Julie says, are eager to give women and minorities a chance. And they stand to benefit massively from it.
