Women in Parking Building bridges Louise Parfitt chats to three members of the BPAs Women in Parking group about breaking down barriers, business highs, and being a minority in a bigger bubble Why parking? teams are quite large: I love that everyone has a story to tell Celina Herbert (CH), director, Unity5/ZatPark: I worked and you can see people progressing. for more than 20 years in the recruitment industry, progressing RP: I like to fix things I enjoy getting my hands dirty and from recruitment administrator to director. I joined problem solving. When something is not working, Unity5 as customer experience manager in I want to know why. 2017, to put my skills to use enhancing and elevating our customer engagement and Have you encountered any work situations that you account management offering. I continue felt were more challenging to be inspired and driven by the energy because you are a woman? and enthusiasm exhibited by the entire team every day. CH: In the early stages of my career, Sarah Randall (SR), assistant I sometimes felt that I had to prove director, traffic and parking, London myself in a way I probably wouldnt have Borough of Newham: I always meant to had to if I had been a man. Over time, Rachael Phillips be an accountant, but after my economics people have learned that, despite being and finance degree, I just couldnt face 5ft 2in and softly spoken, I am definitely not a doing more exams. I joined the graduate training pushover! I no longer feel the need to be anything programme at Harrods, which was amazing because I got other than myself. I think that we mistakenly categorise experience in merchandising, finance, HR, and shop floor. character traits by gender. In reality, we just need to I went on to manage Harrods hamper campaign getting remember that there are men who are sensitive and gentle, 55,000 hampers out on time and then worked for other women who are tough and strong, and lots of different types retailers, including Natuzzi leather. But after the 2008 financial in between. crash, it was difficult to find a job in retail. I saw a job for SR: When I first joined Croydon, I went to a senior leadership general manager of operations for parking at Croydon Council meeting and I was the only woman in the room. Perhaps that tapped into the skills I already had. I stayed in parking because Id come from a retail background, I hadnt services at Croydon until last year, when I moved to the experienced that before, and it was a bit of a shock. But if London Borough of Newham. I go a bit further back, when I was 15, my girls school merged Rachael Phillips (RP), service engineer, IPS: I started with the local boys school there were 20 girls in my year off at Motorola, building circuit boards. My parking journey and suddenly also 120 boys! I think that early experience began when I applied for a job at Metric, working on the probably helped my mindset in dealing with being a minority shop floor building parking machines. When I in a bigger pond. joined, Id never used a soldering iron before! RP: Generally, my experiences have been After a year and half, I moved to working in positive: I have been allowed to pretty the field, fixing and installing machines. I much get on with my work. However, was at Metric for 16 years, then I moved there was an instance in a previous to join IPS earlier this year. role where I found out I was being paid less for doing the same job as my male What do you enjoy most colleague and I had more experience. about your work? I brought it up, but it was not resolved: it CH: The people, both colleagues and left a bitter taste. clients. I have seen several people in Unity5 Celina Herbert move into senior roles and I love to see them How important is it to have a platform such as Women reach their potential. As a management team, in Parking? we try to help people out as much as possible. Saying we are a family is a clich, and I am not naive enough to think CH: I have only recently joined the group, but am already that everyone sees it that way, but the reality is that, just like a impressed with what is being achieved. I am excited about family, a business is built of many different personalities. You getting more involved and meeting other members. I will have to find a way to get along and achieve the company goals be very happy when we dont need to champion diversity with the help of a few laughs and hugs along the way! any more but to get to that point, we need more people SR: I love that every day is a different challenge for me, that like [the groups founders] Hannah [Fuller] and Jade [Neville], makes parking so exciting. The other thing is that parking who are prepared to put in the work to break down barriers, 32 britishparking.co.uk PN Apr 2022 pp32-33 WiP.indd 32 24/03/2022 11:05