On International Women’s Day, we speak exclusively to Kelly Sharman, sales and marketing director at Hayfield Homes about working in the housebuilding industry on her way to her current senior position.
Please tell us a little about yourself and your role.
As sales and marketing director at Hayfield, I am responsible for overseeing the sales and marketing functions across our portfolio of developments (currently six live), as well as influencing other areas of the business from potential land acquisition, right through to planning and interior styling. I’ve sat on the Board of Directors at Hayfield since the company was founded in 2016, and feel privileged to be working alongside a world-class management team, most of whom I’ve worked with previously for over 10 years. This synergy has definitely helped our significant growth and success over the last two years.
You’ve been in the industry over 20 years – have women’s part in it generally changed much over that time?
Sales has always been dominated by women, however, I’ve started to see this change over the past decade with an increasing number of female employees in other disciplines. This is a really positive shift for our industry and I’d always encourage women considering a career in our field to give it a chance.
How is Hayfield in terms of its gender balance?
In the office there is a fairly even gender split, however, most of our female employees work within sales. On site, we are still male dominated but we would love to bring more females into this area of the business. As a new company, we have recruited fairly extensively over the last two years to build our team to support our growth, and the number of female applicants has been far fewer than their male counterparts.
Have you experienced, or observed, gender-related problems in housebuilding?
Many years ago I experienced some of the typical challenges you might expect to experience on site as a woman, but these days I am only ever shown respect and made to feel welcome.
Were you supported by family and friends with your choice of industry to work in?
Absolutely – and many of my friends were in the industry when I joined, which is ultimately why I chose this path. Once I’d started along my journey in the industry, I was completely hooked and could never imagine doing anything else.
Have you ever felt like you needed to work harder than your male counterparts to get to your senior position?
Thankfully, I’ve never experienced this first-hand, however I have ex-colleagues that have felt this way.
With trade skills and on-site roles – what should be done to significantly increase the female workforce?
Collectively, as an industry I feel we need to do more to raise awareness of our sector amongst younger generations and proactively promote how exciting the industry is amongst schools and universities. As part of our Commitment to the Community programme, we regularly visit primary schools in the areas surrounding our developments to support them in any way we can, also talking to children of all ages about what we do. This year we are hoping to extend that to colleges and universities, to work with students who may be interested in progressing with a career in housebuilding.
Do you have a message or advice to young women today who are unsure about working in construction/housebuilding?
I would welcome any young woman considering a career in construction to come and work with me for a week to see just how enjoyable, challenging and rewarding it is.
