A Wellbeing, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (W,D&I) has been launched this week by the Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA)
As the Association continues to expand – almost doubling since the pandemic – the committee, under chair Olivia Mills, remarketing manager at Zenith, aims to promote the subject across the industry and provide support to more members.
Already, two people have joined the committee – Rachel Clift from BEN and Steven Whitton of [M]enable – and there are open places for two more.
Olivia said: “Undoubtably W,D&I plays an imperative role in increased employee engagement, feeling valued and allowing individuals to be their true self in the workplace. That said, the unequivocal evidence shows that a diverse team is key to better representing customers, increasing innovation and in turn increasing sales revenue.”
“The VRA is in a unique position to guide and support organisations within Remarketing who want to find out more about adopting and sharing best practice. It is imperative we come together on W,D&I to attract the best talent to our industry and retain them.”
A W,D&I questionnaire will be issued to VRA members early this month with the results presented at the organisation’s member meeting at Bruntingthorpe on July 25.
Olivia said: “We want to research a baseline for W,D&I within the VRA before we make detailed plans for the future but ultimately our aim is to engage with People departments across our membership. Through channels such as our regular member meetings, webinars and white papers.”
Philip Nothard, chair at the VRA, said: “This is an exciting development for the VRA and comes at a time of increasing and so more remarketing organisations will benefit from this initiative. We already have two successful and established committees covering membership and future trends, and we’re very pleased to add Wellbeing, Diversity and Inclusion as our third.
“This is a crucial subject, and we are fortunate to have experts such as Olivia, Rachel and Steven to help us provide assistance to our membership. Already, the committee appears to be gaining momentum very quickly.”