Supporting Leaders of Confidence During International Women’s Week 2021

What’s good for women in the workplace is good for all.

Women of Walser (WoW), an Employee Resource Group at Walser Automotive Group, took that mentality to heart while planning a week of events to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8, 2021.

The ERG, which focuses on the recruitment, retention, and ascension of women in the automotive industry, created a week of programming happening March 8-12 to support the leadership, development, and business literacy of women and men at Walser.

Events include a virtual mentoring meet-up (think “speed-dating” style), public speaking workshops, a webinar on imposter syndrome with coach and author Heather Whelpley, and community donation drives supporting women-focused nonprofits including Haven Housing (Minneapolis) and Dress for Success Wichita.

The week also includes an internal, employee-facing podcast called Accelerate, featuring women in leadership roles at Walser who speak about how areas of the business connect.

Women of Walser President Angie Kruger said the podcast aims to build business acumen and a deep understanding of how the automotive industry works. Episodes feature leaders from areas of marketing, digital retailing, finance and insurance (F&I), service, and people development.

“What we found in almost every episode is that the featured women attribute their success to one main thing—truly understanding how the company and industry work. It’s much easier to think about strategy and moving the needle when you understand the interconnectedness of the business,” Kruger said.

While this year’s International Women’s Day theme is #ChooseToChallenge, Women of Walser cultivated its own theme focused on owning one’s individual leadership.

“Our theme is Leaders of Confidence. We chose this because we know the development of women in the workplace is accelerated when growth is supported by an investment in business knowledge and career pathing. Those things happen when confidence is baked in,” Kruger said. Kruger serves as Walser’s Director of Learning & Development.

That problem of female representation is a pervasive one in the industry. According to a 2020 Catalyst report, women represent fewer than one-quarter of the automotive industry despite contributing to nearly half of the U.S. labor force.

Kruger said it’s her hope that a dedicated focus on women in automotive will break down the barriers that prevent true gender representation. It’s a vision that’s shared by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) as well.

In February, Walser Chairman Paul Walser took the helm as chairman of NADA. In his keynote address during the 2021 NADA Show, Walser said diversity is the future of the industry.

“This year I want to challenge all of us to make this a priority,” Walser said. “Let’s find the path to attract a more diverse workforce. Then let’s implement training to help them succeed.”

In 2020, NADA directors also passed a bylaw amendment for the organization that expands the number of at-large seats reserved specifically for female dealers to three from two and for minority dealers to three from two, according to Automotive News.

Walser Automotive Group and Women of Walser are proud to continue providing critical, grassroots programming that supports the development of women and men in the automotive industry.