Bank holiday Monday is women’s equality day. To celebrate AYOM look to celebrate our success in promoting a fair workplace for all. With plenty of opportunities for all staff to progress, we look at the facts to back up our claims.
A balanced workforce
AYOM can boast a very balanced workforce both in junior and senior positions. In total, AYOM is comprised of 59% female employees and 41% male employees. Of those, we have 11 members of management. 5 managers are male with 6 female. The most positive aspect of our management team however is how they came to be in their positions. An excellent 72% of managers have achieved their position through promotions.
AYOM’s policy of personal development and education has paid dividends. Regardless of position, any AYOM employee has access to career development. This comes in the form of NVQs, affiliated courses, chartered institute courses, ILM courses and chamber of commerce training. It is because of this; many employees have moved between departments and taken on more responsibility.
AYOM’s HR Manager Linzi spoke about company culture in relation to equality and gender, saying:
“We want to be able to offer a great workplace for anybody. An important part of that is training, development, mentoring and feedback. We offer the ability to pursue education as soon as employees finish probation periods.”
“We look to promote from within and base all promotions on ability, experience, education and attitude. It is because of this we feel we are making excellent strides in leading the way for equality in the workplace. Debt collection has historically been very male centric due to certain perceptions of the industry. We feel we’ve helped shift some perceptions away from ourselves. We aim to allow our employees to be effective through skills and experience.”
An inclusive culture
AYOM centres culture on 3 core values:
- Integrity
- Commitment
- Empathy
All activity, internal and external, can be governed by these 3 values. It is through this the company has been able to gain industry recognition. In the past 2 years, AYOM has been included in a number of awards and gained accreditations. This year alone we have made the final of 2 categories in the BIBA awards, have been nominated for the Northern Power Women awards and achieved our Investors In People award.
General Manager Marie spoke about the recent achievements:
“After a career across numberous industries, I’m happy to help AYOM create its current internal culture. I’ve witnessed a number of young people begin to build careers under the AYOM banner. Those same men and women have also now turned into our current management team. I’ve also seen individuals become team leaders and senior team members. All of this is thanks to the continued desire to improve and work on feedback.”
“AYOM conducts a yearly staff survey to find key issues that require attention. We also provide all staff with a quarterly personal development plan meetings to discuss their future. We like to plan and develop people regardless of age, gender or orientation. We want our workforce to feel motivated to succeed in their careers. Hopefully we can help get them there through development.”
Celebrating diversity
AYOM are proud to lead the way for diversity in debt collection. With staff balanced between junior and senior positions we feel we have created a positive environment. While there are always improvements to be made, it looks promising for the future of Are You Owed Money.
If you’d like to stay up to date with opportunities within AYOM, or want to know more about our workplace, you can keep up to date with us via our company blog. It has all you need to know from job openings, to updates on our awards, our latest accreditations and information on all our partnerships.