All day, every day, we aim to ensure that Global Travel Management is among the leading businesses in terms of gender balance.  Because, as our Director, Natalie Pawley says, “gender balance is not a women’s issue, it’s a business issue”.

Natalie was the first Company Secretary when GTM started in 1997.  And, since then, she has been proud of the way in which the business treats, trains, nurtures and promotes women.

GTM has always had a positive gender balance.  Since we started the business, we have always been a women-majority company.  Women take key roles in every part of the business, from administration and reservation roles to business development, account management and operational positions, we are proud to ensure that women are well represented throughout the organisation.

How can you ensure you’re offering a comprehensive service to clients unless you are able to share the same issues they have?  By employing accomplished women in every area of the business, we are able to empathise with issues facing the growing numbers of female business travellers.

We make sure that GTM is a flexible, accommodating environment for women.  So we have a shift pattern designed to ensure employees’ work-life balance is kept in check; we have some staff who split their hours around family commitments; and we have been lucky enough to be able to accommodate great staff who have chosen to return to work after maternity leave and work in part-time, job-sharing positions.  We even have a bring-your-dog-to-work rota that has proven popular among the staff that have to juggle home responsibilities with work.

Every year we work with Guildford College to offer places to some of the most talented students, so we can pass on knowledge to the next generation of leaders in the business travel industry.  It comes as no surprise that, this year, the two candidates joining us are both women.

I am really pleased that, after more than twenty years, GTM is still at the forefront of businesses in terms of gender balance. I may have been the first Company Secretary and the first female Board member, but I am just as proud that the students we have recruited for work experience are women and the most recent addition to the Board is a woman.

As you might expect from an award-winning travel company, we are continuing to head in the right direction.