Encouraging growth

Caroline Goward says she wants to see more women working in stores but points out that women seem reluctant to consider this job option: “I see it as such an asset to see a woman working in a bike shop, especially with the huge growth in popularity of women cyclists. You can’t blame the shop owners though… if the woman won’t apply I don’t know how this will ever change.”

Islabikes has been making a conscious effort to increase its female staff base and has come up with a few guidelines.

“We’ve addressed the whole recruitment process,” says operations manager Suzanne Boak.

“Research shows that women can be put off a job if they feel they don’t meet all of the job criteria. We offer full in-house training so we don’t necessarily need someone who has experience of preparing bikes. We remove anything that isn’t essential to the role and focus on looking for people who align themselves with our values.”

She adds that they also offer flexible working, as this is “important to women, particularly mothers.”