Friday 8 March is International Women’s Day, when we remember and celebrate women’s achievements. Manufacturing and factory work is often seen as a very male-dominated industry, but DECO’s Imaging Manager, Clare Doonan, is proving that stereotype wrong. Check out our interview with Clare below as she talks being a woman in a factory manager position and the most rewarding things about her role.

 
How did you get started at Deco?

When my dad started the business I was 14, and I worked in school holidays running the bagging machine, working on trolleys, and doing initial QA. When I left school I did a gap year working at the snowfields and when I came back I just started working, moved into full time, got moved into team leader and worked my way up.

What are the main responsibilities in your role?

The running of the imaging line and the B1 and B2 machines [DECO’s powder coating/sublimation ovens], upholding quality across the board, and training people. I’m in charge of the scheduling and rostering of staff and scheduling of orders, and the purchasing of the raw materials. I have done a year of customer service as well, when one of our customer service girls took some leave I took her place. Now some of what I do as well is liaising with customer service and making sure the lead times are met. And then there’s recruiting, any HR issues that come up go through me…it’s a bit of everything, really. 

What do you love most about your role?

I enjoy pushing the boundaries of what we do. I’m pretty innovative, so I like thinking of new ways to do things, new products that come through and how we can best get our efficiencies up through the factory. Doing unusual customer orders always appeals to me; I love a challenge. And I enjoy just seeing the customers at the end, when we’ve worked hard to get their order out the door or met a sharp lead time, and we get nice emails back from them saying ‘thanks so much for all your hard work!’ It’s good seeing that customer satisfaction. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face as Imaging Manager?

In a factory environment, people aren’t always as invested in the company as I am, so it can be a challenge finding new ways to get consistent performance out of the staff. Dealing with customers can be a rewarding or sometimes a challenge; I empathise a bit with the girls in customer service with regards to what it takes to manage a customer relationship well.

Has being a woman in a factory manager position affected how you approach your role? 

A little bit. It’s hard in our industry because it is male-dominated, so being a woman in charge can be quite challenging at times. But as long as you’re fair it’s all right…I always strive to work just as hard if not harder than them out there so they can’t say ‘she can’t do it’ or ‘she doesn’t work as hard as us’, I always strive to give the right impression. It’s all about leading by example.I think times are changing a lot though, people are less sexist these days.

What are some things people might not know about women in factories?

Girls are pretty tough; you see that a lot when it comes to lifting something heavy. A lot of the girls are in there giving it their all just as much as the guys. From what I see, and from how we train people as well, they’re trained to get on with it and get the job done and they do it well. And they’ve got a good eye for detail, more than the guys, so it’s really valuable having them out on the floor especially in our processes as quality is  something we’re proud of. There’s a stereotype that women can multitask and guys can’t…it’s very true from certain aspects, but also not in others. 

What do you find most rewarding about being in a leadership role?

Seeing the team thrive and seeing your hard work pay off. If you’ve spend all this time training people and then it gets to a certain point where they don’t lean on you as much anymore, I find that really good. I enjoy training a lot and the most rewarding part is seeing people gain confidence in what they’re doing, or thinking of new ideas we haven’t even thought of. 

Where do you hope your career will take you?

I think I’m basically where I’m meant to be. I’ve had a few shots at uni but it doesn’t really interest me, this is my family business so I’d rather put my time and effort into something I can build on. I’m really passionate about the imaging side of things that’s what I’m best at. 

What do you enjoy most about working in a family business?

The culture’s very different to corporate or even a non-family run business, and I think the fact that because we are a family business that’s something that we focus on and so we treat everyone as family as well, even if they’re not.  We’re not as cut-throat as other businesses, and it can be frustrating sometimes because you need to be more lenient and flexible, but then often you get the best rewards out of those staff. 

It’s good working with my family too; I don’t know a lot of families who are as close as ours is. It can be annoying if you hang out outside of work and then all you do is talk about work – but I think we’ve all gotten better at it, and now we’re really hitting our stride it’s a lot less stressful.