INTERVIEW: KPI OceanConnect Reaps Benefits of Improved Gender Balance

Dorthe Bendtsen is COO of KPI OceanConnect. Image Credit: KPI OceanConnect

Global hybrid marine fuels firm KPI OceanConnect is seeing progress in the gender balance of its workforce after several years of work on bringing women into more prominent positions.

Of the organisation's total workforce, 40% is now female, Dorthe Bendtsen, the firm's chief operating officer, said in a recent interview with Ship & Bunker.

"We have been working in KPI for quite a while addressing our gender balance," she said in the interview.

"Shipping is traditionally a very male-dominated industry, so it has been hard for more diverse groups of people to break into it.

"It's been an industry where you know someone in the business, like your dad or your uncle, and then you get in.

"This is something we have had on our radar for many years, because of course we want to attract and retain the best possible talent."

Changing Balance

Almost 40% of the firm's traders are female, and 65% of the staff on the finance side.

"Within the last year and a half, we have made a restructuring at management level, and we now have the executive management team being 64% female," Bendtsen said.

"We are setting a strong example, I would say, for the rest of the organisation, in terms of where we would like things to move to, and to provide a sort of role model for other women coming up in the organisation."

"For me personally, my journey started out as executive assistant in the organisation, and I've moved through various promotions through the years and ended up at the C level."

At parent company Bunker Holding, 17.6% of the firm's management were female by the end of the 2023/24 financial year, up from 16.7% the previous year. The company is aiming for its management to be at least 32% female by 2028 and 41% by 2032.

Recruitment Standards

The changing gender balance at KPI OceanConnect is in part down to its hiring practices.

"When we recruit, we always have 50-50 male and female candidates to start from, so that we give a fair opportunity as we progress through the recruitment stages," Bendtsen said.

"We also implemented unconscious bias training for all managers and everyone who interviews, so they are mindful not just to say, 'Oh, you play golf too, Great, I play golf. And now we click.'

"Because that's often how you end up actually maybe not selecting the best talent."

The company is not necessarily aiming for a firm target of 50% women in its workforce, but is rather continuously seeking to widen its diversity.

"The goal is always to have the best possible team, the best talent," Bendtsen said.

"So whether it's 40%, 50% or 60% is not the ultimate focus we have, but it's more that you actually broaden out your diversity as well.

"So for now, we have been talking a lot about gender diversity, but of course there's many other types of diversity.

"I think that is the next frontier.

"We're quite aware now that you need the cognitive diversity, as in different ways of thinking, different perspectives and different backgrounds."

Benefits of Diversity

Self-interest plays a part in the company's moves towards gender balance; the firm expects to see benefits from employing a more diverse workforce.

"We see it as a must-win battle for the future, for the organisation to have diversity, because we are seeing a lot of challenges for the industry with decarbonisation and the regulations coming with that, and with digitalisation," Bendtsen said.

"You actually need a very different skillset in the future than we have seen in the past.

"You need much more technical skills and different kinds of skills, you need creative solutions, you need innovation on many different levels.

"And it is proven in many studies that the more diversity you have, the more creative and the more solution-focused your teams will be."

Another benefit may be in enhancing relationships with the company's lenders by demonstrating its commitment to the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda.

"Having a focus on ESG in general, and proving that you are performing quite well on ESG in general, that is something that's attractive to banks and for attracting cheaper better funding," Bendtsen said.

"I think for both banks and many of our business partners as well, they want to see that we are governed in a professional way."