DHL Global Forwarding Costa Rica recently welcomed its first women forklift operators as part of a diversity initiative.

A spokesman tells Forkliftaction News that the company had a turnover rate exceeding 20% in 2020 and around a quarter of voluntary turnover was in forklift operator positions.

At the same time, almost a quarter of women in Costa Rica are unemployed - compared with a 13% rate of male unemployment. “Putting together both variables, we understood the opportunity to create a program that would impact, over the long term, female employability in the country and help us continue to close the gender gap within DHL,” he explains.

DHL received more than 400 applications when it kicked off the program and selected 10 women for the first cohort – three existing DHL employees and seven unemployed women. Three of those initial candidates have completed their training and have gained permanent forklift operator positions.  

The program includes nine sessions, each lasting four hours, with theoretical and practical content, that enable participants to gain their forklift licences.

DHL CEO Central America and Caribbean John Knohr says: “Last week, we celebrated the graduation of our first women forklift operators; this first generation had an inspiring effect on DGF, as our logistics and transportation industry has a considerable gap in the participation of women. So we have ahead of us a valuable opportunity to generate employment alternatives that add value to the organisation and the country.

“We are proud that initiatives such as this are putting diversity and inclusion actions on the right track,” he adds.