DALLAS – Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF) announced today that Rich Products Corporation is providing a significant grant to fund research that will help advance women leaders in the foodservice industry. The project, led by WFF, is a three-year longitudinal study that will identify factors which influence women’s success in achieving the highest career levels in the industry and develop executive development tools for aspiring leaders.
The first phase of the study was executed with WFF partner company Kenexa/IBM and presented during Executive Forum at the Annual Leadership Development Conference in April and phase two of the research is now in development.
“Given the significant importance we place on the advancement of female leaders within our own organization, sponsorship of this study to enhance career development for women across our industry is a natural fit,” said Bill Gisel, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rich Products, headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y. “We are proud to serve as the lead sponsor of this important research and look forward to leveraging the findings to enhance our current career development strategies at Rich’s, while accelerating the critical advancement of more women into executive roles across our industry.”
Career progression entails many elements, including mentoring, job-shadowing, continuing education, and this research will uncover more ways to guide future leaders. According to recent studies, organizations with diverse leadership teams often produce better results that develop from a more satisfied workforce. However, women make up only 15 percent of executive teams. WFF, the largest leadership development association serving the industry, will process the information gathered from the study and provide partner companies with an executive summary, data and conclusions about the factors, attributes, derailers and challenges that surround women’s advancement in the industry.
Data gleaned from interviews and surveys will identify the competencies, ambitions and influences that often lead professionals to ascend to the executive ranks and reveal career paths and critical experiences that correlate to advancement. The findings will validate and augment the WFF leadership competency model, and the research will drive future content strategy for the association’s continuing education programs.
“WFF has created this study to ultimately provide the industry a career progression map to enable our emerging leaders to hasten their advancement,” said Women’s Foodservice Forum President and Chief Executive Officer Fritzi Woods. “Rich Products is making a contribution that will have a lasting impact on the industry.”
ABOUT WFF
Based in Dallas, Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF) is the industry’s premier leadership development organization with more than 20 years of experience advancing women in the foodservice industry. WFF has more than 3,500 active members, 200+ partner companies and annually engages more than 20,000 foodservice industry leaders via its robust programs and leadership development platforms. To learn more about WFF, visit www.wff.org.
ABOUT RICH PRODUCTS
The founder of the non-dairy segment of the frozen-food industry, Rich Products Corporation is a leading supplier and solutions provider to the foodservice, in-store bakery and retail marketplaces. Since 1945, Rich’s has been committed to developing food solutions that raise the bar on quality, convenience and efficiency for its customers. Rich’s posts annual sales exceeding $3 billion, employs more than 9,000 people worldwide, with 37 manufacturing facilities spanning six continents. Rich’s began reaching outside the United States in the 1980’s and today produces a wide variety of frozen food products sold across 112 countries. Additional company information can be found online (www.richs.com), on Facebook (Rich Products) and via Twitter (@richsnews).
Source: Rich Products Corporation
