Kia UK is a leading automotive brand offering one of the industry’s largest range of models across multiple vehicle segments and was the fourth most popular UK car brand in 2024.
People are central to Kia UK and every day is an opportunity to learn something new and to grow personally and professionally. This was recognised with Kia UK named as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ 2024 and 2025 by Great Place To Work®, and also ranked in the 2024 Best Workplaces™ for Women, Development, Wellbeing, and Manufacturing, Production & Transportation. Kia employees report positively on areas such as working atmosphere, trust in management, corporate strategy, pride in working for the company, benefits, facilities and much more.
Gender diversity is a legacy challenge for the automotive sector and for Kia UK. With that in mind, in 2019 employees came together to form “ Kia Women before rebranding to “Strive” in 2020. The vision was that “A diverse business is a stronger business.”. The mission was a cross functional working group to provide mentoring, community and a unified voice looking to facilitate positive organisational change within Kia UK, and to challenge themselves. The intent was that changes benefit Kia UK and Kia UK employees, and the guiding principle was that all individuals in the company should be able to fulfil their ambitions to the full extent of their abilities.
The network worked on a number of initiatives over the following years including :
• 2019 Outreach to local schools aligned with Automotive 30% Club and Kia had it’s first winner of Inspiring Automotive Women Award
• 2019 Business Case for Flexible Working presentation to SMT
• 2020 Strive hosts first International Women’s Day celebration & Covid support
• 2021 Creation of KUK gender scorecard and quarterly presentation to SMT
• 2021 Business Case for Parents presentation to SMT
• 2022 Cost of Living feedback to SMT
In 2023 the Kia UK Inclusion Plan was launched and following a workshop with Moving Ahead, Strive reviewed where they were and where they wanted to get to as an ERG. They rebranded as Thrive and re-launched with a new plan:
Purpose: Support with KUK inclusion plan through an inclusive ERG that gives a unified voice to women in the organisation, supporting their personal and professional development and feeding back to Kia leadership to help facilitate positive organisational change
Goals:
• Offer a distinct purpose that facilitates a positive organisational culture
• Gain SMT support and alliance
• Gain strategic alignment with the wider Kia corporate values
• Move from ‘Independent’ ERG running in isolation to one that is ‘Engaged’ and can influence
• Share the value we can offer to the business with the SMT group (low base)
The 3 key pillars of the plan are as follows:
Connect – Bring women together in a social setting
o Build a sense of community and belonging for women.
o Understand what they want and how we can contribute
o Networking / Celebrations
o Facilitate discussions.
o Create an opportunity for feedback – Feel heard and have a voice
Grow – Grow membership and network
o Asking for ideas and suggestions to build network
o Gaining member involvement in delivering solutions and providing value
o Offering advice and guidance
o Empowering individuals
Support – Exchange ideas, knowledge and experiences
o Choose our topics carefully and provide evidence
o Share stories and live examples – really powerful. Ask members to tell their story, talk through their experiences / situations
o Help share and distribute useful information from P&O team
o Strengthen and Support women to fulfil their ambitions to the full extent of their abilities
Since re-launch, Thrive have run the following:
• A number of successful networking events
• Multiple career sessions (where women get to share their experience of career progression and development)
• A fantastic International Women’s Day event where real employee stories were shared to showcase the support available at Kia UK
• Upcoming cricket event at the Kia Oval
• Upcoming “I Am Remarkable” workshop
The work done by Thrive has no doubt had a positive impact on the overall levels of engagement for women at Kia, measured by our participation in the Great Place to Work survey:
• Females increased from 93% to 98% and Males increased from 93% to 96% on GPTW Statement (+5 for females)
• Increase in overall average female score by +6 to 88%
• Difference between male and females reduced from 4 to 1
• People here are treated fairly regardless of their gender increase from 83 in 2023 to 90 in 2025
• This is a psychologically and emotionally healthy place to work increased from73 in 2023 to 88 in 2025
