Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce hosts workshop for women leaders

FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – The Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce partnered with the Knowledge, Power, Impact (KPI) Fusion organization for a Women in Business and Leadership Workshop Friday.

The Greater Florence Chamber Of Commerce says they’ve noticed an increase in women and minorities going in to business in Florence. The Chamber wanted to offer a program to help more women navigate and develop a plan toward opening a bussiness or progressing into leadership roles

Les Echols the Directors of Community and Minority enterprise says it’s been more than 3 years since the Chamber held a program specifically geared toward women in the workplace.

In 2013, the Chamber started the prism initiative promoting the inclusion of small and minority businesses, this new program is one of the projects developed to promote women or minorities in business and leadership roles.

“I hope women leave inspired and ready to tackle the day at the workplace. I hope they leave with the tools to enable them to move into positions of leadership,” Echols said.

Joyce Hill and Julia Carlson with KPI Fusion hope to empower women by giving them statistics on where women nationwide stand with leadership roles.

The 2016 McKinsey and company study on race gender in leadership roles indicates women in entry level positions are near equal with men. With men at 56% and women at 46%/. As each gender climbs the corporate ladder men progress to 81% in comparison to 19% of women.

KPI fusion presenters say this is a national problem they hope to start the conversation and help women progress into leadership roles within the Florence community.

Joyce Hill, KPI Fusion founder said, “We want to make sure that they understand that they are already leaders. The fact that they are here and are willing to map out their career and they are going to go there.”

The Women in Business and Leadership Workshop is from 10a.m. to 2p.m. at the Florence County library.

If you miss workshop Friday, KPI Fusion hopes to create ‘lean in’ circles, support groups for women in similar job markets. For more information call KPI Fusion at (843) – 206 – 6957.