Flexible working, mobile working and a widespread appreciation of a work-life balance are enabling an alternative way of working that has encouraged many women to continue or return to careers. The utilities sector, however, remains male-dominated, perhaps as a result of its foundation in complex infrastructure engineering and its public sector legacy. Certainly in the field of operations, where physically demanding jobs combine with working in all weathers, women are few.
But modern challenges such as delivering excellent service to customers, working sustainably, protecting the environment and engaging communities offer a big opportunity for change. Each of these challenges requires commitment and creativity, and as a result increasing value is being placed on so-called softer skills such as communication. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a female perspective can be highly valuable here.
The following examples detail the experiences of four women working in utility contracting for Morrison Utility Services. The importance of maintaining and building working relationships emerges as a key theme, along with not wanting to be treated any differently to male colleagues.
Jessica Middleditch, senior agent
“I’ve grown up with utilities because my dad is in the business. Wherever we went he would explain what was happening at any working site and which utility it involved. I never wanted an office job where I was stuck inside all day.
“I’ve recently been promoted to senior agent for my area, so I now look after two agents and their respective teams covering the whole of East Anglia. My work stream is electricity faults, and being a woman has definitely been an advantage on occasions where I am dealing with customers. I find people are a lot calmer and more approachable than they are with the team onsite.
“As a lot of my work is about building relationships, if you can keep your promises and get a job organised, things are a lot easier. Communication and organisation are the key. Meeting women who deal with the teams out on site is quite unusual. teams find it highly amusing when I visit them on building sites and people are still shocked to find out I’m their boss.”
Sacha Patel, graduate project engineer
“The extra-high-voltage electricity sector is very male-dominated. As a young woman I need to let the quality of my work and my professionalism stand out and engineering has always been my passion.
“Women represent about a third of the workforce in my experience in the electricity sector with many in design-based roles, finance, administration, procurement and some in project management – but there are far more in the water sector.
“I’ve noticed people generally do feel the need to help you more and give more details to questions, which can be useful. I don’t believe I have particularly benefited from being a woman but then neither has it worked against me. As a graduate, I think that my peers know that women are represented in this industry and it is accepted simply as the norm.”
Loren Perbody, first call operative
“I trained as an apprentice plumbing and heating engineer and was offered the chance to take an advanced apprenticeship in gas engineering. I qualified to work as a first call operative recently and have been working for four months in my current role.
“There are really no other colleagues who are female in this line of work, although being a woman is definitely an advantage. If a customer’s issue has not been resolved, for example, and I am making the second call to the property, they are often completely thrown off guard by the sight of 22-year-old me on the doorstep. That helps to calm any frayed tempers. I do find that it means when I am explaining what the issue is and how we will put it right, no-one questions me, they accept what I say. Whether they are still recovering from the shock I don’t know. Elderly customers also tend to respond well to me, especially elderly ladies who might find the situation confusing and worrying.
“The disadvantage is the lone working element of my job, which can be difficult in isolated places and at late hours. Male colleagues worry about personal safety in these situations just as much, though, so I would not say that being a woman makes me more vulnerable. I just have to be sensible.”
Bev Cook, customer service manager
“After having my last child I was made aware of an opportunity with Yorkshire Water, who are very supportive of working mothers. I worked with the company in various capacities for the past 17 years as a customer service team manager before moving to work among its team of service partners.
“Traditionally I think it is fair to say that the industry has been male-orientated, but recent years have seen the growing influence of women. In my opinion, I think it fair to say that as a woman I have a more empathetic view . Building good relationships based on trust and communication are key because they provide a good foundation for getting the job done.”
Kevin Shiers, human resources director, Morrison Utility Services.
Board stupid
Men still dominate the boardroom. According to the Women on Boards report published last year, women made up only 12.5 per cent of the corporate boards of FTSE 100 companies in 2011. While this is up from 9.4 per cent in 2004, the report warns that the rate of increase is too slow and calls for companies to commit to a target of 25 per cent female board membership by 2015.
The 2007 survey Gender and Ethnic Diversity among UK Corporate Boards, which looked at 543 UK plcs, identified an above average prevalence of women in the utilities sector. But the Women on Boards report suggests this diversity is more a result of the interest of chairmen in having board members who understand consumers than a reaction to the number of women in a company’s wider workforce.
A snapshot survey of women board members in utilities shows that representation varies widely. EDF has no women at executive level, while Wales & West Utilities has one female board member even though 25 per cent of its senior management are women. Thames Water’s executive team has 20 per cent female representation; at National Grid 25 per cent of the board is made up of women; while at Eon women comprise 33 per cent of the board.
Women who want to take a seat on the board often have to overcome many barriers. Research by Cranfield University found that in industry in general there is a lack of flexibility around work-life balance and that traditional male cultural environments, the “old boys’ network” and a lack of networking opportunities for women are major deterrents for qualified females who might otherwise make good board members.
A utilities-specific barrier to women achieving board level status is that the sector is still seen as having an engineering bias, says Dianah Worman, adviser on diversity issues and public policy for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Nicola Evans is a senior asset manager for Wales & West Utilities and qualified as an engineer. She suggests that women tend not to choose an engineering career because girls are still encouraged to pursue arts rather than science subjects at school. She also believes the utilities sector has an image problem when it comes to appealing to women. “There’s a perception that working in utilities is about digging holes in the road, but there are so many diverse and interesting aspects to the utility sector,” she says.
Natalie Beckerman, customer service director for Thames Water, says that while some of the barriers to women having a seat on the board are created by companies, “many women don’t want to work at board level because they don’t want the pressure”.
To encourage more women to pursue senior management roles in the sector, and to support those who might be looking to achieve boardroom status, individual utility companies are running initiatives designed to maximise opportunities.
Helen Mahy, group company secretary for National Grid, says the company recognises that it tends to attract more men than women. To address this issue it has created initiatives such as “Imagineering”, where National Grid goes into schools to encourage girls to focus on maths and science projects.
She says the company encourages flexible working, which helps support women to meet their childcare needs, and it has also implemented a “Level playing field” initiative to ensure that talented individuals are given the best chance to develop their skills.
Maria Antoniou, human resources director for Eon-UK, says women working in utilities are more likely to be in board positions in non-technical areas such as HR and business services, which is a situation mirrored throughout the UK. “The challenge is how to get women into technical engineering leadership positions,” she says.
Eon-UK is working with schools to encourage girls to pursue engineering and technical careers. The company is also focusing on increasing the number of girls on apprenticeships and those taking part in its graduate programme – half of whom are now women.
Sarah Hopkins, head of human resources at Wales & West Utilities, says the company is trying to make sure women are involved in key projects and business planning. It is also looking at developing managerial and leadership skills with women lower down the organisation to help build their careers.
Thames Water is concentrating on developing women employees to achieve leadership roles through its graduate programme. “In 2011 we had a graduate intake of 25 graduates, 16 of whom were female who are predominantly in the operational and asset management areas of the business as opposed to traditional service roles,” says Janet Burr, HR director.
Kathy Oxtoby is a freelance journalist
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 9 March 2012.
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