Jonathan Brearley has expressed his frustration with the lack of pace in creating a more diverse energy sector, warning companies are at risk of not understanding their customers.
The Ofgem boss was speaking to Utility Week during the annual Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in Energy Conference in London on Thursday (29 June), hosted by the regulator and trade bodies Energy UK and the Energy Networks Association (ENA).
Brearley was asked what frustrated him the most about EDI in energy. In response he said: “EDI is something that we’ve been talking about for over 20 years, not just in energy but across society and in other places…what’s frustrating is the pace of change feels slower in energy than in other sectors.
“I worry about that not only from the perspective of the kind of sector and organisations we want to see, I worry about that because the next stage of what we all need to do to get to net zero and to create a different energy system is going to involve understanding our customers.
“I strongly believe you are not going to do that unless you have different voices in the room shaping the way companies are approaching that task of dealing with their customers’ needs.”
Also speaking at the event was Energy UK chief Emma Pinchbeck, who was asked whether she believed things had got worse in terms female representation during her time in the sector.
While stressing that there is still a “massive problem”, she said: “No, actually I think there are quite a lot of senior women in senior roles that I meet all of the time. I don’t know if they are as visible as they could be but it’s not necessarily everyone’s job to be on a soap box all the time…I don’t think that across the organisations as a whole it’s got worse.”
She further spoke about her experiences as a working mother and the shift in business culture in terms of flexible working as a result of the pandemic.
She added: “The other thing I would say actually is that I think the people carrying the message are important but it’s also the message and there are many more conversations about things like flexible working, parental leave, culture, happening around boardroom tables than at the start of my career.
“Partly because there’s that expectation of it in our workforce but also I think the pandemic has shifted business culture a bit…the people who were most strident about me needing to take a second maternity leave were the men who’d missed out on their children.
“It’s that point about proper inclusion benefits everyone and I think it’s often the middle aged men around my boardroom tables that are now the ones that are pushing us to do more or talking about things like what happened at the CBI or what I can do to support my team.”
ENA boss Lawrence Slade, who is the former chief executive of Energy UK, said despite the challenges being faced by the industry, he believed there were positive changes happening within the sector.
He said: “Absolutely we have got more to do but the simple fact of the matter is, it is changing… we need to make sure that we are communicating the fact that there are very successful female leaders across the sector, they don’t have to get on the soapbox, we do it for them and actually using that to help pull people in and give people the confidence to actually put themselves forward.”
During the conference all three chief executives made a public commitment on improving EDI across the industry. The new Energy Leaders’ Commitment requires leaders to, among other things, visibly demonstrate allyship and promote EDI, challenge fellow leaders and stakeholders in poor EDI practice and also include at least one EDI target as part of their performance objectives, and ensure their direct reports do the same.
Furthermore, they must ensure the organisation they lead:
- Has inclusive recruitment practices
- Gathers EDI data and set targets for improvement within 12 months if it does not exist
- Embeds EDI into its business mission, strategy and values to drive an inclusive company culture
Last year the three organisations launched the Tackling Inclusion and Diversity in Energy (TIDE) Taskforce, designed to drive industry-wide action to improve diversity.
By signing up to the new commitment, leaders are also committing the organisation to completing the TIDE Health Index which will serve as the first cross-industry survey of energy companies’ progress on EDI.
The index will be piloted over the rest of this year and if successful will be rolled out in 2024.
Responding to the publication of the commitment, So Energy chief Monica Collings said: “So Energy fully supports the declaration made today to re-double efforts to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in the energy industry and we will be looking to sign up to the Energy Leaders’ Commitment.
“With the ongoing energy crisis continuing to bring many challenges to the energy industry, it is ever more important to have a diverse leadership team that brings diversity of thought, ensuring us to better reflect our customers and to deliver innovative solutions.
“The energy industry must do more to improve diversity and as the only female chief executive of a UK domestic energy supplier, and as chair of one of TIDE’s committees, I want So Energy to lead by example.
“Nearly half of our leadership team is female, we have initiatives such as a Female Leadership Fast-track programme, and we annually track and report against diversity and inclusion measures to name just a few initiatives we do to make us more inclusive.”
Writing for Utility Week, Jonathan Brearley has drawn on his own personal experiences to highlight why a diverse workforce is essential to meet the “unprecedented challenges” faced by the sector. You can read the full piece here.