When they identified a future gap in their workforce, Schneider and WSP leapt into action to address diversity and inclusion opportunities.
It’s ironic that the engineering profession has a structural problem of its own – but change is possible.
Of the current working engineers in Australia, women comprise only 16 per cent. Compounding the structural inequality is the rate at which female engineers leave the profession; currently, only around 38 per cent of qualified female engineers are working in an engineering occupation.
Changing those statistics is one of the aims of Engineers Australia’s diversity and inclusion program. The national body for Australian engineers has partnered with companies including Schneider Electric and WSP to remove systemic barriers to participation.
The program is also designed for employers to position themselves as an employer of choice.
When marking International Women’s Day in June, Engineers Australia CEO Romilly Madew AO FTSE HonFIEAust EngExec described the issue as pressing.
“Here in Australia, we need engineers more than ever with our clean energy transition, cybersecurity and skilled workforce challenges – to name just a few national priority areas,” Madew said. “For this to happen, we require an engineering workforce that reflects and represents the wider community. It goes without saying that women are an essential part of this equation.
“Overcoming the diversity challenge facing our profession and investing in women is a priority for Engineers Australia. Increasing workforce diversity across gender, culture, skills, abilities and backgrounds will deliver the innovative and creative thinking we need.”
Read these 11 essential recommendations for improving diversity in STEM.
Starting point
Greg Kane, chief executive of WSP’s Australian operations, said the pursuit of diversity is imperative across the industry.
“If we look down the pipeline at future talent, there is minimal improvement; of Australia’s engineering graduates, just 19 per cent are women. We have a huge talent problem in our industry. We can’t afford to overlook people at any stage of their career on the basis of their gender or any other form of diversity.”
Encouraging more women into leadership roles is a key focus for WSP.
“You have more women in leadership, that changes the complexion of decisions made, the people who get hired, the people who get promoted,” Kane said. “If our people – particularly women – can see a pathway, this can elevate their sense of belonging and ultimately influence their choice to stay in the industry.”
Family-friendly policies at WSP are part of the equation. The start of July saw the introduction of paid parental leave of 16 weeks for the primary carer and eight weeks for the secondary carer (an increase from the industry norm of a 12-week/three-week split). Kane’s ambition for the company’s 2025-2027 Corporate Plan is to enshrine an industry-leading paid parental leave program for either parent.
Leave for fertility treatment has also been introduced.
“That plays straight into the question of developing the industry’s talent pipeline, developing the future leaders, particularly the cohort where families come into play,” Kane said. “How do we support them, hold onto them, engage them and bring them through?”
Clear business case
As an engineer, Colette Munro has seen the inequities that can inhabit the industry’s gender-related blind spot.
The provision of female toilets on construction sites, for example, can still be overlooked.
“It’s not intentional but just not focused on that inclusivity,” Munro, who is Schneider Electric’s Pacific Zone President, told create.
“Schneider wants to be part of those industry-level conversations, and this partnership with Engineers Australia is about keeping the conversation going all year round. Our engineers’ experience isn’t just within our teams but out onsite and with suppliers.”
As with WSP, Schneider is keenly focused on retention.
“Getting women to stay after a few years in engineering, to develop into some of those more complex lead roles and take more responsibility, is so important.”
Programs and benefits that reflect people’s constantly changing lives are especially key to reassuring female engineers that they can achieve a work-life balance when it comes to raising a young family.
“I think women need to be supported to do it,” Munro said. “There’s an element of confidence to hearing they can go a bit harder in their career when they want to and back off when necessary, as I did when I had my own children.”
The diversity business case is clear, she argues.
“There is evidence that diverse engineering teams deliver better results, and I have enjoyed working in diverse teams throughout my career.”
Schneider’s 20 weeks of parental leave is designed to make a person’s career easier, and is consistently applied in all countries where the company operates.
A raft of flexible working policies at Schneider includes first-day-of-school leave for when a child starts prep. It may sound minor, Munro said, but it represents a holistic approach to nurturing workers.
“For me, inclusion is about the way all those little things add up,” she said. “You could say a first day of school policy is a little thing, but it means so much to the people who it impacts.
“In order to catch all those little things, you have to dig deeper, have more conversations and listen more intently – otherwise you just get the broad brushstrokes. This is how you get to the level of diversity and inclusion we want.”
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