The Energy Leaders’ Coalition comprises chief executive officers from eight leading industry employers who have pledged to increase female access to senior roles within their companies. The Coalition will meet regularly to review their progress, share evidence of best practice and plan actions toward improvement.
The Coalition was formed in response to recent statistics released by POWERful Women which measure the performance of the top 80 UK energy companies in improving gender diversity over the past 12 months.
The statistics show that women still occupy only 13% of board seats (up from 11% in 2017), 6% of executive board seats (same as 2017) and that half of the companies have no women on their boards at all (up from 46%).
The Coalition complements the work already underway in our sector through the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership, a collaboration of 29 leading energy & utilities sector employers, which identified addressing the gender imbalance as a priority in its Workforce Renewal & Skills Strategy, launched last year. Skills Partnership initiatives include Energy & Utilities Jobs, a digital platform for the energy and utilities sector, which promotes high quality careers and job opportunities to underrepresented groups, including females. The Skills Partnership has also launched a Diversity and Inclusion Forum, in which senior colleagues from member companies meet to share best practice and develop strategies to promote inclusion and increase diversity within the sector.
Responding to the announcement of the Coalition – which includes Skills Partnership members National Grid, Scottish Power and SSE, Nick Ellins, Chief Executive at Energy & Utility Skills, said:
“Our sector has been candid and transparent in recognising the need to improve diversity and inclusion, and I welcome this new and innovative initiative by the Coalition. We continue to play our part, by delivering complementary efforts through the sector-wide Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership Workforce Renewal and Skills Strategy. Through a combination of a mass talent attraction initiative, Energy & Utilities Jobs, our Diversity and Inclusion Forum and other targeted initiatives, these collaborations are steadily transforming our workforce to mirror the communities we ultimately serve and will help ensure that gender is never a factor in colleagues accessing senior roles.”