28 Jul Energy company Worley commits to gender equity and inclusion with a PfW pledge
Worley [1], a project and asset services company for the global energy, chemicals and resources sectors, has announced a public commitment to gender diversity and inclusion. It includes 30% female representation at board level and gender balance on the company’s group executive.
Bradley Andrews, President at Worley, said: “Achieving gender balance and creating a culture of inclusion is important to us. We want everyone to feel that their contribution is valued. We shouldn’t have to still be talking about gender equality in 2021. But the reality is we are not there yet, which is why we’re making this pledge.”
Worley’s full pledge, published with the POWERful Women Initiative [2], is:
At Worley, we’re committed to working on measurable actions to achieve gender equality and foster a diverse and inclusive workplace. We will retain our 30% female representation at board level and our current gender equal group executive. We are also building a future with more women in senior leadership roles and across our workforce. And, as we continue to build a culture of inclusion and belonging, we are committed to achieving gender balance for our collective annual global graduate intake by 2025.
Bradley Andrews added: “As a part of our pledge to POWERful Women, we look forward to working collaboratively with our partners and customers to learn from each other. We encourage open and honest conversations on all matters relating to gender equality and inclusion.”
Ruth Cairnie, Chair of POWERful Women, commented: “We welcome Worley’s excellent pledge and its commitment to gender balance, particularly at executive level. Our latest board statistics show that the UK energy sector urgently needs to accelerate action to improve the representation of women at the top of the industry. It is therefore very encouraging to see that Worley’s leadership recognises the value of diversity and inclusion and of setting measurable and public targets.
“This is central to making real progress and to attracting the talent and leadership needed for the energy transition towards Net Zero. And as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important that companies reinforce their commitments, so that we can make sure women’s careers haven’t been unfairly disadvantaged.”
This year’s data on the number of women at senior levels within the UK’s largest energy employers, representing a workforce of more than 150,000, was gathered and reported by POWERful Women and PwC UK in May [3]. It showed that the industry is lacking in gender diversity in its senior ranks, with year-on-year figures on female representation remaining alarmingly low.
- Women occupy only 24% of board seats and 14% of executive board roles.
- 28% of companies have no women on their boards at all
- More than two-thirds of companies still have no female executive directors – in other words, only 18 companies out of the sector’s top 80 have any women occupying executive board seats
On a positive note, figures from some companies on their executive pipeline revealed an increasing commitment to developing more women up through the ranks and into leadership positions, but more need to follow their lead.
To date, 27 UK energy companies, including Worley, have made a POWERful Women pledge on improving the gender balance of their organisation. [4]
The progress of 14 of the leading UK energy companies against their own and industry’s diversity and inclusion targets was reported by POWERful Women last October in the Second Anniversary Report of the Energy Leaders’ Coalition [5].
CONTACT FOR MEDIA ENQUIRES:
Anna Stanford, Communications Advisor, PfW Tel: +44 7961 234634
Email: anna@powerfulwomen.org.uk
Notes to editors:
- About Worley: We’re not just engineers. We’re a global team of data scientists, consultants, construction workers and innovators all working to create a better tomorrow. Every day, we help customers in the energy, chemicals and resources sectors get one step closer to solving our planet’s toughest issues: climate change, the energy transition, digital transformation – and how we can deliver a more sustainable world.
- About POWERful Women: POWERful Women is a professional initiative that seeks to promote the professional growth and leadership development of women across the energy sector. Our goals are to see 30% of executive board roles and 40% of management roles filled by women by 2030. We do this in three ways: campaigning and reporting (for example publishing annual board statistics), supporting women in their careers (for example through our mentoring programme, POWERful Connections) and providing practical support to companies committed to increase their gender diversity (for example through D&I working groups). More information at powerfulwomen.org.uk
- PfW’s State of the Nation 2021 Board Statistics: https://powerfulwomen.org.uk/board-statistics-by-company-2021/
- The full list of company pledges to date can be found here http://powerfulwomen.org.uk/pledges/
- POWERful Women’s Energy Leaders Coalition: http://powerfulwomen.org.uk/energy-leaders-coalition/