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As the UK’s biggest privately-owned specialist drainage company, Lanes Group is dedicated to providing equal opportunities for all professionals to succeed within our team, regardless of their gender or personal background. As such, we are committed to working proactively to provide more opportunities for women in the traditionally male-dominated utilities sector.

Fortunately, we are not alone in this mission. The Womens Utilities Network is one of the most proactive organisations working to connect, support, develop and encourage women in the sector, and was founded in 2018 by a group of five like-minded female business leaders from the industry. WUN provides a variety of events for members to attend, as well as a free mentoring service, and now has more than 3,000 members.

Lanes Group was able to speak to the WUN team to get their views on the current state of female recruitment in the utilities industry, and to get their advice on how women can give themselves the best chance of succeeding in this sector.

WUN’s mission

Hayley Monks originally founded WUN alongside Angela Peart, Angie Needle, Jo Butlin and Rebecca Sedler, and is the managing director for utilities at Gobeyond Partners. She described the organisation’s mission as follows:

“WUN was started to give women the skills and confidence they need to build lasting, fulfilling careers in the utility sector, and to encourage companies to attract, develop and retain female staff. WUN’s mission is to connect women with other women, so that they can share learning, get the right training and take control of their own work lives, building confidence to develop their own passion for this fast-moving sector at whichever stage of their career they are at.

“As one of the founders, my role is to ensure that we are visible and present in the sector, whether that is talking to companies or at their events, supporting them as they build their own internal network, or connecting them with people who can help.

“Day to day, we offer a free mentoring service to women at any stage of their career in the utilities sector. Our mentors are passionate about helping women in the sector and have a range of skills and experience that they can share. Both our mentors and mentees have grown over time, as has our membership.”

The current state of female recruitment in utilities

It is an undeniable reality that the utilities sector has traditionally been very male-dominated for a variety of cultural and structural reasons, and WUN has been highly vocal in calling for businesses in the sector to improve their performance in terms of female recruitment and addressing gender pay gaps.

However, although this is a longstanding problem, there is evidence that the industry is starting to change, and that active efforts are being taken to make the sector as welcoming to female professionals as possible. WUN advocate Hayley Bruce, a leakage hub tactical manager at Anglian Water, had this to say:

“The industry has come a long way even in the short time I have been involved; companies are starting to realise the power of inclusion and diversity of thought. There is still a long way to go, but if focus is kept and companies continue to work towards better diversity in the workforce at all levels, I'm confident we are moving to a better place.

When asked to identify a key area in which the industry could improve, Hayley indicated that attitudes around female inclusion in utilities roles need to be challenged and changed at a societal level:

“I personally would like to see more done in schools to help break down the stigma around the industry, and help encourage young girls to consider roles outside of what is a stereotypical ‘female’ role.

“The advice I would give to leaders of organisations is to do more work in schools to highlight the various roles available, and when recruiting to concentrate on the wording of adverts to make sure you’re using appealing language.

“One of the key things for me is you don't always need to look for experience; in some roles, getting the right person with the right work ethic is key. Looking for the right person instead of the right work background really can open up a whole new pool of candidates that can really benefit an organisation.”

WUN’s advice for women entering the utilities sector

For women who are looking for advice on how to succeed in a utilities or drainage sector career, Hayley provides the following guidance:

“If you are a woman looking to move into a male-dominated industry such as engineering, the advice I would give is to have confidence in your abilities - which I know is sometimes easier said than done! One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that your counterparts might come off as a bit headstrong sometimes, and may have more experience in certain areas than you, but if you're making a call for the right reasons and can back it up, people will listen.”
 
Meanwhile, WUN co-founder Jo Butlin, the CEO of EnergyBridge, had this to say to encourage women who may feel apprehensive about starting a role in the utilities sector for the first time:

“The short answer is - be brave and go for it! The longer answer is reassurance that the utilities sector is a great place to work, endlessly interesting and offering a vast range of career paths.

“Climate change and the transition to a zero-carbon economy is ultimately central to everything that is going on in the sector, and touches all jobs in all areas to a greater or lesser extent. Being part of making it happen is challenging, but also hugely rewarding.

“Like almost all sectors, women are still underrepresented at senior levels, but this is changing and there is support within organisations - and also from networks such as WUN - to help you develop your career and support you both with professional and also personal development.”

Find out more

Lanes Group would like to thank the WUN team for taking the time to speak to us. If you would like to learn more about the Womens Utilities Network, you can do so at their website, or become a member of the network here.

To learn more about the work Lanes is doing to improve female representation among our workforce, please visit our Women in Utilities hub page, or check out our female staff experiences blog to hear more from our female team members about their experiences working at Lanes!

You can explore our job listings if you are interested in starting your career journey with Lanes and finding out first-hand just how many opportunities we have to offer women engineers and female staff.