Speak up to help women in utilities

As a business founded by two women and which works closely with utilities companies, The Marketing Pod has a keen interest in helping solve some of the most important issues affecting both. One of the reasons we partnered with WUN – Womens Utilities Network earlier this year was to help make a difference for women in the industry. As a result, we have worked with WUN to help launch its 2024 opinion survey – Unconscious Bias: What is the Reality? 

Focused on gathering insights on challenges in the workplace, the survey is aimed at learning how these affect women’s careers in utilities. The results of the survey could help shape the development of women’s careers in utilities, so make your voice heard to empower change and ensure a brighter, more inclusive future for women at work.

At the Pod, we’re proud to be able to say that women have shaped our business from the beginning – since our two founders, Jenny Hughes and Jodie Williams, started the company over a decade ago. We’ve also been honoured to work closely with many fantastic companies within the utilities sector. As such, we feel a special connection with – and responsibility to – both parties.

That’s why we felt so strongly last year when we became aware of the POWERful Women report, which highlighted a rising trend of women leaving their positions within the utilities industry. This led us to engage with our partners at the not-for-profit organisation Womens Utilities Network (WUN), who confirmed they were noticing the same pattern.

Between the Pod and WUN, we have gathered plenty of anecdotal evidence for this trend, but we wanted to gather more tangible figures. With our combined resources and extensive network of contacts, we saw an opportunity to gain genuine insights into the motivations behind resignations and take the first steps toward preventing further talent loss from the sector.

As a result, we’ve worked with WUN to help launch the 2024 opinion survey, Unconscious Bias: What is the Reality? The survey aims to shed light on the intricacies of unconscious bias in the workplace, paint a realistic picture of how it is to work in utilities today, and present real-life examples where bias influences career development.

The survey is open to all those working in the utilities sector and invites respondents to share their stories and contribute to improving women’s experiences in utilities.

Five strategies for transformation

But first, how did we get to this point? Our collaboration with WUN began in September 2022, contributing to the research and publication of their inaugural piece of research, listening to different perspectives: How women feel about working in the utilities sectors.

To help utilities create a more inclusive and diverse workplace, the white paper presented “five steps for change”:

• encourage more positive female role models in senior positions,

• provide enhanced networking support for women, which can help boost confidence in pursuing career opportunities,

• promote flexible working patterns and role adaptation to facilitate work-life balance,

• shift the focus from women to the culture and environment within organisations when it comes to fixing the problem,

• implement more inclusive hiring and development processes to enhance gender inclusivity.

The report revealed that 60% of women felt unconscious bias hindered their progress, and has served as a foundational piece for our latest collaborative research.

Share your experience today – Take the survey.

We invite those working in utilities, of any gender, to share their experiences and opinions. This is a unique opportunity to inform today’s leaders on the realities of working in the utilities sector – which we believe is vital to achieve real change.

The survey is open until Friday, February 23. We hope the data and insights gathered will unveil the barriers women face in utilities and propose ways to eliminate them, ultimately helping drive tangible improvements in the development of women’s careers.

The survey findings are expected to be reported in March 2024.

Click here to participate.