Flexible working and parental leave: How are utilities doing?
Mid-career women experience many obstacles, and business leaders must recognise and respond to them effectively. Office of National Statistics data from 2022 highlighted that four in five women have children by the time they are 45 and careers often stall as result. Sufficient support for flexible and part-time working can therefore help smooth the transition back into work following a period away.
In McKinsey’s 2023 report Women in the Workplace, one in five women said flexibility has helped them stay in their job or avoid reducing their hours; many said a primary benefit was reduced fatigue and burn-out.
However, multiple women quizzed for Cultivating Female Talent said they felt flexible working in the energy sector was not implemented in a systematic or supportive way. Several voiced concern that when policies on flexible working are taken up, it negatively impacts their career progression, for example being passed over for promotion in favour of less-qualified or experienced male colleagues. Women also said it often means they are considered less ambitious or less capable by their manager, who potentially gave them fewer stretch assignments and opportunities.
These shortcomings could be addressed through more inclusive company cultures where flexible working policy does not result in penalties or unequal opportunities.
In January last year, E.on introduced an equal parental leave scheme to allow both parents, regardless of gender, to access matched paid leave (see case study). National Grid has also been proactive in offering a suite of family-focused policies, such as caring for dependants leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave (which is seeing greater uptake), adoption leave, and flexible working.
“The sector has a lot to do around socialising more advanced policies around maternity / paternity that both encourage women and give them space, but also get the partner to understand that that's a very legitimate role to take,” says Cordi O’Hara, president of National Grid Electricity Distribution. “Whoever takes that role, it is not a sign of a lack of ambition, it's a way of managing a really critical time in your life when you're building a family and you need to maintain your career.”
Jackson adds: “I've personally seen how different this feels in more gender-balanced working environments, like in Norway, where it is completely normal for men to leave the office in the afternoon to get their kids from school. It makes a real difference to the culture and it’s also something that men say they want and enjoy.”
A major life event, like having children, means new commitments and physiological changes, which can damage a woman’s confidence. “When women have had a career break and they've not been in the workplace for 12 months or more, they are often thinking, ‘can I still do it?” explains Susan Steggles-Cole, director of major projects at National Grid. “Encouragement and support at that point is really important, reinforcing the message that it is possible for everybody to be successful.”
A lack of confidence and ‘impostor syndrome’ were identified in a recent white paper by WUN as one of the top barriers to female career progression. Causes of lack of confidence include the perception that working mothers aren’t able to fulfil high-level leader roles; concern from senior managers about a woman’s welfare in the next step up; and the expectation that women need to do more, and therefore fail more, while poorer-performing male colleagues get an easier ride.
“In Norway, where it is completely normal for men to leave the office in the afternoon to get their kids from school, it makes a real difference to the culture and it’s also something men say they want and enjoy.”
Katie Jackson, POWERful Women