BG&E joined CGE as part of our strategy to advance gender equity and improve workforce diversity within our business by learning from and contributing to a broader community of likeminded businesses.

As the WA leader, I believe gender equity is important to make sure our business is representative of the communities in which we live and serve. The engineering we deliver shapes the built environment for these communities, and we believe in order to deliver great engineering, a balance of gender and diversity within our business is essential to ensure our teams consider all aspects of design and engineering and draw from the experience of a broad cross section of capabilities and perspectives within our team.

We recognise that engineering remains traditionally a male dominated industry. We also recognise that addressing this will take commitment from many organisations, so we can encourage more female students to consider engineering as a profession, we can create rewarding careers and we can provide a culture in which females can achieve their potential.

Most importantly, advancing gender equity requires a consistent, sustained effort across the industry. Through our involvement in CEOs from Gender Equity we aim to contribute by sharing our experiences and learning from others.

We’ve begun by fostering a respectful workplace that values individual strengths and curiosity. We’re committed to developing the careers of our female employees into positions where they are empowered to lead projects and operations. To facilitate this, we have:
• Established our Gender Strategy in 2022, we have seen encouraging growth in female representation in project facing roles, achieved through several key actions including:
o Provision of Unconscious Bias training to all employees via face-to-face group workshops.
o The incorporation of gender targets into Executive KPIs.
o Implentation of a mentoring program specifically for female employees.
o Implementation of an improved Parental leave policy.
• Resolved to offer flexible work arrangements aimed at supporting the the diverse responsibilities our people balance in their personal and professional lives,whether it is looking after family members and dependents or supporting life goals and objectives outside of the work environment.
• Established our DEI committee to help cultivate an inclusive and diverse workforce with the mission to create a more representative and inclusive workforce that values and treats all employees respectfully and values all employees for their varied abilities, backgrounds and experience
• Participated in programs to encourage female students to consider a career in engineering.

Looking ahead, we aim to improve female representation across all levels of our business and create an inclusive culture where everyone has the opportunity and support to thrive. We’re aiming to do this through several initiatives including:
• Improving recruitment practices to attract more females into engineering and technical roles.
• Following WGEA recommendations for developing a more inclusive and supportive work environment and for improving flexible work offerings
• Ensuring equitable access to professional development and promotion opportunities
• Establishing specific workforce gender metrics for each level of role within our business and monitoring progress annually.

We are excited to become part of a community that shares the commitment to promoting and improving gender equity, and we look forward to systematically implementing changes to meet BG&E’s long term commitments to equity in the work place.