How Women Can Help To Power The Global Energy Sector

Addressing the gender gap has become a key priority for many companies, and the energy sector is no exception. Tan Chee-Wei, Vice President of Human Resources for NE and SE Asia at Shell and a graduate of SMU’s Master of Science in Communication Management programme, talks about why and how multinational companies like Shell are intent on promoting workplace diversity and inclusive leadership.

A diverse workplace isn’t just a nod to prevailing notions of political correctness. Rather, studies increasingly show that companies with a rich variety of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences in its workforce and leadership teams can make better decisions, generate innovative ideas and navigate disruption with more agility. These strengths have a direct impact on the bottom line. That’s why investors are also taking notice — when it comes to a company’s ability to attract capital, a meaningful number of women holding senior positions has become a crucial factor.

All of this means that the energy industry has some catching up to do. According to a 2017 study by the World Petroleum Council and Boston Consulting Group (WPC-BCG), women represent less than a quarter of the energy industry workforce worldwide, second only to construction as the worst sector for workforce gender balance.

While this gender gap in energy has been closing, real change will be a long-term endeavour. Many jobs in energy are based on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects, fewer women tend to pursue these subjects in higher education.

That has significant implications for the gender gap in the energy industry. Based on the same WPC-BCG study, while women form half of the sector’s business support roles globally, they fill only 15 per cent of its technical roles. The fact that technical roles are more likely to lead to career advancement clearly contributes to the gender imbalance at senior levels in the energy industry.

Tan Chee-Wei, the first female Singaporean to take on the role of Vice President of Human Resources for NE and SE Asia at Shell, suggests that creating a more gender-balanced talent pipeline for STEM-based jobs will offer huge opportunities for the energy industry. But this change is going to take time. There are deep-rooted reasons that often dissuade women from opting for STEM subjects, such as embedded bias in messaging from the media, teachers, parents and peers.

Chee-Wei firmly believes that businesses can play a part by encouraging more women to take up STEM in school and pursue STEM careers, through long-term collaboration with schools, universities and research centers that “help women gain exposure in fields where they are under-represented, like science and engineering”.

Besides promoting gender-balanced recruitment, the energy industry also needs to up its game on career progression for women. The WPC-BCG study also shows that, while women make up 22 per cent of the total workforce in the global energy industry, they hold just 17 per cent of the senior management roles world-wide. In the Asia-Pacific region, that last statistic comes up to an even more disappointing 9 per cent.

Shell has designed Diversity & Inclusion policies to retain and develop female employees across the company. For example, while the company recruits male and female graduates in equal numbers, Chee-Wei points out that, as is the case for many businesses, “a higher proportion of females leave mid-career, for various reasons, including to start families”. A mother of two herself, she has benefitted from the support systems available to her as an employee, including having supportive line managers who made the effort to understand her needs and aspirations and worked closely with her on her job options to ease her back into the workplace following the life-changing experience of becoming a mother.

To cope with the demands of work and parenthood, Chee-Wei says that she chose to take a longer maternity break when she had her first child and a one-year career break subsequently. She felt empowered to make these choices because she had the comfort of knowing that these decisions would be fully supported by her colleagues, her line managers and the organisation.

“I believe the most powerful thing I can do for other women is to be courageous in making choices that make sense for me,” she says. The fact that ‘other women’ now includes her two teenaged daughters gives her an even greater sense of purpose. “It is my way of working towards the day when every woman embraces the fact that we make valuable contributions to our workplace, and we should be able to bring our full selves to work, unapologetically.”

The company’s efforts on workforce diversity appear to be working with more women holding senior leadership positions. The country chairs of six countries in Asia that Shell operates in are women, including Singapore. Separate efforts to promote gender balance in the Boardroom also appear to be paying-off. Women now make up 45 per cent of Shell’s Board of Directors.

Ultimately, Chee-Wei firmly believes that the need for diversity and inclusion is not a passing trend or an add-on to ‘business as usual’. “It is at the heart of how we do business. Diversity helps us to innovate, adapt and grow.... For us, this is just the beginning. We recognise the importance of visible role models to inspire, mentor and sponsor female talent and an inclusive culture across the company.”