Thursday 15 August 2019
Ofgem aims for 50% women in its workforce by 2025
Ofgem has made a commitment to ensure 50% of its workforce is female at all levels of the organisation by 2025.
It is raising the bar on achieving better gender balance in the energy industry and is calling on businesses to follow suit.
The regulator has joined POWERful Women (PfW), a professional initiative launched in 2014 to advance gender diversity within the energy sector.
The commitment is part of Ofgem’s new internal diversity strategy, which also includes a pledge on improving the representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic females.
It aims to achieve a maximum of 18% ethnic representation across all pay grades, with at least 9% at each grade being women from an ethnic minority.
Chief Executive Dermot Nolan said: “At Ofgem, we think it’s hugely important to put more effort and resources into becoming a more diverse organisation. We recently launched our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy which includes the target to achieve 50% female representation across all its pay grades, from the most junior roles all the way up to our senior civil servants.
“We want to become a more diverse organisation, not just because it’s the right thing to do but also because we think it will help us to make better decisions. Evidence shows that an organisation that has people from a wide range of backgrounds and with a range of experiences will be able to bring together new ideas and challenge established thinking.
“I am calling on the energy sector to also take steps to make their workforces more diverse, particularly at senior levels as that will help make you make better decisions and ultimately better serve your customers.”
The latest statistics on gender balance at senior levels in the UK’s energy companies show progress is slow.
Women still occupy only 16% of board seats and only 6% of executive board roles while 42% of the companies have no women on their boards at all.
Louise Kingham, Board Member of PfW and Chief Executive of the Energy Institute welcomed Ofgem’s commitment to drive inclusion and balance in the organisation.
She added: “It’s right for the organisation, its people and the customers it ultimately seeks to serve. Ofgem is increasingly holding energy companies to account on this agenda, to understand actions companies are taking to change and as they progress they will be able to share their learnings too.”
