Centrica targets gender parity by 2030

Centrica says attracting female employees is its biggest challenge as an employer, as it revealed plans to align its workforce with the latest census data by 2030.

Part of its ambitions to create a more inclusive workforce include the introduction of a ‘shadow board’ of diverse employees which will “drive continuous improvement”, as well as mandating unconscious bias training for all staff.

The British Gas owner’s ‘People and Planet Plan’ consists of five goals which it says will accelerate action in areas such as diversity and sustainability.

These are:

• Help customers be net zero by 2050
• Be a net zero business by 2045
• Create an engaged team that reflects the full diversity of the communities it serves by 2030
• Recruit 1,000 apprentices, with the ambition for 50 per cent to be women by 2022
• Inspire colleagues to volunteer 100,000 days to build inclusive communities by 2030

Despite making progress in recruiting other demographics such as ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, the company’s figures show it is behind on its ambitions for female representation.

Its goal is to reach a milestone of 30 per cent women across its business and senior leadership teams by next year, rising to 47 per cent by 2030 – in line with the latest census data.

Speaking to Utility Week, Centrica’s director of responsible business Abi Robins stressed the importance of getting more female representation.

“Female representation is 28 per cent so it’s obviously a reasonable amount of work to do there, that’s probably our biggest challenge as an organisation, to get to pretty much gender parity by 2030.

“I think we recognise that that will be a challenge given that some parts of the business, particularly our field force, are predominantly male at the moment and girls don’t always want to go into those careers. There is a reasonable job to do there but we think it’s right to be aspirational in that approach.”

The company wants 500 of the 1,000 apprentices it is recruiting over the next two years to be female. To date, 50 per cent of these new apprentices are women.

As well as introducing more targeted recruitment, Centrica is also vying to create a more inclusive environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their personal information which Robins said would enable the company to ensure its data is up to date so it can review its performance.

She added that the pandemic presents an opportunity for Centrica to attract more women into the business, especially those looking for a post-Covid career change.

“We know there’s been various impacts of Covid across society but in particular we know that women have been disproportionately hit by Covid and the impacts of the pandemic. This is a real opportunity for us to support women who might be looking for career changes as result of pandemic, or more broadly looking to do something else,” she said.

Net zero ambitions

Elsewhere the company has updated on its aim to be a net zero business by 2045. Centrica says it now produces more than 80 per cent less carbon than a decade ago, as it moves away from centralised power generation towards providing services and solutions.

It has further revealed an interim target of a 40 per cent carbon reduction by 2034 compared to 2019 levels, having already reduced emissions by 18 per cent from that baseline in 2020.

Robins added: “I do see the two pillars of the plan, the people and planet, as very linked and ensuring that we have got a really diverse team is going to be an important part of meeting net zero and some of the challenges that we need to overcome to move towards net zero as an organisation for our customers.

“We know that diverse organisations outperform non-diverse organisations. I think it’s important that the two parts of the plan do complement each other and it’s critical that we are focusing on people and the team in order to help us deliver those net zero goals.”

Meanwhile Chris O’Shea, Centrica chief executive, said: “As we look to rebuild from Covid-19 and our biggest ever transformation, I want to do things differently and reshape our future to one that’s fairer and protects the environment.

“That’s why we’ve introduced our People and Planet Plan to create a more inclusive and sustainable future that supports our communities, our planet and each other.”