Women are leaving utilities sector quicker than they are joining

The percentage of women leaving the utilities workforce is outstripping the rate at which they are being recruited.

While women now make up 30% of the sector’s workforce (a 4% annual rise), the Energy & Utility Skills annual report reveals that the percentage of women leaving the workforce (29.6%) has increased above the rate at which women are being recruited into the sector.

It warns that this trend “continues to slow the rate at which the sector can reach gender parity”.

In addition, the report also raises concerns that “representation of ethnic minorities among leavers remains high and has increased from 11.1% in 2022 to 14.1% in 2023”.

It adds: “This is only slightly lower than the 16% recruited and warrants further investigation by participating organisations to understand the data at an organisational level and what can be done to ensure this does not follow an upward trend going into 2024.”

Overall, the percentage of employees from ethnic minority backgrounds in the sector’s workforce has increased to 12%, up from 7% in 2022.

An Energy & Utility Skills spokesperson added: “Women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented compared to the UK as a whole and both women and employees from ethnic minorities are leaving at increasing levels.”

Data on leavers by age group remains largely in line with 2022 data, with the most notable changes being an increase in representation of those in the 26- 35 age group to 31.2% (up from 27.8% in 2022). There has also been a decrease in the percentage of leavers aged over 55, suggesting employees are working longer.

In terms of gender split, the water industry has the highest levels of female representation at 35%, an increase of 7% on 2022.

The supply chain has the lowest representation of women at 18.2%, while gas companies have increased representation from 19.6% to 22.3%.

An increase in women in development programmes last year has also had a positive impact on promotions for women, increasing from 28.5% in 2022 to 32.1% in 2023.

Louise Parry, director of people and organisational development at Energy & Utility Skills said: “While the results demonstrate some progress, the sector is still significantly behind being reflective of the UK workforce across many diversity characteristics.

“With recommendations that include increased accountability for leaders and leadership engagement in EDI, the report offers key insights on where to focus our efforts as individual organisations and as a sector.”

Last week, a survey by the Womens Utilities Network (WUN) revealed that one third of women working in the utilities sector say they are either very or quite likely to leave the industry in the next three years.