Mentoring with the Women’s Utilities Network

For the last two and half years, our Head of Water Strategy and Environment, Victoria Thatcher has been working with the WUN - Womens Utilities Network to offer mentoring support to members of the utilities sector.

We sat down with Victoria to find out what it was that motivated her to get involved. ?

Tell us about your role with South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water?

I head up the Water Strategy and Environment team where we ensure that our customers have enough water to go about their daily lives. We also work to preserve our natural environment, through our Water Resources Management Plan, working with local agricultural communities and protecting and enhancing our sites like Blithfield Reservoir, including the fish farm. We are currently working in partnership with Anglian Water Services on a newly proposed Fens Reservoir, which will provide another water supply to our customers in Cambridge for future generations, preserving our sensitive sources.

What is the Women’s Utilities Network and why did you join?

The Women’s Utilities Network is a group that enables women from the utilities sector to connect, support, develop and encourage one another. More than 5,500 women are part of the group who come together for a variety of events and help one another through a free mentoring service.

As I progressed through my career, I noticed how few women there were in meetings. I would do a quick scan of the ratio and in small meetings it would often be just me and in larger meetings there would be three or four.

I found it interesting how these ratios changed depending on the topic. Meetings about scheme design or construction always had lower female representation than a meeting about environmental protection would. I have never seen this as a particularly bad thing, but I was more curious about why this was the situation.

A previous colleague of mine shared the Women’s Utilities Network with me and I loved the ethos behind them - to support and build women to be the best they can be.

Joining just as a free member gave me so many benefits, networking across all utilities, the chance to discover more about other roles and experiences and all the free online and in-person sessions.

"I aim to help the mentees develop and build on where they are and where they want to be"

And what made you want to be a Mentoring Advocate?

I wanted to get more involved, shout about the network and reach more people. Becoming an advocate has been a fantastic experience and I volunteer alongside a group of amazing and inspiring women.

I have seen first-hand and second-hand how a mentor can be of support through the smallest and biggest moments in a person’s career. Mentors can have a huge impact on both performance and personal outlook.

I've been fortunate to have had multiple mentors over the years. Not always in a formal capacity - for some, it's only looking back that I've realised what they were doing!

Mentors have supported me with a range of things, like effectively prioritising a crazy workload, nailing big public speaking events or setting myself up for career moves.?

Listen to an episode of the WUN Podcast (WUN4ALL) where you can hear from two other South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water employees, Heidi Knapton and Caroline Cooper .

What does your mentoring role involve?

As a mentoring advocate, I support the mentoring programme by being a link between the WUN and the mentors and mentees. I'm often after feedback on how the programme is supporting and where improvements could be made. Mostly, I promote the WUN mentoring programme through webinars, podcasts, networking events and conversations like these!

I've mentored a couple of people in the past year. The WUN mentoring programme is spread over 12 months and involves having regular catch-ups – one meeting every six to eight weeks – between the mentor and mentee. I aim to help the mentees develop and build on where they are and where they want to be or help with specific personal development needs.

It's a really rewarding experience having that first meeting talking through the subject, and seeing someone essentially say: "That's great, you've supported me and I can move on now."

That's a key part of mentoring, having a clear goal that you aim towards and then closing off that mentoring relationship.

What advice would you give to anyone looking for a mentor?

Finding the right mentor for the topic you want to discuss is important, but it's not always easy to know how to find a mentor at all, let alone one that matches your needs.

I’m always happy to link mentors with women looking for support.

If you would like to find a mentor from the utilities sector or would like to express your interest in being a mentor, you can sign up to the Women’s Utilities Network for free. Visit thewun.co.uk to find out more.