Putting OUR energy forward into driving a #BalanceforBetter

Today marks International Women’s Day, a day in which we celebrate women around the world. Put simply, we still have a way to go until we achieve 50/50 gender equality, which in my mind is absolutely where we should be no matter what industry we operate in.

Innovation is not just about technology, but how we do business. Fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce is not just the right thing to do, but critical to achieving a competitive advantage. Teams that are made up of people who bring different experiences engage in candid and productive collaboration, generating more insights and ideas.

While gender balance is important across all generations, I believe it’s particularly important to attract more women into the oil and gas industry straight out of university before we lose them to other sectors. In 2018, we launched our new entry-level leadership program, ASPIRE, which targets 50% gender diversity, the same target that we apply to all of our leadership programs, including our accelerated leadership program – XLP. We are implementing targeted recruitment campaigns and partnering with universities and schools to inspire the next generation of diverse talent to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and professional fields.

At BHGE we’re also supporting contemporary practices for the workplace that encourage flexibility and enable women to achieve the balance they need when and where they need it. For example, in the United Arab Emirates we’ve introduced a “Return to Careers” program, which involves identifying women who have left the workplace for an extended period of time after maternity leave but now want to come back to work. We help proactively find an internship or job that aligns to their skillset. Another example is in Saudi Arabia and Angola where we are running special recruitment campaigns to attract more female engineers and provide special training both in and out of country to become Field Service Engineers. These practices are purposefully injecting more gender balance both in our offices and in the field.

We’re making progress, but our journey continues. I strongly believe we can and should lead the way in debunking the myth that oil and gas is not for women.

I would be remiss not to acknowledge and celebrate two very special women who have played a pivotal role in my life and continue to be models for me when it comes to achieving a #BalanceforBetter, and that’s my two elder sisters, Sonja and Ilaria, pictured here with me. Both are business owners and caregivers across their roles as mothers, daughters and sisters, and they teach me every day that the balancing act for women never stops but that it is achievable, provided one has the right conditions. Which is why today I pledge to continue to put my own energy and commitment into ensuring that as BHGE we continue to drive a framework for more diversity and inclusion in our workforce and in transforming the industry for better.