Engineering giant training top managers to avoid gender discrimination

ENGINEERING giant Atkins is pioneering the use of “unconscious bias” training in an ­effort to ensure women coming up the ranks do not suffer discrimination.

Senior members of staff at Atkins are being sent on 
courses designed to prevent them from – consciously or unconsciously – not promoting women to more senior roles on the basis of their gender.

Sue Cresswell, chief engineer at Atkins, said the training is part of a “multi-strand” approach the company is taking to ensure that the number of women in senior management more accurately reflects the number being recruited.

The impetus for Atkins was last year’s Davies Report, which established targets for the number of women large companies should have on their boards.

Although Atkins, which has offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, has two female non-executive board directors – a high proportion for a heavy engineering company – its workforce is 25 per cent women, while female senior manager numbers are lower.

Cresswell said the company was currently making efforts to recruit more engineers regardless of gender, but that bringing in more women was a key plank of its drive.

She said: “For us it is trying to attract more women. A lot go into engineering, but many don’t go into oil and gas – it is still seen as a very male ­profession.

“The top of the industry is still male dominated. There is a recognition now that we need to have career paths in place for everybody who joins the company. What we would like to see is the same gender balance at senior level that we have at intake level.”

Other plans include encouraging senior women within 
Atkins to get involved in mentoring younger employees.

“We are really encouraging senior women to network and we are starting to facilitate that through the business. There is a lot to be gained from women in the business sitting together and recognising what works and what doesn’t,” she said.

Helen Wollaston, the executive director of UKRC, which advises companies, including Atkins, on gender equality and diversity, said that companies were increasingly addressing “unconscious bias” which prevents them from promoting women and people from ethnic minorities.

She said: “All of us make assumptions and attitudes we may not be aware of that can put different people at a disadvantage. It is helpful to challenge thinking.

“It is the companies which are honest about and willing to address the cultural issues in the working environment that will make progress on that.

“It is all very well to have an aspiration to have women on the board or women at senior level, but there’s some work to be done – and companies need to be prepared to change.

“Companies like Atkins that are addressing this through unconscious bias training or other initiatives are going to see the numbers shift.”