Gender diversity key to future of Europe petchems industry

Focus article by Katherine Sweeney

MADRID (ICIS)–Gender diversity was a key topic at the 11^th ICIS World Olefins Conference on Tuesday, with the need to address it being marked as vital for the future success of the petrochemical industry.

It was clear that addressing gender bias was at the forefront on many industry members’ minds and at the conference the message from the first speaker was on the importance of attracting a broad range of talent to the industry. 

“We need as a chemical industry to win the war for talent” was the rallying message from Gina Fyffe, executive director at trading group INTEGRA, who started proceedings.

This isn’t the first time this message has been heard at an ICIS Conference. In November last year, a speaker from Shell delivered a presentation at the ICIS World Aromatics conference, again stressing the importance of gender inclusion.

In February 2016, the report “Why Diversity Matters”, produced by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company and commissioned by the EPCA, was published. It summarised the findings from a survey conducted in 2015 among selected EPCA member companies on behalf of the EPCA Talent and Diversity Inclusion Council (TDIC).

The study found that “a quarter of employees in the surveyed companies are women.”  Of the Top 100 companies this figure fell further, with around 15% of senior management being women, and only 10% in the operations community.

Attracting women to the industry is not where the issue ends, retention is a huge problem as well.

The argument from many is if the industry is not attracting both men and women, then is it attracting the best talent out there?

Winning the war for talent is something the EPCA promotes in the study. “With 55% of all university students, 60% of Masters’ graduates and 52% of Doctoral graduates being women, successfully recruiting women in the workforce is a top priority.”

Going forward, how does this happen in an industry that has traditionally been male dominated? 

This is something decision makers need to look and to ensure STEM’s (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education is attractive to everyone, Gina Fyffe of INTEGRA added.

Fyffe said there is currently a “crisis on people going into STEM’s education,” with this resulting in a lack of available future engineers in Europe.

Chemical companies’ culture also has to adapt. According to the study, 50% of sampled organisations saying they have not implemented gender diversity training, nor on the whole do they have any plans to do so.

This is something that may be considered, with 42% of participants’ surveyed saying their organisation doesn’t do enough to promote gender equality in their hiring practices.

At the start of the conference female delegates were asked to raise their hands, and they made up around 15% of the audience.

Gender diversity is not just an issue of how many women are in senior management positions, it is an issue of talent in a market that is to have a shortage of resources, Fyffe said.

One suggestion is that Europe imports skilled engineers from Asia, an area that according to one speaker has a good supply of talent. However, it is questionable that the future of the European industry be completely reliant on Asia.

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