Renewables firm Dulas will be celebrating this International’s Women’s Day with record-breaking female employment figures.
Dulas’s newly published 2019 employment figures dramatically counter the long-established gender-imbalance in STEMM industries (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine, Mathematics).
The Machynlleth-based renewables engineering firm has revealed that its workforce is 41% female, half of the company’s board of directors are female, and, most unusually, Dulas is led by a female managing director.
In an industry where two thirds of businesses have no female board members at all, Dulas stands out as a rarity.
The HR team successfully tackled the imbalance by providing equal opportunities for mothers to progress and strengthen their careers, by advertising vacancies on female-dominated websites (such as Mumsnet and Women in Engineering), and by fostering an organisational culture that encourages informal development opportunities.
In terms of their maternity policy, Dulas offers generous provision with 18 weeks at full pay and 18 weeks at half pay, and there’s no payback clause if an employee resigns during leave.
Dulas also offers flexible working benefits, including homeworking and time off in lieu.
HR Manager Sue Carvell said: “Our cooperative business model is based on values of trust and support. We’ve therefore approved 100% of the flexible working requests that we’ve received, and our retention rates in terms of employees returning form maternity leave demonstrate that this approach works.”
Managing director Ruth Chapman said: “Seeing our figures for the past year has really brought home how unusual we are in our approach.
“It’s concerning that the UK has the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in Europe, and that shouldn’t be the case.”
