Happy International Women’s Day! Let’s reinforce our actions to drive equality

To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, Tractebel is pleased to share the latest updates on our commitment and action plan to narrow the gender gap and reinforce equity. 
 
In 2021, we announced our Journey to Gender Parity, our commitment to boost the percentage of women at Tractebel from 27% to 33% by 2025, and to around 40% by 2030. Achieving gender parity in the engineering field presents particular challenges: according to the Society of Women Engineers, just 13% of engineers are women. That means completely closing the gender gap among our engineers might not be feasible – yet. But we can narrow that gap through focused actions and a strong willingness to make a difference. 

New leadership, reinforced gender equity initiatives 

Our engagement in gender equity was strengthened further in 2021, with the arrival of CEO Philippe Van Troeye and Karen Goovaerts, Chief HR, QHSSE & Communications Officer. Both see diversity and inclusion, including gender equity, as a top priority and an integral part of the strategic business plan. Philippe and Karen strongly believe that change must begin through top-down, inclusive and agile leadership. To that end, Karen and the ExCom team defined 5 strategic pillars to promote gender equity, as well as guidelines on how to incorporate these into their roles and trickle them down across the entire organization. Karen also organized an awareness and (personal) commitment program with the ExCom members.

5 strategic pillars for gender equity in 2022 

Culture 
Focus on gender equality as a strategic goal 

Leadership & mentoring 
Ensure equal access to career-critical assignments for all 

Recruitment & promotion 
Implement gender-inclusive language across all channels; improve transparency of the promotion process and criteria 

Equal pay for equal work 
Conduct gender pay gap assessments and implement corrective measures as needed 

Flexible working 
Define and promote flexible working options based on individual needs 

EDGE certification for gender equality 

In 2021 we announced our goal to become EDGE-certified, a globally recognized label for organizations that reach specific gender equality goals and highly appreciated by external stakeholders and clients. 

The process has seen some delays due to pandemic restrictions but despite these, external audits - the first step in the process - took place at the end of 2021 in 4 countries: India, Germany, Belgium and Brazil. We currently await completion of the remaining audits and the results, which will enable each country to fine-tune or develop and roll out a tailored gender equity plan. Action plans are expected to be implemented mid-2022. 

“While gender equity is certainly crucial to the success of any organization, it’s one piece of the larger inclusivity puzzle. As an organization we want to represent the reality of the ecosystem within which we are working. The bottom line is that no one should be judged based on background, religion, race, age, sexual orientation, or anything other than their professional expertise and attitude. Inclusive leadership and inclusive ways of working are top priority when it comes to evaluating competencies and potential, both in the staffing process and in daily life at Tractebel. It’s not enough to simply agree on the importance of gender equity and other aspects of diversity, but to create and implement a concrete action plan. Organizations need to “walk the talk” to accelerate change on a global scale. At Tractebel, we aim to lead by example.”  

Karen Goovaerts, Chief HR, QHSSE & Communications Officer

Find out more about International Women’s Day