female engineers | Human Resources, Work and Employment blog

Formidable Females in Future Flight: Inspiring women through my podcast series

ripleywk | 19 November 20242 December 2024

Jo is the founder of Berello, with over 20 years of experience in recruitment and executive search specialising in Aviation, and aerospace, life sciences and pharma, B2B Tech and service, retail and consumer and the public sector.

Known for her dedication to exceptional service, she believes in going above and beyond to serve both clients and candidates throughout the recruitment process. Her approach centres on deep understanding and clear communication, helping both parties connect more effectively

Berello work with companies making a positive impact in the world. They begin every search holistically as to find the best possible talent . They are meticulous in their research to uncover the person that will make the difference for the organisations they work with.

Jo’s Story

Hiring within the space and aerospace sector, I have found a fabulous and sincere community of individuals. Professionals in this sector are often driven by curiosity and a desire to advance technology, pushing at the boundaries of what is possible, while maintaining an absolute “safety first” culture. They are often very loyal to the projects and companies they are working within and it is usual for individuals to work for the same company for many years. This is one of the reasons, I believe, that organisational cultures can seem to evolve quite slowly, particularly in larger companies.

This sector boasts some of the largest corporations in the world, their incredible histories and technologies drawing many enquiring minds to join them. The size of these companies, their histories and lengthy individual tenures, seem to combine to create almost indelible organisational cultures. In my view this brings many great advantages, together with some limitations.

One limitation I have noticed is the very low level of gender diversity, particularly in technical leadership roles. It is still relatively uncommon to find a female Chief Engineer or Chief Technology Officer. This is changing and there are many spectacular examples of female leaders, just a lot fewer than men.

Woman figure in recording studio. On air sign lit to signify recording.

I was inspired to launch my podcast series “Formidable Females in Future Flight” while delivering a search for a role where the talent pool was almost exclusively male. This was not at all to discredit any of these wonderful men, just to highlight more female role models. As we often say within the Royal Aeronautical Society Women in Aviation, Aerospace and Space Committee, “you can’t be what you can’t see”.

Through my podcast series, I have been privileged to meet inspiring women from all around the world and from many different companies. I always like to ask the guest speaker about what drew them to this sector and their career choice. Interestingly, anyone who consciously chose engineering or other technical roles as their path, seems to have one thing in common, and that is the importance of early inspiration.

It is well documented that girls often self-select away from STEM subjects as soon as they have the chance. By the same token, many of the women I have met, through my podcast series, were inspired by a what they felt was a profound experience as a much younger child (primary/elementary or even pre-school age.) This has included visiting an airshow, living on a flight path or close to an air base, going in a flight simulator with Granddad, sitting with their uncle to watch aircraft, following in the footsteps of family members, etc. They can be relatively simple experiences, but they have changed the whole course of someone’s life. I was keen to capture some of these stories in order to further encourage and empower women to pursue and build their careers in these fabulous sectors.

Please enjoy this snippet video that captures some of the exciting stories shared with me.

For more information on the work Jo Moses does you can find her Podcast, Formidable Females in Flight here or information on her work in Belrello here.

Exploring Neurodiversity in Engineering: A Video Series by Vanda Papafilippou and Lucy Downes

ripleywk | 23 April 202423 April 2024

Vanda Papafilippou and Lucy Downes, have recently published a series of videos exploring their findings around their research on neurodiversity in engineering. They have made these videos so that the information from their research is free and accessible, publishing the information on YouTube for all to access. More information on each video can be found below as well as a brief bio of each author.

Introducing the study.

The first video in the series, Introducing the study neurodiversity in engineering, introduces a study conducted by Dr. Vanda Papafilippou (Principal Investigator) and Miss Lucy Downes (co-Investigator). The study, carried out in 2023, focused on the experience of neurodivergent engineers in the workplace.

Getting in.

91% of survey respondents found that there were barriers in the recruitment process for neurodivergent people. The second video, Neurodiversity in Engineering: Getting in, addresses the topic of recruitment and selection. What parts of the recruitment process pose the biggest barriers – what works well? The video looks at what organisations can do to remove barriers from the selection process, and what Neurodivergent people look for when applying for a new role.

Moving on.

The third video, Neurodiversity in Engineering: Moving on, presents the main findings of the research on neurodiversity in engineering, focusing on the experience of neurodivergent engineers once in the workplace. What are challenges both physical and social that they face and how HR processes and the questions of ‘’disclosure’’ can have an impact.

Moving up.

Part four of the series, Neurodiversity in Engineering: Moving up, explores the findings related to career development and progression, and how this interacts with neurodiversity in engineering. How lack or role models and certain role requirements not inline with the skill set such as people management created barriers to progression in the workplace.

Implications for practice.

Finally, the last video in the series, Neurodiversity in engineering: Implications for practice, discusses the implications of the research findings for smaller teams, line managers, senior managers, HR policies and practices, and organizational culture more broadly.

About the Authors

Dr. Vanda Papafilippou is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resources Management at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), specializing in Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in the workplace. Her research focuses on addressing gender inequality, improving diversity management practices, and promoting inclusive recruitment, as evidenced by her leadership on projects exploring women’s networks, the experiences of European expatriates, and neurodiversity in engineering. Combining her academic expertise in qualitative research methods with her active engagement with industry, Vanda has developed and delivered inclusive recruitment and selection training for organizations, created EDI training materials for social enterprises, and served as a judge for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Applied Research Conference, making her a prolific researcher and practitioner dedicated to fostering more equitable and inclusive workplaces.

Lucy Downes, a Lecturer in Human Resource Management at UWE Bristol. She has achieved Fellow status with the Higher Education Academy and is close to completing the Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice. Lucy’s research interests centre on equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. As part of her dissertation, she explored the social factors that support or hinder the professional identities of senior female aerospace engineers. Since joining UWE Bristol, she has worked on a research project investigating the experiences of international students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has also collaborated with an interdisciplinary team on a Higher Education Innovation Fund-supported project to develop a framework to help engineering organizations recruit and retain neurodiverse employees.

The “Necessary evil” of a compliance role for HR: Examining the day-to-day realities of human resources (HR) practice

ripleywk | 8 November 20229 November 2022

Dr Helen Mortimore and Dr Catherine Mackintosh

The problem for HR practitioners

When was the last time you heard somebody praise their HR department: “oh, they’re so helpful” or “they’re great at what they do”? HR professionals battle for credibility in organisations and struggle to convince others of their contribution. Many organisational members probably do not really know or have any interest in knowing what HR practitioners actually do on a day-to-day basis, never mind understand what doing it “well” might look like. Even more challenging for HR professionals though, is this lack of understanding and interest in the realities of HR practice is arguably just as true of many of the academics who study it.

The current narrative of most HR academics, practitioners, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) emphasises the value of HR professionals as business partners to line managers who carry out devolved people management activity (e.g., Guest, 1987; Ulrich, 1997). In other words, it is suggested that to be strategic, HR practitioners should advise but not intervene with line managers who “do” people management. This idea of the “devolution” of HR management (HRM) is broadly accepted (Purcell & Hutchinson, 2007) but, nevertheless, is problematic for practitioners. It creates a tension where they are required to relinquish power to line managers but the accountability for HR outcomes remains with them (Sheehan et al., 2014). Current research tends to under-play and under-examine the influence of national regulation on HR practice (Gilbert et al., 2015). In the UK, where our research was undertaken, this means there is not sufficient consideration of how protective employment law, such as the Equality Act (2010), influence the work of HR professionals. In the UK, tribunals are the enforcement option for handling employment rights and HR practitioners are tasked by their organisations with managing legal risk and avoiding claims. However, this aspect of HR practice is near impossible to fulfil if HR professionals fully embrace the logic of devolution. Instead, the regulatory context creates an “interventionary” compliance role for HR, yet the HRM narrative that promotes devolution delegitimises such activity and may leave HR practitioners reluctant to promote this element of their role.

Our research

To gain insight into how HR professionals understand and navigate this tension between devolving people management activity to line managers, and the need to ensure compliance with national regulation, in our study we focused on talking to HR practitioners about what they actually do day-to-day (rather than what HR work “ought” to be). Our findings indicate that HR practitioners frame their role as both advisory and interventionary: they take an advisory, non-interventionary role when line managers’ decision-making is within a ‘safe zone’ but intervene when line managers risk provoking a tribunal claim. Both HR and line managers, from the perspective of the HR professionals, accept the need and value of this compliance role, seeing it as a “necessary evil” to protect the organisation.

Our findings highlight the strategies HR practitioners use to encourage compliant behaviour from line managers. At times, HR practitioners need to involve and garner support from those higher up the organisational hierarchy (e.g., the senior management team) in order to compel line manager action. As such, our data reveals that even in scenarios where a HR practitioner does not have the power to dictate line manager decision making (e.g., because HR lacks status within the organisation or the individual practitioner is more junior) they still have methods of moving between an advisory and interventionary approach to working with their stakeholders. When they consider it necessary to intervene, HR practitioners will also highlight the risk of tribunal claims and/or procure specialist legal advice to persuade line managers to adopt a specific course of action. This evidences how line managers can be unwilling to accept the recommendations of HR practitioners without the reinforcement of external legal advice, and therefore the challenges HR professionals face in establishing credibility with organisational actors. Importantly, while HR practitioners have strategies for overcoming these challenges and to influence line manager behaviour, these tactics do not necessarily resolve their struggles for status.

Despite HR practitioners use of employment lawyers to persuade and appease line managers, they do not simply regurgitate the third-party advice they have sourced. Our findings also demonstrate how HR professionals add value through their own balancing of the legal position and the specific needs and context of their organisation (e.g., taking into account the employer’s management of previous similar cases). However, HR professionals will not necessarily disclose this value adding activity to line managers as it may undermine the force and influence of obtaining the third-party advice. As such, aspects of HR’s compliance role, the skills and knowledge that they use to support positive outcomes for organisations, can go unseen and undervalued.

So what?

Based on the findings of our study, we propose that the value of and craft involved in HR’s compliance role has been downplayed by academics and the profession. We bring into question the nature of HR business partnering in organisations by highlighting that in their day-to-day working lives practitioners move between interventionary or advisory approaches to working with managers. We therefore suggest that intervention is not incommensurate with a HR Business Partner role but can be an essential element of it, and a component of effective HRM. Consequently, we call for researchers and the CIPD to acknowledge the need for and value of HR’s regulatory and compliance responsibilities in support of HR departments and professionals more clearly demonstrating their contribution to organisations.

If you are interested in this research and would like to know more, please contact: helen.mortimore@uwe.ac.uk or catherine.mackintosh@uwe.ac.uk

The networked self: exploring networks as a source of career development and identity for female engineers

jyotishaw | 20 January 202120 January 2021

This month’s guest post is written by Dr Vanda Papafilippou, Senior Lecturer in HRM, UWE Bristol.

Women comprise just 12% of the UK engineering workforce (EngineeringUK, 2018), and despite the efforts of both the state and the industry, it remains one of the most male-dominated occupations. One of the main barriers for women in all male-dominated sectors, including engineering, is the persistence of ‘old-boys’ networks’ (Durbin, 2011), that is, essentially closed male-dominated networks where strategic, tacit knowledge is exchanged. Women appear to be at a disadvantage in terms of visibility, the ability to form alliances and gaining critical organisational knowledge that can lead to career progression (Greguletz et al., 2018; Ibarra, 1993).

A very popular diversity management practice that has been used to address this issue is the formally organised women’s networks. Formal women’s networks, that can be either internal (i.e. intra-organisational) or external (i.e. inter-organisational), have been argued to provide instrumental, social and psychological support (Villesèche and Josserand, 2017). They are also argued to bolster women’s self-confidence thus contributing to retention. However, the effectiveness of women’s networks has also been repeatedly contested as they appear to lack power due to their formality (Durbin, 2015) and the fact that they might address only the symptoms of discrimination instead of the roots of the problem (Dennissen et al, 2018).

Nevertheless, despite their wide use and the critique received, the value of such networks, their ability to contribute to gender equality, and their capacity to challenge the gendered nature of both organisations and the profession itself remains a particularly under-researched area. The aim of the ‘Networked self’ study was to establish the contribution of formal internal and external women’s networks to gender equality in engineering and understand the role of human resources practitioners in their operation.

The project

The project was funded by the Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Researcher Development Awards, 2018/19. Dr. Papafilippou, adopting a qualitative approach, conducted 48 semi-structured interviews either face-to-face or via Skype/telephone. The participants were all active in external and internal networks (if their company had one) and were recruited mostly via LinkedIn and the researcher’s personal network. The majority of women worked in the UK (44), plus one in the U.S.A. and two in Australia. Most were in the construction sector (31) although other sectors were also represented, with four in gas and oil, two in the army, one in nuclear, three in aviation, three in electronic/software engineering etc. In terms of ethnicity, the majority of the participants were white (44) and only four were from BME background. There were 10 participants at an early stage in their career, 24 mid-career and 12 seniors (up to director level).

Findings

The main contribution of internal women’s networks was the invaluable social and psychological support that they provided to the women involved. The participants, and especially those on part-time contracts, felt “silo’d” within their organisation. Through their participation in these networks, these women felt free to interact and connect socially with their female colleagues, thus enhancing their feeling of belonging to the organisations and thus their job satisfaction. Also, through participating in the network, the women in the study gradually became closer. In other words, these networks contributed towards a sense of solidarity and empowerment of the women. Other important benefits of the participation in internal networks included: the development of skills through mentoring and tailored training but also help with career progression. It needs to be noted at this point, these benefits were not accessible to all women. Unfortunately though, internal networks still appeared not to have access to power resources which would eventually allow them to achieve organisational change. More specifically, all participants admitted that no matter how hard they tried, they failed to challenge the gendered nature of their organisations as these networks did not have effective support by senior leadership and the human resources department. Any change seemed to be blocked by their line managers and gender-biased performance management practices.

External women’s networks on the other hand, helped women to (re)build their confidence and (re)establish their sense of belonging to the profession. This was especially so for those returning from maternity leave where women felt overwhelmed. External networks seemed also to play an important role in individual career progression as they helped women to enhance crucial skills, such as networking and public speaking. Also, and perhaps most importantly, they enabled women to recognise the discrimination they experienced and reach out to other, more equal and inclusive organisations, or fight for a promotion within their own organisation. What seemed to be the most important contribution of external women’s networks though, was the fact that they enabled and encouraged women to actually challenge the status quo and start reshaping the professional culture. More specifically, the participation in these networks gave the opportunity to many women to ‘build bridges’ to other professional bodies (e.g. the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institution of Civil Engineers) and networks, and participate actively in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and not only policy-making. Last but not least, by sharing experiences and working together, the women started challenging the dominant gendered discourses and practices. Instead of adapting in order to fit in, they chose to reframe what an ‘engineer’, and especially a female engineer and a leader in engineering, can be.

Conclusions and implications for practice

Women’s networks, internal and external, seemed to contribute, each in its own way, to women’s wellbeing, career progression and gender equality. However, their efforts met three major obstacles: senior management, HR and line managers. The main implications for practice were:

Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI): EDI policies should become an integral part of a company’s strategy and HR and senior management should listen carefully to women’s stories and respond to their requests.
The entire employee lifecycle should be carefully evaluated using an EDI lens to identify where and why injustices may occur and work together with the groups affected to resolve them.
Companies should encourage and facilitate diversity networks as they have huge potential for empowerment, retention and organisational change and make sure that their activities and comments feed directly to organisational policies, practices and strategy
The women in the study talked about how their exposure to the external networks highlighted the need to change the way we view leadership in engineering and also the discriminatory practices experienced within their organisations. This finding has clear and serious implications for recruitment for senior roles and, above all, performance management and career progression.

Tag: female engineers