Nick Anderson

We need people with an engineering background that understand the physics and the engineering side of life but are able to convert that into a solution for our customers: how do we use our products, technologies, services, to improve our customers’ operating performance.

And therefore, you need to be able to blend the technical knowledge, hence the need for an engineering background, with the commercial aspirations to understand what the requirements are for those customers and then find the right solutions for that. And so, we looked to develop our talent pool, male and female, along those lines.

And we need to accelerate female talent into those commercial roles, which today are below the average of other women representation across the Group.

Yes, it is a problem that we face.

I think after Covid we’ve all really learned how to work in a more hybrid environment. And so, one of the things that we are taking from that learning experience is trying not to be so rigid as to where the location of that person has to be, or the amount of days that that person needs to be in the main location.

And we have flexed, and we’ve been able to attract some [people]. Just very recently, a very talented PhD who actually lives in Glasgow, but her job is based out here in Cheltenham. And I think if it was in the pre-Covid days, we wouldn’t have accommodated that. And I think that’s a great eye-opener for us of how we need to be able to create the conditions, so that the talent that we’re looking for can come to our company and be flexible around location [and also be] flexible about their personal circumstances.