GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT GENDER BALANCE AT ALL LEVELS OF THE SURVEYING PROFESSION IS ONE OF THE KEYS TO RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS.
W
hen I was in Bolton
employees is of tremendous benefit to our
Not every company provides this assistance,
Street, many years
company. The differing personalities, ways of
and this is why the mentoring programme
ago,
surveying
looking at things and dealing with issues that
being launched by the SCSI is so important.
profession was very much a male-dominated one.
arise are a fantastic resource in any organisation.
Everyone will go through ups and downs in their
In my class when I started out there were five
This is the same at graduate and senior
career and will hit obstacles along the way. This
female students in a class of 25. By the time we
management level.
can be more challenging for women in business.
graduated, there were only two. Fortunately,
Another aspect to this is that we find that our
Having someone that you can turn to, who knows
things have changed dramatically and female
clients run diversified businesses and therefore
the issues you face, will help you to steer a course
representation in the profession is high; however,
it is important for the business that our surveying
around these obstacles and can be critical at
unfortunately representation at management
team can respond to this.
various stages of a person’s career to give a leg
the
level is not as high.
up when needed. Whether male or female, we all
The importance of mentoring The value of diversity
In TWM we place a high priority on employee
On a personal note, having been surrounded by
training and mentoring. It is
strong, intelligent and hard-working women all
extremely important to
my life, it has never really struck me that there
give every employee
should be any difference in the ability of either sex
the same chance
to achieve high performance and success in
to excel and to
business. In TWM, the stats show that we are very
assist them to be
diversified at all levels: shareholders 50:50
the best they can be.
male:female; directors 50:50 male:female; and, total employees 55% male, 45% female. These statistics were not premeditated or planned. Our recruitment policy has always been to employ the best candidate. Even though not by design, we have found that having a diversity of
THE LAST WORD Sean O’Neill Director, TWM
34
SURVEYORS JOURNAL Volume 11, Issue 1, Spring 2021
need that from time to time!
