Women in Water
Date: 14-Aug-2012
Last week we looked at attracting engineering graduates into the water industry by offering benefits other than cold hard cash, which boils down to the fact that we are looking for a different breed of people to trust the safety, sustainability and security of our water to. We are looking for people who are passionate about their communities, people who care about the health of our children and the elderly, people who really want to make a difference in their jobs. Perhaps we are looking for more women in our workforce.
Now before any males get upset about this statement, you guys have been doing a great job and will continue to do so, but we all know it’s getting harder to find suitable staff. Is your organisation doing everything it can to make itself attractive to the whole employment market? Do you look at traditionally male-dominated roles and think “why” or “what if?”
One Council that is walking the talk in this instance is Central Highlands Regional Council. Historically both CHRC and its legacy Councils had a number of females at any given time working in the water operations field and there was a point in time when the Blackwater WTP was predominately staffed by females, including 2012 qldwater Young Operator of the Year Award winner, Tammy Beddow (pictured above).
According to CHRC Manager Water Utilities, Dan Pymble, work culture and good leadership has played a major part with the development and promotion of female employees at CHRC.
“Over the last four years we have worked hard on attraction and retention strategies in what is a difficult region to retain employees,” Dan explains.
“Ours is a specialised field in the water industry and the pressures being applied in what is becoming a very competitive employment market means that as a local government employer we have to develop a working environment that offers our people more than just what our market competitors can offer.
It must be recognised that it is more than money that satisfies people in their working lives and in this realisation we have developed a culture of purpose and unity much akin to a learning organisation where we actively encourage participation by all in most tasks we undertake and problems that we encounter.”
The CHRC team shares knowledge from top down and vice a versa and they actively encourage education and training while identifying and promoting career progression where and when they can.
Many of their former female trainees now successfully operate their own plants for CHRC or other Councils, with five females working in the Water Utilities department in positions ranging from trainee to assistant operator, operator and contract relief operator.
For CHRC Springsure Water & Sewage Trainee, Anni Goan, a need for change in career paths resulted in her taking on a traineeship in the water industry, which she says gave her a sense of purpose in her community.
Anni had no real concerns taking a job in a male-dominated industry as, she believes, anything a man can do, so can a woman!
She finds the job interesting and hopes to continue learning to keep progressing through the ranks.
One former female operator now co-manages a successful small business offering operational support to water service providers, including CHRC.
Christine Pearce, Director of Highlands Water Technology, started in the Industry in 1986 when she was successful in gaining a role as assistant operator with Emerald Shire Council.
For the first year or so Christine worked predominantly at the Sewerage Treatment Plant and instantly enjoyed the variety on offer each day; everything from testing to gardening to maintaining pump stations and cleaning tanks.
As the only female in the Water and Sewerage Department for many years, Christine found that all her colleagues were truly supportive and many became lifelong friends. She credits her first Supervisor, who enjoyed teaching his staff and watching them develop their skills, and the great team she initially worked in for her continued work in the industry.
Through ESC, Christine completed a 12-month Cert 2 in Sewerage Operations with Open Learning Institute followed by a two-year Cert 2 Water Operations. She then chose to complete the Swimming Pool Operations course which was also one year through OLI.
“I have to say that the study was difficult as at that time all study was done in our own time, and within six months of starting the job I was required to work every second weekend. So juggling a toddler, study and work was pretty overwhelming at times,” she says.
But as the saying goes, if you want to get something done, ask a busy person!
Christine worked her way up the career ladder with promotions to Operator and then Supervisor of eight staff – a time she recalls as being the happiest in her career.
Christine found more than career satisfaction at work – she also found a life partner in one of her work colleagues. The pair has since started their own business and Christine continued her studies completing a Cert 3 in water & waste water operations through Simmonds and Bristow.
Shortly after starting the business Christine had a call from Peak Downs Shire Council who was looking for a relief treatment plant operator where, due to staff turnover, she ended up operating the PDSC plants for three years. She still continues to provide operational support to CHRC for a number of their sites.
“It has been an amazing opportunity for me to be able to do this work for CHRC, and I have found that although I am a Contractor, I am never treated as an outsider and have been asked on numerous occasions for my input and thoughts on current projects. My partner and I have a fantastic working relationship with CHRC and feel very honoured that CHRC Management place such trust and faith in us.”
According to Christine, CHRC has benefited greatly from their management team’s efforts to encourage women into the industry.
“Operating treatment plants is generally an enjoyable job, but it has it’s downsides as well. It is not something I would encourage a Mum with young children to get involved in as most of these jobs involve weekend and on call work which is hard to manage with small children to look after. There are also times when a breakdown can mean working very long hours and due to the nature of treatment plants it is generally not possible to decide to fix the problem tomorrow as this can mean a town running out of water or an overflowing sewerage pump station. So certainly it can be stressful.”
Christine believes that money is a major issue for Operators as the current pay rate of around $26 per hour for qualified operators who must perform on call duties, work overtime without any notice, and if short staffed (which is common) work every second weekend, is a hard pill to swallow when the cost of living is so high in mining towns. Housing used to be provided to Operators at a subsidised rate but changes in this system will make it even harder for Councils to retain staff.
Having worked in the industry for 24 years now, Christine doesn’t think there is nearly enough recognition of the work these guys do.
“Most consumers have no idea what it takes to provide good quality drinking water or what happens after they flush the loo, and this needs to change so that the communities value staff in this specialised field. The only time an operator hears from the public is when there is a problem and they are unhappy, so it can be a thankless job and requires a special type of person to be able to do it.”
We thank the staff of CHRC who shared their stories with us for this BLOG. We intend to explore a number of these themes in future blogs – including exploring how we can raise awareness of the great job our service providers are doing in delivering a quality product straight to the tap and also managing sanitation infrastructure for Queensland’s communities. And tell us if you have great women working in your organisation too!
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