Post: Celebrating International Women’s Day and beyond

Celebrating International Women’s Day and beyond

Today, 8 March, is International Women’s Day (IWD), a globally marked day that recognises the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and raises awareness for gender equality. The global campaign theme for IWD 2024 is #InspireInclusion to create “a world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated”.

While gender is increasingly a multi-dimensional notion, the main focus in the energy sector is currently on the male-female composition of the workforce. But equality could be helped by the clean energy transition, which will create new jobs and exploit the full potential of a more diverse workforce.

But what’s the difference between equality and equity? Equality means each individual, or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognises that each individual person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.

In 2023 we started the year setting up new goals according to our mission and values, we got brand recognition for our efforts and we re-examined at how we could further support our customers and team. Key to this was the importance placed on Collaboration as a key value.

GridBeyond is committed to spearheading the transformation towards a global zero-carbon future. Through the strategic integration of cutting-edge AI technology with our team of experts, we are dedicated to revolutionizing the energy landscape.

“At GridBeyond we foster a culture of cooperation, communication, and shared knowledge. We believe that by working together, we can leverage our diverse expertise to solve complex challenges that meet the evolving needs of our marketplace.

“The company is made up of brilliant people. Each of us is unique, whether in terms of our background, personal characteristics, experience, skills or motivations. And we value our people for the differences they bring to the table. We believe these differences – this diversity – is powerful.”

Laura Merriman, Global Head of Human Resources 

Here are four ways in which we are investing in our women, and in our men, to achieve equity.

We’re focusing hard on our gender pay gap

In 2023, the UK average gender pay gap between men and women was 14.3%. That means that on average, men were paid 14.3% higher than women per hour of work. At GridBeyond, we pay men and women equally for working roles of similar scopes and sizes. While w do have a gender pay gap, we’re actively working to improve this by supporting women to join and stay with GridBeyond and develop their careers with us. Between 2022 and 2023 we increased our hiring of women by 33%.

We make flexible working available to all

It is estimated that over 40% working adults have caring responsibilities, whether that’s for children, working age adults or aging relatives. But women are the ones doing the majority of this day-to-day care.

Flexible working, both formal and informal, is a crucial way to promote equity in the workforce and that’s why GridBeyond promotes flexible working to all our employees. Most of our people across the business – including our executive board, work within our hybrid model – a mix of home and office working. This flexibility makes a hugely beneficial impact on our people’s lives.

We offer enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave

Paid leave for new parents is becoming an increasingly important benefit in the modern workforce. This is not only important for new parents, but also for employers. By providing this benefit, we demonstrate our commitment to supporting our employees as they navigate the highs and lows of parenthood. This, in turn, helps to foster a positive workplace culture that attracts and retains talented individuals who value a supportive work environment. This paid leave allows our colleagues to take the necessary time off to care for their children without worrying about their finances. 

At GridBeyond we believe this leads to improved employee morale, engagement, and productivity, which ultimately drives the success of our company. Simply put, offering paid leave for employees with children is not only the right thing to do, but it’s also a smart business decision that benefits everyone involved.

We invest in our people

We are constantly developing our strategy for developing our female talent, with the ultimate goal of having an equal representation of men and women within all parts of our business.

We like to know that colleagues are happy to work at GridBeyond and how we can improve to deliver better value for everyone in the company. Using the finding from a series of employee net promoter score (eNPS) assessments we have implemented new policies to help colleagues, launched new initiatives to improve the internal communication and create connection and a common mission.

We work with like-minded organisations

In 2022, GridBeyond joined the Women in Utility Network (WUN) to support its diversity, equality and inclusion core values.

The partnership aims at reaching a wider network and to support the company talent acquisition strategy for which GridBeyond has recently hired an HR Leader as well. Furthermore, the Women in Utility Network provides a mentoring scheme for women to support their professional development its members or get support about daily challenges.

Michael Phelan, GridBeyond CEO, said:

“We are very pleased to become members of WUN. At GridBeyond, we greatly value the contribution of our female colleagues and appreciate the importance of diversity inside organisation, which bring different perspectives and points of views. To be a partner of WUN represents a fantastic opportunity to reach new talents in the energy sector and support our core values.”

At GridBeyond, we believe in the potential of a smarter, interconnected energy network. By combining AI-driven innovation with collaborative partnerships, we are not only working towards a carbon-neutral future but also empowering businesses to unlock new opportunities and create lasting value in the rapidly evolving energy landscape.

These initiatives are part of a long-term plan to make meaningful and permanent changes that will benefit our existing and future female colleagues. They’re small steps that can make a huge difference. There’s a lot of work still to be done within the wider utilities sector, but we aim to be an industry leader in every way, equity included

Join the team

If you want to be a part of our growing team and you have prior experience of the fast-paced energy market, we’d like to talk with you. Take a look at the opportunities below.

We are an equal opportunity employer. Check our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy

Apply now

• Business Development Manager – Front of the Meter (US)
• Senior Market Optimisation Engineer (Ireland)
• Solar, Storage and EV Manager (Australia)
• Accounts Payable Assistant (Ireland)
• Market Strategy and Regulatory Analyst (US)
• Inside Sales Analyst (US)
• Project Management Engineer (US)
• Market Optimisation Engineer (Japan)

Apply now