Partner Helen Haynes
As the national drive to get more women into the industry continues, Helen, who is heavily involved in the firm’s recruitment strategy, says that female applicants are still few and far between and that it will take more than rhetoric if things are to change.
“Currently we have 24 salaried employees and, of the 15 engineers, there is only one woman – me – as well as a further nine male technicians. Even then much of my time is spent on the company management side of the business,” added Helen, a qualified geoenvironmental engineer. “However, HBPW rarely gets applications from females which is unfortunate because I, for one, would like to see more women engineers on the team.”
In 2014 the company recruited an additional three engineers and two technicians, all male; there was one female applicant.
Recently more senior industry leaders, including Environment Agency Chief Executive Paul Leinster, have been dubbing themselves feminists in support of New Civil Engineer magazine’s ‘Engineering Equality’ campaign.
“I think it is important to have the right person for the job so I am not a believer in employing a woman for the sake of employing a woman,” said Helen. “However, it goes without saying that unless we have more females applying then we are not even in a position to give them a fair hearing and that’s something I would like the opportunity to do.”