Recruiting & retaining women in renewable energy construction

The construction industry is full of talented problem solvers.

Every day on our projects, we’re tackling some of the nation’s most complex infrastructure challenges to support a better future.

But one puzzle continues to elude us.

How can we fix the skills crisis in construction, improve diversity and set ourselves up for the clean energy transition to support the pipeline of projects that will come with it?

Infrastructure Australia paints a sobering picture of the current state of the construction workforce.

Nationally, labour shortages are in the order of about 229,000 full-time workers. These are the engineers, architects, trades and labourers we currently don’t have on the books.

This comes at a time when energy sector investment is expected to grow at around four times current activity levels, with most of this growth funded by the private sector.

We need to reskill people and transition them away from traditional construction methods to those of the future, particularly as more solar, wind and hydro projects come online.

If we’re going to deliver the estimated 10,000 kilometres of transmission lines the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) says are needed to support the energy transition, we’ll need to get creative about where those skills are coming from.

At John Holland, we’re looking at how bridging courses can upskill people who are finishing up on other projects, so they can quickly transition.

There are some exciting possibilities to take our diverse, multi-sector workforce and look at how we can shape their future in the renewable energy sector.

We need to think outside the box about how we attract and retain a workforce that will have a growing presence in the regions in the coming years.

There are legacy issues that continue to hold us back – and female participation is one of our biggest barriers.

In 2024, women make up just 12 per cent of our industry – and we’re not closing that gap quick enough.

The perception is that construction is an inflexible beast because “that’s the way it’s always been”, with work hours that can’t shift and conditions that don’t support families.

To address these skills shortages, we need to level the playing field, improve flexibility and make our industry more attractive and accessible to diverse groups of people.

We’re seeing evidence of this on our projects right now. One example is our Flex from the Start initiative.

Funded by the New South Wales Government’s Women in Construction Industry Innovation Program, Flex from the Start is piloting flexible working arrangements on projects to break down barriers, improve working conditions and shift mindsets.

Research into the Australian construction industry by UNSW has found that to increase the participation and retention of women, the industry must challenge and change the working conditions of men and the sector more broadly.

On the M7-M12 Integration project in Western Sydney, a group of 11 women recently graduated from a pre-employment program to kickstart their careers in construction.

Through this initiative, a late start time of 8:45am instead of 6:45am has been introduced to improve work-life balance on the project.

For apprentices and working mums like 26-year-old Rebeka Zarb from Western Sydney, it’s helped to shatter industry stereotypes and open new possibilities.

Rebeka said: “It’s something I never thought I’d be able to do in this industry – balance my responsibilities at home and start my workday when it suits me, while making sure I’m not missing out on the opportunity to provide for my family and enjoy a life in construction.”

Flex from the Start is all about trialling and evaluating different flexible work options, because we know that we’ll need to offer more for people – not only to bring them into construction, but also to ensure they stick around.

The difficulties attracting women to construction will continue if women already working in the industry are not collectively satisfied or thriving.

We also need to be attracting new talent from places that our industry hasn’t traditionally looked to.

Our partnership with the AFLW to bring professional athletes into construction has resulted in John Holland recruiting more than 20 players into our business, working across a variety of roles.

We’re also supporting opportunities for people from different cultural backgrounds.

Thanks to our national partnerships with organisations like CareerSeekers and Multicultural Consulting Services we've created more than 125 internships for refugees and asylum seekers in the past three years alone.

Some of these numbers may seem like small change in the context of the skills challenge we’re facing, but  it’s a case of creating awareness, hope and opportunity to grow a more diverse workforce so we can seize the prospects in front of us.

Improving the culture of construction isn’t just good for some – it’s good for everyone.

It’s how we ensure our future sustainability as an industry and shift the dial on diversity, so we can deliver the infrastructure to power our future.

Let’s challenge ourselves to do more – innovate more – and ensure we continue to question the status quo.