Today is the National Day for Staff Networks. Read on to hear from Melanie Clark, Director of Health Safety & Wellbeing at National Highways on just how important they are.
“I’ve had a career in management and leadership spanning over 30 years now and the truth is I’ve always been the ‘other’ in the room. In some ways that’s been very good for me professionally and personally. After all, being different to most of the people around you will inevitably draw attraction and interest - and when that’s a positive experience you can capitalise on your uniqueness. But when it isn’t a positive experience it can erode at your confidence and stifle your energy and passion. Those negative experiences are rarely overt attacks on you as a person. For me, by being a woman. By being mixed race. They’re subtle daily exclusions and negative assumptions that over time can have the same impact as a one-off traumatic event.
You’re like the ‘boiled frog’ who never really notices the temperature is becoming dangerous for your health and wellbeing until it is too late.
Fortunately for me I did notice the temperature rising, before it was too late. In truth, the water was pretty warm by the time I realised I needed to get out of the pot!
I’d been working very hard for nine years as an Operations Manager and I was regularly tipped for more senior development opportunities. But I’d had the audacity to take some time out of work to start a family and by the time baby number three arrived I was feeling the heat. As dedicated, high performing professional with lots of experience, potential and ambition I was not making the progress that others around me were and it was becoming apparent that the only reason for that was – me.
I was different to the others. I couldn’t change that (still can’t). But I could change me, and how I dealt with it. And I could help the business change how it saw me, and others like me. So I started on my journey to become an employee network lead – setting up Leading Women in National Highways back in 2014. I wanted to share experiences, understand the challenges women face in our industry and to find a way to articulate that back into the company to make change happen. I believe I’ve done that.
Employee networks are wonderful. They’re a safe space to start difficult conversations, to explore collective and individual perspectives and to shape the ask that helps businesses to grow - attracting and engaging from a wider and more diverse talent pool. They help to create a sense of inclusion and being part of an organisation that understands that it can do more – and seeks to do more – to enable people to have the best possible experience in the workplace. Our networks build confidence, provide inspiration and insight and drive change. Networking, in its very essence, helps build new relationships, making the business better, increasing satisfaction with the day job and perhaps even gaining new skills, it’s fun. Members are given the opportunity to make a difference in their own way – a small or a large contribution, making a difference to the everyday.
For me personally it was like finding a light switch in the dark. When the light shone I realised that I had the power to make different decisions about myself and my career. I became more connected across the company, through my growing network. I could assemble the tools for change – connected women with a collective ask into the organisation for the things that would help level up the playing field. Support for the menopause. Support for part-time/job share and other flexible working arrangements. Support for miscarriage, infertility and fostering and adoption.
After 9 years, I no longer chair the Leading Women Network. I have handed the baton on to a new generation of women, who will do a far better job than me. But leading an employee network, and influencing the changes that I now see happening every day, will always be the highlight of my career.”