Achieving an even balance between genders is a common challenge in the engineering sector where, internationally, entrenched gender stereotypes associated with technical careers still remain.
Prime employer for women, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, is actively addressing this issue through equitable employment practices, educational outreach programmes, support for initiatives such as International Women’s Day, graduate recruitment and early careers schemes, as well as equal access to professional development, talent and succession planning - and, most recently, a successful executive mentoring programme for its rising female leaders.
Spirax-Sarco Engineering established its Executive Mentoring Programme in order to encourage women in management positions to progress and grow within the business. Executives within the Group, not only female, act as mentors for the female participants.
The dedicated mentoring programme seeks to accelerate Spirax-Sarco Engineering’s internal talent pipeline.
Where Women Work meets one of the women who has seen her career benefit from participating in the programme - Teeny Parwongphol.
A well deserved promotion for Teeny Parwongphol
When she joined the programme, Teeny was working as General Manager of Spirax-Sarco Thailand. Now, Teeny works as General Manager of Thailand and South East Asia Developing Markets (Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos).
She describes her current position as delivering excellent service to customers, meeting company expectations in line with with local laws and policy, ensuring the workplace feels like a second home for staff, setting clear direction for each department and monitoring processes regularly.
“I was nominated for the Executive Mentoring Programme by my bosses. The idea of the programme is to give women at senior manager level the chance to gain experience with someone at executive level, and enjoy the opportunity to diversify. The company always promotes gender equality, offering both men and women the opportunity to enhance their skills and develop their leadership potential,” says Teeny.
“Following my promotion, it’s been really exciting to apply my experiences and successes from Thailand to running a business in developing markets.”
Sharing challenges and seeking advice
Teeny says she is glad to have been part of the programme because, in many companies, the opportunity to talk with people working at executive level can be rare.
“It was so beneficial to share my challenges and get the executive mentor’s advice. His comments were short and sharp, direct and to the point, but with very clear explanation,” Teeny recalls.
“I am now able to apply the advice I learned from my mentor to my current situation and to my new responsibilities. He really helped me to prepare and he clearly explained what I needed to consider for handling a new territory.”
Recommending women to become mentees
Teeny is a strong advocate for the Executive Mentoring Program and is quick to advise further women within the company to get involved, or to put themselves forward for more general mentoring opportunities.
“Working with a mentor who is a couple of levels up from you feels very different to consulting with your direct boss with whom your direction is already aligned. When discussing things with a more senior boss, you find yourself learning something new from every word they say,” she comments.
“For example, a couple of years back I had the chance to talk with our CEO and he advised me on how to be a good leader. I still keep what he said in mind, just like I do with the advice from my executive mentor. It really helps me handle a country that I was never previously in touch with.”
Advice for females interested in Spirax-Sarco Engineering
And what about Teeny’s top tips for women who might not yet be working with Spirax-Sarco Engineering and wish to join the team?
“Excellence is one of our core values and we approach challenges with passion, aiming for the best in everything we do,” she says. “Passion may not be a skill as such but, in my view, it’s the most important attribute applicants can possess. If we have passion, we have self-motivation to do good things and continue to improve.”
Teeny describes the work culture at Spirax-Sarco Engineering as being family-orientated and suggests women should feel encouraged to apply.
“Over recent years, we’ve tried to learn from more sources, overseas colleagues and external expertise – we know we can run faster by learning from both our failures and our successes.” she concludes. “We try to keep the feeling of family culture – we ‘Think Global, Act Local’.”
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Disclosure: Where Women Work researches and publishes insightful evidence about how its paid member organizations support women's equality.