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The full-scale Russian invasion forced many people to move to other cities and even countries. According to CES data, about 6 million Ukrainians have gone abroad, and half, according to forecasts, may not return home. Most of them are women who often left to protect their children from the war. It is important to create favorable working conditions for women in Ukraine, this will help to attract the best specialists, in particular to bring them back from abroad.

 

This is exactly the mission that was defined for itself in the company PrJSC "Ukrhydroenergo", where the heroine of this story, Myroslava Kazymyrets, works. Myroslava is the deputy head of the personnel training and adaptation department and is directly involved in creating comfortable working conditions for employees. Ukrhydroenergo is the largest hydrogen generating company in Ukraine, which ensures energy stability and security of the country. This is an important task in today's realities, and in order to improve the company and contribute to the development of the country, the organization has started implementing the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs).

 

Like any Ukrainian company, Ukrhydroenergo faced an outflow of personnel due to hostilities. The company, in particular, had to rebuild its work. The focus of the company's attention has become the creation of such working conditions that employees feel supported and comfortable. For this, the company has introduced remote work, an individual schedule and financial support (outside of the terms of the collective agreement: insurance, funds for recovery, etc.; targeted/addressed financial assistance upon individual request). Other innovations include holding motivational meetings, providing psychological support, creating job opportunities for workers from the occupied territories and the destroyed Kakhovskaya HPP. Special attention is given to women who have children of preschool and primary school age, and women whose husbands have joined the ranks of the Armed Forces.

 

The company is taking steps towards gender equality. From now on, a gender analysis is carried out in internal legal documents, and provisions on combating discrimination and any types of violence are included in contracts with counterparties. Also, at the beginning of 2024, the company created a separate committee on issues of gender equality, diversity and inclusion. Its task is to contribute to the creation of an inclusive corporate culture and a barrier-free environment that takes into account the interests of all people, regardless of their origin, gender, age and other characteristics. One of the priorities of the committee's work is ensuring equal rights and opportunities for men and women.

 

"Ensuring gender-responsible working conditions and support during these difficult times enable women to continue working, provide for themselves economically, and develop professionally and personally. It has an additional value for women who were left alone during the war and are raising children, supporting their parents, etc.," comments Myroslava.

 

Such optimization is already yielding results. More than 90% of women workers are at their workplaces in Ukraine, in particular those who have returned from abroad. "Supporting women and creating proper and favorable working conditions is an important way for them to return to Ukraine together with their children, respectively, to ensure the reconstruction of our state," comments Yuliya Tolchinina-Burunska, head of the Committee on Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

Ukrhydroenergo does not plan to stop. The company will continue to conduct gender equality training, motivational meetings and provide psychological support for employees. They will also actively develop the activities of the Committee on Gender Diversity and Inclusion, for which the implementation of WEPs is one of the priority tasks.

 

"This provides more opportunities for the development of entrepreneurship, the creation of new jobs and economic growth at all levels - the company, the territorial community and the country as a whole," - explains the motivation for implementing WEPs Myroslava Kazymyrets.

 

This material was created within the framework of the initiative "Empowering the opportunities of women in business", which is carried out as part of the project "Transformative approaches to achieve gender equality in Ukraine", which is implemented by UN Women with the financial support of the Government of Sweden in cooperation with the Office of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration.