With a career spanning over 15 years within the training sector, Jill Ogilvie’s role has evolved from account management to Director of Strategic Projects and head of ESG across 3t Energy Group. She discusses her passions around ESG, diversity in the workplace and her strategy for instilling ESG efforts in her team and the wider industry.
“I started my career in training in 2007 in various roles from Account Management to Operations Director and now as Director of Strategic Projects for 3t Energy Group. Over the years, my role has evolved to take a focus in both leading business projects as well as looking at how we can continually improve ourselves as a company.
“In November last year, I was appointed to head ESG activity across the company to enhance structure, increase stakeholder engagement, and ensure the business is climate conscious to reduce our environmental impact where we can.”
Jill’s awareness and experience on how diverse perspectives support leadership, idea generation, decision making and problem solving drove her passion for her current role.
“I have a strong passion towards diversity, inclusion, and equality in the workplace and as part of my role, I am also responsible for leading our HR strategy. From a personnel perspective, in conjunction with our business leaders, I am mapping out the employee touch points; reviewing, obtaining feedback and transforming our policies and procedures to ensure that we are engaging, communicating and developing our employees in line with our social values and business needs.”
Embedding ESG into the workplace begins at recruitment and for Jill, it is essential there’s a structure in place to ensure everyone is engaged and involved from the start of their career journey within the 3t Energy Group.
“As a female in the industry, I found that as I climbed the corporate ladder the gender gap became bigger, and I believe a lot of it comes down to our own beliefs and self-doubt. The industry as a whole has made significant enhancements, and as companies we need to embrace females, empower them to be successful and support them to achieve their goals and with that, we ensure to make diversity one of the most important ESG values of our company.
“After deliberation with my colleagues, we produced the idea to introduce an Energy Champions team to be part of a three-year energy saving plan. We reached out to each of our businesses and asked volunteers who have a passion for sustainability to come forward to look at innovative ways of working that will reduce our carbon footprint across all our businesses. We are also looking to appoint a Charity Champion from each business to work collectively to support a chosen charity each year.”
“Our Governance values have always been to ensure no harm to our employees and customers. We want to ensure safety remains the number one priority of the company and we continue to educate and develop our employees of our policies and procedures. In addition, we have launched our Equality and Diversity for Employees and Managers training together with our policies and procedures to ensure these values are being implemented and followed throughout the company.”
For a female that has climbed her career ladder and most importantly, now works in a role she’s passionate and excited about, Jill gives a final bit of advice.
“If I could tell anyone entering the industry one thing, it would be to stop listening to the inner critic and embrace your own diverse style. Fresh, unique, innovative ideas are what will move a business forward so stick to your values and have confidence in who you are – that is your key value.”