As an organisation that is critically dependent on our Supply Chain and Logistics and also striving to improve gender equality and diversity within our workforce, we have recognised that there is a significant opportunity to encourage more women to pursue a career in this part of our business. To achieve this outcome, long term commitment and change are required.
This is at the heart of why we chose to become a foundation sponsor of the Wayfinder program. Developed by Deakin University, the program is designed to improve the pipeline of female talent for Australia’s Supply Chain and Logistics industry by encouraging employers to develop ways to recruit and retain women in this sector.
Within Viva Energy, the program has been backed by HR General Manager, Jodie Haydon, and Cards and Transport Manager, Kersten Ross who are both passionate advocates of women in non-traditional roles. “This is an area of our business that is typically male dominated. We’d like to increase the number of women in our Supply Chain and Logistics team as increasing our diversity means that we strengthen our capabilities as a business and achieve our strategic commitment of improving the overall representation of women in our organisation, at all levels and in all roles”, said Kersten.
Our Geelong Refinery Commercial Manager, Vanessa Kearney is all too familiar with the challenges that come with recruiting females into the Supply Chain and Logistics area, including into the refinery which is such a critical part of our own supply chain. “I’ve worked on the refinery side and previously in supply chain roles and one thing is consistent - while there are females that are doing really well, women are still a minority in these roles. So it is fantastic to be part of a program that promotes the really interesting careers that people can have across a number of areas.”
Vanessa manages the Economics and Scheduling team whose broad function is to work with our traders to purchase and schedule crude oil and feedstocks and set the refinery’s key manufacturing units to a production plan. This is then worked through with our Supply Chain to manage the seamless movement of products in and out of the refinery and into the market to our customers.
“People think the roles at the refinery and within the Supply Chain and Logistics areas are specialised roles. While they are specialised to a certain extent given that there is technical complexity in how we plan the processing units, the concepts around planning, scheduling, and developing contingencies are all skills which can be transferred from other industries.” says Vanessa.
“These are commercially focused roles which means that people with different backgrounds can create fantastic careers for themselves. It’s about understanding how to move products in the most efficient and cost effective way to maximise volume, margin, and market coverage. There’s a lot of good transferable skills that people with different backgrounds can bring to the role but also a huge opportunity for them to learn along the way.”
Likewise, people with a technical engineering background have an opportunity to move into a commercial role within the Supply Chain business. “It’s about creating career paths for people that give them the opportunity to try something else and get a different view point. They can then decide whether to continue on that career path or simply use it as an opportunity to broaden their experience and move back to a technical base but with some commercial focus and understanding of how the Supply Chain works.
A career with global reach
Pip O’Donnell who until recently was part of Vanessa’s team, worked at our Geelong refinery for five and a half years. Pip started out in scheduling roles managing the supply of gasoline, then moved into a role, managing jet fuel, diesel, fuel oil, and bitumen, followed by a role managing the shipping of crude oil to the refinery and the supply of fuel oil to the New South Wales and Victorian markets.
Pip really enjoyed the opportunity to work with our whole business from the Marine team to the Refinery Operations team, our sales teams, and the world’s largest independent energy trading company, Vitol, to deliver crude and feedstocks to the refinery. “One of the exciting aspects of this role was being able to build experience working with a global trading organisation. When Shell Australia transitioned to Viva Energy, Pip was responsible for ensuring we had consistent and reliable oil supply during this period. It’s always dynamic - no two days were ever the same. However, it was also challenging and rewarding because you’re contributing to the business on a day to day basis and you see the outcome of your decisions quickly.”
Pip’s success in these roles led to her joining the Cards and Transport team as a Commercial Manager. Vanessa said, “Seeing people like Pip come through roles in the refinery and be able to move out into different roles in the business demonstrates the many and varied career paths that people can take within the Supply Chain and Logistics area.”
Pip describes her new role as being more customer facing. “My experience at the refinery means that I have a great understanding of what it means to actually deliver fuel to our customers. Also, knowing how we use oil to produce fuel, bitumen, and chemicals provides a valuable insight into our business, because it’s what we do on a daily basis whether it’s manufacturing products at the refinery or purchasing and delivering products to Australia from Asia.”
Supporting the industry from the ground up
The Geelong refinery is committed to attracting more women into traditionally male-dominated roles.
We are a proud supporter of ‘Girls Leading in Advanced Manufacturing’ (GLAM), a program for Year 9 and 10 students in the Geelong region which encourages girls to explore a career within STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) related industries. Vanessa explains that participants spend a day at the refinery hearing from some of our engineers about the opportunities within the refinery which hopefully inspires some of the students to follow a career in these disciplines.
In the last two years the refinery has increased its summer intern program significantly, giving the students a range of different projects so they get a real life view of the roles that they could be doing at the refinery.
“In addition, the refinery has been very proactive in recruiting females into operational roles. This shows that it’s possible for females to move into these areas and gives people the pathway they can follow. As we increase the number of female Operators, Plant Controllers, and Area Managers, it will encourage more women to apply for these roles.” adds Pip.
The backing of a team to reach new career highs
Pip has some sound advice for anyone interested in a career in the Supply Chain and Logistics sector.
“Give it a go. You will learn from a variety of people and develop a broad range of skills in areas such as shipping and product quality. You get the opportunity to be involved with so much of the business and every day is different. It’s exciting and great for people that like working in a dynamic environment, enjoy problem solving, and working in teams.”
“At Viva Energy, you’re also never on your own. You are backed by the technical expertise from the marine, product quality and refinery and terminal teams.”
“The other great thing about Viva Energy, is that you get the opportunity to work across different roles and teams within the business, without the need to move companies.”
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