Women are able to handle anything

The idea of a women’s club as a ladies meeting, where the agenda is only about sewing, raising children or cooking recipes, is long outdated. Women involved in production and social life are ready not only to discuss but also to take on planning tasks, management decision-making and responsibility for them, and issues of competition in the profession. It is no coincidence that the gender aspect today dominates the global ESG agenda and its Governance category – corporate governance.

The Women’s Club at AlES JSC was established in 2022 with this goal – to unite the company’s female employees to strengthen the role of women and expand their opportunities at work. The club has united about 600 female employees of the company. But there is potential for growth.

It is clear that not all of them visit it regularly due to their workload, but they definitely support the stated objectives of the Women’s Club and try not to miss its meetings whenever possible.

Among the topical areas of the club’s work are: discussing the problems of women’s society at work and developing rational solutions and their implementation; promoting the development of women’s initiatives at work; promoting gender equality through effective planning, selection and career development of personnel; creating a unified platform for uniting female employees of the company.

The next meeting of the club was held at the end of March at CHPP-1 named after B.Orazbayev. The first item on the agenda was a discussion of the results of work for the past period and plans for the current one. Daria Shayzhanova, Head of Corporate Development and Risks Department of the Company, reminded about the work done.

Thus, during the past meetings such issues as the experience of promoting equal opportunities in AlES JSC; image of a business person; gender equality; ability to set goals and achieve results; women’s leadership – the way to Inspiration and Influence were discussed and analysed.

As a rule, the meetings are held at different production departments, so often the meetings are combined with familiarisation of these facilities. This allows colleagues from other departments to get to know the specifics of production and better understand the working environment.

The Women’s Club does not ignore the topics of society and everyday life. At previous meetings, the speaker noted, the topics of child rearing and the practice of paramedicine in everyday life were discussed. There were also actions, for example, “16 days against domestic violence”.

– Women’s club is a great initiative that allows women to work together, share experiences, learn new things and develop as professionals, – said Dina Abdimazhit, engineer-technologist of Adjustment and Environmental Protection Shop of CHPP-1im n.a. B.Orazbayev. – Participation in the event at CHPP-1 was very interesting and informative. Such meetings not only contribute to the strengthening of the team, but also help each participant to reveal her potential. I thank the organisers for such a wonderful event, and I hope for further cooperation and development of the women’s community in our company!

Practical issues were also discussed at the March meeting. Such a seemingly simple topic: “Feedback: how to give and receive it correctly” has a great applied value. Knowledge of the issue and practice contribute to improving communication, strengthening the business climate in the team. However, these skills can also be useful in everyday life. The principles of feedback: Timeliness; Accuracy and Directness; Praise; Confidentiality, as well as the “Hamburger Method” will certainly be useful to all the participants of the Women’s Club in practice.

At the meeting of the club its participants discussed the topical theme “Zero Tolerance” – about the negative reaction of society to any offence, and also watched the presentation of the Book Club “Knigovarka”, which was established in January this year.

However, many active participants of the women’s club – lovers of reading have already joined it. In a short period of time, five meetings of the “Knigovarka” have already taken place, where amazing literary works were discussed.

For those who participated in the Women’s Club meeting for the first time, it became a new interesting form of useful dialogue. For example, Aisulu Irzhanova, Chief Specialist of the Department of Industrial Safety and Labour Protection enthusiastically accepted the information about the Book Club. “I believe that it will have a positive impact on the general culture in the team! I myself like to read very much”, she says. – But young people nowadays practically do not read books. We should definitely expand and involve more colleagues, especially young ones!” she said.

Ular Ryskulova, chemical analysis laboratory technician at the CHPP-2 n.a. A.Zhakutov Setup and Environmental Protection Shop, added that after the meeting she was also interested in reading fiction and learnt a lot of useful things. “The idea of creating a Women’s Club in AlES is very right, she believes, as women play a big role in our production”.

– Despite the different ages of the club participants, the topics touched upon at the meeting were relevant to all of them. After the Women’s Club, I was impressed for a long time. There was a lot of useful and interesting information, – Olga Serova, design engineer of the repair service of CHPP-3, shares her impressions. – I liked the presentation “Woman. Time. Space”, where we learnt useful information on how to arrange our everyday life, how to communicate with colleagues. How a workplace should look like. I hope for further participation in the Women’s Club”.

Anastasia Bykova, an economist at CHPP-3, participated in the club for the second time. She notes that the topics chosen for discussion are quite interesting and really important for real life. “Everything is told and explained accurately, clearly and briefly, without being overloaded with unnecessary information”, she notes. – “I liked the mini-scene and the discussion on the Hamburger Principle. It was interesting to listen to other people share their stories of conflict resolution. From each story, you could draw some conclusion for yourself. Also, we shared some life-optimising time-optimisation tips. Which was very interesting, and I took a couple of the lifehacks to myself”.

Gulnur Mukazhanova, a toolmaker at the CHPP-1 n.a. B.Orazbayev, notes that the meeting covered relevant and useful topics for women, and was instructive and interesting. “Everything went in one breath”, she concludes.

Venera Desyatnikova, an electrician for repair and maintenance of automatics and measuring devices of electric stations of Energoremont PRC, emphasised that the useful information received will be useful both in everyday life and in building relationships.

– Quite informative, said Galina Zabolotskaya, an economist at Kapshagayskaya HPP named after Sh.Chokin. – I am very interested in psychological trainings, where “models” of relationships are built both in the team and in the family. Useful information was at the last Women’s Club. To my experience I learnt something else necessary and useful.

“This time the meeting was super interesting, informative, – concludes Akherke Orazova, training engineer at CHPP-1 named after B.Orazbayev. – As a young specialist, I admire the thinking of the female half of our company. I would like to learn a lot from them.

And the topics of zero tolerance and feedback were new for me, as I had not heard about them before. Such meetings are necessary for our development. I also joined the Book Club. I think I will find it interesting to exchange thoughts with beautiful and intelligent women of our company…”.