Strengthening Equal Opportunities at National Electric Power Company (NEPCO)

The Gender and Economic Inclusion Technical Assistance Framework project aims to assist NEPCO in improving their HR policies and practices with respect to equal opportunities across all aspects of NEPCO’s HR, including; 1) attraction, 2) recruitment, 3) retention, 4) development, 5) retrenchment and 6) governance, with a special focus on supporting women’s equal opportunity in accessing technical positions.

Al Jidara provided technical assistance to achieve the program’s objectives by supporting the company’s HR and strategic functions through assisting them in building a strong HR management system aligned with the company’s strategic direction, developed recommendations and an action plan to become gender sensitive and strengthen their equal opportunities, and finally supported the company in outreach focused on women and strengthen their recruitment in the field.

Recommendations for becoming gender sensitive utilized a holistic approach in order to build a strong and sustainable female talent pipeline. The approach included the development of several supportive and inclusive strategies with outreach to female employees across the workforce through developing a flexible working model as seen best fit for NEPCO.

One early success was the Managing Director’s acceptance to adopt flexible working arrangements into the company’s HR policy which was identified in the initial assessment as a barrier for recruiting women as well as a major challenge for women currently within the company. Flexible working arrangements can support women who have to balance their career with childcare, family obligations, and maternity leave therefore enabling more opportunities for career advancement.