23.09.2026
On October 15, Energy Club will hold the forum “The Energy of Women’s Leadership: Women Holding Ukraine’s Energy Front”. The event will focus on women who today do more than simply work in the energy sector: they make decisions, lead teams and help ensure the resilience of the industry amid the war.
One of the forum’s speakers will be Oksana Pazenko, Head of HR Energy Safety Group. In an interview with Energy Club journalist Olena Karpachova, she spoke about what helps retain strong professionals, why energy can no longer remain a “male” sector, and what leadership should look like when people have to work under conditions of constant uncertainty.
– Ms. Pazenko, the war has fundamentally changed the labor market. What people-management decisions have been crucial for Energy Safety Group in retaining its team and continuing the company’s development?
– After the full-scale invasion began, the key challenge was to ensure stability for our people while maintaining the company’s ability to deliver complex engineering projects. This is particularly important for Energy Safety Group because a significant proportion of our specialists have highly specific technical expertise, which has been built up over many years.
One of the key decisions was to introduce maximum flexibility in work arrangements. People found themselves in different cities and countries, and some team members had to relocate. The company therefore adapted its internal processes to preserve teams and ensure business continuity.
At the same time, we continued hiring and developing new areas of activity. For me, this is a fundamentally important point: during a crisis, HR cannot operate solely in retention mode. If a company has a long-term strategy, it needs to think simultaneously about which competencies will be required several years from now, whom it needs to bring on board today, and how to pass expertise on to the next generation of engineers.
– Engineering and nuclear energy have traditionally been considered “male” fields. Is the role of women in these industries changing today, and what opportunities does the modern energy sector offer them?
– I believe that describing energy as a “male” industry is gradually becoming outdated. Today, women in engineering companies work in technical, analytical, scientific, management and project teams, lead areas of responsibility and participate in decision-making.
We see this in practice at Energy Safety Group. What matters to the company is competence, professional responsibility and the ability to handle complex tasks. Gender is not a criterion for determining who can become a strong engineer, project manager or head of a particular area.
At the same time, the modern energy sector is becoming increasingly technological and interdisciplinary. It combines traditional engineering with digital technologies, analytics, risk management, R&D and international regulation. This significantly expands opportunities for professional development and creates far more career paths than before.
– When a company is working on energy projects that are critical for the country, the human factor becomes crucial. How do you balance high performance requirements with care for the team?
– In our field, high standards cannot be lowered because we are dealing with nuclear energy, safety, complex technical solutions and responsibility for the outcome. So the question is not how to reduce the requirements, but how to create conditions in which people can consistently perform at that level.
This requires realistic planning, a clear division of responsibilities, strong team leaders, access to support and effective internal communication. People need to understand what is expected of them, what resources they have and whom they can turn to when a problem arises.
Since 2022, another factor has been added to this equation: the prolonged stress in which Ukrainian society is living. Businesses cannot ignore this context. But for me, caring for the team does not mean lowering standards. On the contrary, a mature corporate culture makes it possible to combine a high professional bar with respect for people.
– Energy Safety Group implements projects in Ukraine and European countries. Which international HR practices have you already integrated into the company’s operations, and which ones, in your view, should become standard for the Ukrainian energy business?
– International work clearly demonstrates how important transparent processes, clearly defined roles and understandable rules of interaction are. When people from different countries and corporate cultures work on the same project, many things can no longer be left to informal arrangements.
For us, important areas have included a more systematic approach to employee onboarding, competency development planning, regular feedback, talent-pool management, as well as a culture of project-based cooperation between teams in different countries.
In my view, Ukrainian businesses should move more actively from situational HR to workforce planning — planning which specialists and competencies the business will need in three, five or ten years. This is critical for the energy sector because it takes considerable time to train a strong technical specialist, and a talent shortage cannot be addressed within a few months.
– What is the most challenging aspect of recruiting and retaining highly qualified engineers and technical specialists today? Which tools actually work?
– The most difficult thing is that the market for such specialists is objectively very narrow. For many positions, we need not just a relevant degree but specific experience working with particular types of equipment, calculations, safety systems, regulatory frameworks or international projects.
There is also competition from the European labor market. Ukrainian engineers have a strong professional background, and today they are in demand abroad.
That is why retention is not simply about compensation. Challenging professional assignments, the opportunity to participate in international projects, see the results of one’s work, develop expertise and understand one’s prospects within the company all matter. For a strong specialist, it is extremely important to be in an environment where their professional level can continue to grow.
Another important tool is working with young specialists. The industry needs to start engaging with universities earlier, give students real-world assignments and show them what the modern energy sector actually looks like today.
– Can leadership in a crisis be taught, or does it only reveal itself when difficult times come? What qualities have become most important for managers during the full-scale war?
– A crisis very quickly reveals the real level of managerial maturity. But I do not think leadership is exclusively an innate trait. A significant part of management skills can and should be developed.
During the war, the ability to make decisions with incomplete information, take responsibility, communicate clearly and remain predictable for one’s team has become particularly important. It is difficult for people to work when the external environment is constantly changing. In such circumstances, a manager should at least create clear rules and a sense of process control within the team.
Another important quality is the ability to listen. During a crisis, it is easy for a manager to switch into a constant directive mode. But often the best solution emerges when a leader has a good understanding of what is happening to people and to work processes at the team level.
– Over the past several years, your company has grown from a small team into a powerful engineering company. What role have corporate culture and HR strategy played in this growth?
– For an engineering company, growth is primarily about people and expertise. You can increase the number of projects, enter new markets and expand the range of services, but this requires a team capable of taking on more complex tasks and greater responsibility.
That is why, alongside the development of Energy Safety Group, we have systematically focused on attracting strong professionals, developing internal expertise and building teams for new areas. It was important to create an environment in which experienced specialists could deliver complex projects, while younger professionals could grow alongside them and gradually take on more responsibility.
In this context, corporate culture is directly linked to the way we work with people. It is based on professional standards and responsibility, systematic competency development, interdisciplinary cooperation and knowledge transfer within the team. We view a specialist’s career as a long-term trajectory: from entering the profession and working alongside experienced colleagues to developing their own expertise and becoming ready to lead complex areas and projects.
That is why HR strategy needs to work for the long term. For us, this means developing people within the company, building a talent pool, working with young specialists and anticipating the competencies Energy Safety Group will need in the future. For a company that continues to scale and move toward increasingly complex projects, the ability to develop and retain a professional team is one of the key prerequisites for further growth.
– What, in your view, motivates people most to remain in the energy sector today despite the high level of responsibility, risks and stress?
– For many people in our industry, the substance of the work itself is a very strong factor. Energy provides a rare sense of a direct connection between professional results and the way a country functions.
But a sense of mission alone is not enough for long-term motivation. People want professional development, competitive compensation, the opportunity to work with modern technologies and the ability to build a career.
For Ukrainian professionals today, it is also very important to see that they can remain part of the Ukrainian professional community while working at an international level. When an engineer from Ukraine participates in European projects and works alongside specialists from leading international companies, it creates an entirely different perspective for professional development.
– What advice would you give young women who want to build careers in energy but are unsure whether they can realize themselves in a high-tech industry?
– I would advise them to look at the profession first, rather than at the stereotypes surrounding it. If you are interested in technology, engineering, energy or complex systems, it is worth giving it a try.
You do not need to wait until you feel completely ready. In high-tech industries, learning effectively never ends, and even highly experienced professionals are constantly mastering new tools, standards and approaches.
It is also important to look for a strong professional environment, people you can learn from, and not be afraid of challenging assignments. Careers are shaped to a large extent by the projects you are willing to take responsibility for.
– If we talk about the energy sector of the future, what do you see as the role of women in its development over the next five to ten years? What needs to change today for this potential to be fully realized?
– In five to ten years, I think we will talk much less specifically about “women in energy” because their presence in technical, management and scientific teams will become more commonplace.
But to make that happen, we need to act now. We need to show girls real career opportunities in STEM, create strong internship programs, develop mentoring and make career paths within companies more transparent.
Businesses also need to take a broader view of the very concept of team diversity. In complex technological industries, the quality of decisions depends to a significant extent on the ability to look at a problem from different perspectives. That is why I see bringing more women into engineering and management roles primarily as a matter of giving the industry access to a larger pool of strong professionals.
The resilience of the energy sector is shaped to a significant extent by the people who work in it: by their expertise, responsibility, ability to operate amid uncertainty and willingness to develop alongside technology. That is why one of the key tasks for the Ukrainian energy sector in the coming years will be to preserve the industry’s professional potential, develop strong teams and create opportunities for a new generation of specialists. The sector’s ability to continue developing will depend to a great extent on how successfully we can combine the experience of those already working in energy with new competencies and new people.
