09.12.2025
On December 10, the Energy Club forum “THE ENERGY OF WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP: Women Holding Ukraine’s Energy Front” will take place in Kyiv. This event is the first to systematically highlight the contribution of women to the resilience of the energy sector during the full-scale war.
Key speakers will share anti-crisis solutions, team management practices under constant risk, and their vision for the future reconstruction of the industry.
One of these leaders will be Iryna Tsurkan, HRD of the EDS Engineering and Investment Group.
At the Energy Club forum, she will discuss how the war has changed the face of the energy sector and the people rebuilding it. Her experience offers a unique inside look at how the energy sector functions during wartime: where every personnel decision, every review of processes or safety issues determines how quickly the industry can adapt, recover, and meet the country’s critical needs.
In an interview with the Energy Club media department, Iryna Tsurkan explained why HR has turned into an outpost of operational resilience today, how the company survives amidst a total shortage of technical personnel, what tools actually save people from burnout “in the field,” and why women are becoming the key personnel reserve for the energy sector of the future.
— Ms. Iryna, you are the HRD at an engineering and investment group. Before the war, your work was about recruiting and development. Today, when energy has become target number one, how has the very essence of your profession changed? Do you feel that HR in the energy sector has now turned into a “combat psychologist” and personnel safety crisis manager function?
— Until 2022, we were a function of growth and engagement. Today, HR in the energy sector has turned into an outpost of operational resilience and protection of human capital.
You named this role absolutely correctly—a crisis manager for safety. Our teams work under constant threat. Our key task is to make safety culture not just a rule, but an instinct in today’s conditions.
This requires HR to integrate psychological support and physical safety protocols into every workflow. And a “combat psychologist” is the only function that can maintain the balance between high productivity (we need to rebuild quickly) and human fatigue (the war continues).
Today, success is measured not only by filled vacancies but also by the reduction in the burnout level of people working in the company. The essence of the profession has changed: We are the front office of resilience.
— Today, everyone is talking about a catastrophic shortage of qualified technical personnel—engineers, blue-collar professionals. For EDS, this is the main resource. What is your survival strategy in these conditions? Where do you find people to implement investment projects when a significant part of specialists has been mobilized or has left the country? Do you have to resort to radical retraining?
— Yes, indeed, our biggest challenge, our risk number one, is the catastrophic shortage of qualified engineers, construction workers, and blue-collar specialists. A significant part of specialists has been mobilized or has left. We cannot afford to simply wait for the labor market to recover.
Our survival strategy is based on clear principles that we are actively implementing:
Teaching our own: This means radical, accelerated retraining. We identify talented employees with high potential (our internal reserve) and invest all resources in their development of practical knowledge and skills.
New sources of personnel: We are actively working with several non-traditional but critically important reserves:
Students and graduates: Developing cooperation with technical educational institutions.
Women in engineering: Attracting and training female engineers and designers.
Veterans: Developing adaptation and professional training programs for veterans returning to civilian life who need new qualifications. Their risk management experience and teamwork are invaluable.
Internal migration: Working with specialists from temporarily occupied or affected regions, helping them with relocation and rapid integration into work at new facilities.
— Your teams often work “in the field,” restoring or building facilities in extreme conditions. In the fourth year of the great war, people are physically and emotionally exhausted. What non-financial motivation and psychological support tools proved to be the most effective in your practice to keep people from burning out and maintain team productivity?
— Yes, our teams are our heroes working “in the field.” Money won’t keep them if they feel the company doesn’t care about them. Our main investment is in their physical and emotional recovery.
The most effective tools for non-financial motivation:
Transparency and Clarity (“You are needed!”): In extreme conditions, what is needed most is absolute clarity and a sense of value. We introduced a regular “1-on-1” service and semi-annual performance reviews. This gives a person confidence: management sees your work, your contribution is evaluated fairly, and you are not alone in your challenges. This reduces anxiety.
Communicating the Mission (“Working for the country”): We constantly communicate not only about problems but also about successful cases and results of creating or restoring energy facilities.
Flexibility and Recovery: We provide flexible schedules and extra days off for those working directly at construction sites.
Recognition and Gratitude: We launched an internal program where managers can publicly recognize the achievements of line staff whose work ensured continuity. This is simple but extremely important human recognition.
— The second panel of the forum is dedicated to recovery and modernization strategies. The EDS Investment Group looks into the future. Do you already see a need for new competencies for the “green transition,” Smart Grid, and decentralization? Is our education system ready to provide such specialists, or will business have to create its own academies?
— Our investment plans: the reconstruction must be better than what was there before. We must not just patch holes but build a new, decentralized energy system resilient to threats. This requires absolutely new, hybrid competencies.
Challenge: The need for universal engineers. We need a specialist who understands, for example, not only the physics of lines and transformers but also IT, automation, and cybersecurity. Why? Because we are building Smart Grids and moving towards decentralization. A modern energy engineer is partly a highly qualified programmer.
Education: Unfortunately, the state education system cannot give us these specialists in the required quantity and with the required speed. The pace of technological change is striking. Education needs help and business involvement. We are always ready for cooperation.
Own Corporate Academy: Business will have to take responsibility for training upon itself. We are investing in creating our own corporate learning systems and a knowledge base (with videos/instructions) for self-training of line personnel.
— Engineering and construction of energy facilities are traditionally considered very “male” spheres. As a female top manager leading the HR function in such an environment, do you see changes? Are women becoming engineers and designers more often? And why, in your opinion, is the topic of female leadership relevant right now, in December 2025?
— As a woman leading the HR function in a “male” environment, I see tectonic changes. This is not just a trend; it is a strategic response to the personnel shortage.
Women are increasingly going into design, engineering analysis, payroll management, and HR analytics. They bring high systemic thinking, attention to detail, and multitasking, which is critical for complex engineering projects requiring precise calculations.
Why the topic of leadership is important in December 2025:
Women are our critical personnel reserve.
Female leaders bring empathy, team orientation, and flexibility to the culture, which are necessary for managing exhausted teams and maintaining psychological health.
It is proven that gender-balanced teams are more innovative and make better decisions. For rebuilding the energy sector, which must be technological, this diversity of views is the key to success.
I want to end not with a forecast, but with a commitment. HR today is not a support unit; it is a strategic partner in reconstruction. We have taken responsibility for the safety, resilience, and qualification of the people who are the life force of the energy sector.
Iryna Tsurkan emphasizes: in the most difficult times, it is human capital that becomes the decisive resource. The EDS experience proves that when business and society put the person at the center, even in war conditions, an acute shortage of personnel turns into opportunities for inclusion, rapid learning, and new female leadership.
Форум “ЕНЕРГІЯ ЖІНОЧОГО ЛІДЕРСТВА: жінки, що тримають енергетичний фронт України”
