Gladys Woods is a CCF NSW Board member, CCF National Board member, and Haslin’s General Manager – Corporate Governance / HR.
She’s also a founding member of the Women in Civil Program.
In her own words, Gladys says she’s “been in the industry a long time”, and one of the main reasons she has persisted is the people.
“They’re amazing, talented people.
“I think civil contractors carry the country on their shoulders.
“We employ people, we train people, we build infrastructure that is essential for delivering a good quality of life: the clean water, the safe roads, the trains, the metro stations, the power, the sewerage.
“And I think we’re a bit overlooked, I think we’re the quiet achievers of the country,” she says.
Speaking of her role on the CCF NSW Board, Gladys says the perspective she brings is an uncommon one in this industry.
“I bring Haslin’s experience. I’ve been involved with Haslin for 35 years.
“And I bring the diversity of being a female in the industry,” Gladys says noting civil construction is strongly male-dominated.
Expanding on what she means by Haslin’s experience, Gladys emphasises the difference in specialisation and scope of each civil construction company.
“Bringing Haslin to that table can offer a fairly unique perspective given that we work across rail, water, power, roads, transport, and public domain projects.
“Each civil business has a different mix of sectors,” she says.
That diversity being represented on Board is very important to Gladys.
“The range of businesses, types of businesses, and size of businesses represented on the CCF board is massive.
“You get an opportunity to swap histories and to swap ideas of how people are managing things within their own business and reacting to shocks in the economy and in the flow of work from government.”
Particular to Gladys’ experience at Haslin is its organic growth from a very small team in the beginning to its current size today.
“I’ve taken on, maybe, a dozen different roles throughout the time as the business grew and the needs changed.
“Early in the piece, I was wearing half a dozen hats, HSEQ, HR, IT, marketing, payroll, finance and I just had to learn it.
“The skill set I needed has changed over time and it’s forced me to get out of my comfort zone and go and learn new skills, do courses, and to equip myself to face the challenges that a growing business faced.”
Gladys says being on the Board is a rewarding experience and there are parallels to being a CCF member.
“You have the camaraderie of being in a room with a group of people who are all dealing with the same thing and you can bounce off each other and learn.
“For me, it’s been a great learning experience, the interaction with the other Board members.”
Gladys encourages people to join CCF NSW for three key reasons: assistance, networking, and recognition.
“I think the reason I like to give back at this point is, in the first 10 years of our business, I would have been lost without the CCF.
“I called them all the time.
“When I meet other contractors, I say you get this support just with your membership.
“The second thing would be networking, the opportunity to network with other civil contractors.
“I think those two benefits are huge.
“Another great thing about the CCF is that it is a forum where contractors can nominate their projects and people for awards and get recognition.
“I feel that’s a really important pillar of what the CCF does,” she says.