Women told to empower others

 By Memo Hauke
AIR Niugini women employees have been told that they can inspire, motivate and empower other people in their work.
Emma Waiwai, a pioneer national female engineer, was chief guest at a “Women in Leadership and Emerging Leadership” lunch in Port Moresby last Friday attended by 40 female employees from different departments in the company.
She related her 26 years of service in the aviation industry, women’s roles and gender equality in the workplace.
“All of us have the capability and capacity to be an inspiration, to motivate and to empower other people in the work field,” she said.
“For us women, and especially those who are parents, whether you realise it or not, it happens first at home where our children will always look up to us. By default, whether we like it or not, we have to be an inspiration, we have to empower our children.”
She said it applied to the workplace as well.
The lunch was one of the initiatives by chief executive officer Simon Foo to promote gender equality in the company.
Foo said the company was in a very highly technical and regulated business which valued the contribution of its female employees based on their performance and competency.
“One of the core fundamentals of the company is to make sure its employees are well trained to operate in the modern industry in PNG and to serve the country,” Foo said.
He said Air Niugini focused on three major aspects of the company.
First is the value enhancement programme which takes care of how they do business and how to manage cost.
Second is the customer care committee which takes care of customers and ensures they respond to customers quickly.
“But the big one is the culture change committee – which means we take a hard look at how we run as a business, why we do certain things and why we have to be proud of our history and what is our way forward,” he said.
“So one of the ways for us is to make sure our women leaders are part of our programme and be part of our thinking that they are going to move ahead with us. We make sure the company takes care of you and we take care the company.”