Insights from Elisha Harris, Director
Elisha has responsibility for our Structural and Civil team and Defence HOTO team, as well as legal and financial operations within HK Solutions.
We sat down with Elisha and asked her questions about a wide range of topics, including Harris Kmon Solutions’ core values, supporting the engineering pipeline, female representation in a traditionally male-dominated industry, and inclusion in the workplace.
What is the biggest change you’ve seen within Harris Kmon Solutions?
The biggest one is obviously the growth, it's gone from Bill and I and now there's 45 of us. So that increases the diversity of knowledge and experience and background which I think is healthy, you need different perspectives, different outlooks.
Why is it important to you to support young professionals in the industry?
I think the reality is that when you come out as a graduate you know what you've been taught at Uni. But there is so much more to learn and it's such a steep learning curve particularly in those first few years.
There's a lot of detail, industry norms, products, that you would never have come across in Uni or if you have, you’ve probably only just touched on it. And if you don't have people coming through who are being taught the right way to do things, not just from a technical perspective but also from an integrity perspective, I think the whole industry suffers.
We already have a shortage of engineers. We need to train up the ones that have gone to the incredible effort of completing their studies and want to continue to learn.
We need to help develop people. Having more junior people as part of a team that supports each other is valuable. We all know different things. We all have different experiences.
You don't have to be one of the senior engineers to share your knowledge with other people. It can go both ways. We encourage people to ask questions and to push back if they don't think something's correct or right or even just to get more information as to why.
I think being challenged is helpful even for the senior people with a lot of experience.
One of Harris Kmon Solutions’ core values is flexibility. Why is this important?
Elisha Harris presenting at the Engineers Australia Northern Graduate Welcome event, 2023.
I’ve worked with people who were in my team that also worked part time. And it wasn't just for parental leave, it was people who wanted to study or people who had other interests or just other things to do for whatever reason, and that didn't make them any less valued in their contribution to the team. People can contribute in many different ways and it doesn't need to be on a full time basis to be an engaged valuable team member.
Having kids is not the only reason to have access to flexibility in your workplace. You could have it because you want to join a community organisation or you want to study and by making this sort of flexibility more normal, it has trickle through effects. I think it has benefits for everyone, on our physical and mental health, our family lives, our recreational lives, the whole lot.
What are your thoughts on female representation in a traditionally male dominated industry?
Obviously, women make up 50% of the population. It's crazy not to have representation from women within all fields of engineering.
The participation of women in engineering courses has stayed the same for many years. It just hasn't moved. I graduated over 25 years ago and have seen little change in that time. The other issue that we have is that people, including women, who do complete their university courses often end up working outside of the engineering field. So we have an issue getting women into and through those university courses, but then to lose them and not having them working in engineering roles compounds the issue. And if you are successful there, you have another hurdle if women want to start a family. There is a high degree of drop out at that point as well.
I can walk into meetings and I do see other female engineers, but I typically don't see any my age. That attrition throughout the entire course of the career is a real problem. And obviously these aren’t problems that affect women alone. But they affect women disproportionately more than they affect men.
What internal initiatives have you put into place that focus on inclusion in the workplace?
We have policies around inclusion and equity. This is a reflection of the way we already conduct ourselves and our businesses and our recruitment. I think just fundamentally by standing back and looking at what we're doing and looking at our employment, it's far more important to be able to demonstrate that in the reality of our company as opposed to on paper.
I think the engineering field really, really values experience. Being an older or semi-retired person isn't a barrier either because the experience that those people bring, you can't buy that. That's come from decades of working in an industry.
How has HKS provided career pathways to leadership positions?
Elisha Harris discussing the topic ‘Building the Territory's Future’ as a member of the panel at the 11th annual NT Major Projects Conference.
HKS overall has a relatively flat structure and leadership doesn't need to mean a line management role. There are project-based management roles for different projects, this is common for engineering consultancies.
In engineering you take different roles on different jobs and some of those can be leadership some can be as a team member. You don't need to be in a designated role to provide leadership however, you can lead through example or how you interact with your team.
I absolutely encourage that, ideas need to come from everywhere. It comes back to that diversity of thought. Different people will want different things.
It doesn't just need to be internally, it can be externally. We encourage people to get involved with their peak bodies. We do it by saying hey we think this is a really good idea and we pay for it, to encourage people to get out there.
You develop yourself by diversifying what you do and the people you interact with and growing your professional character.
In relation to internal promotion, we’ll look at the team and look at the opportunities within the team. There's got to be a willingness to take on a lead role. Someone being on parental leave doesn't preclude them from opportunities, and nor should it. Being part time doesn't preclude you from opportunities either.
You don't have to be the most technically experienced person to be the lead. What you need to be able to do is to manage the people and understand the big picture and provide support to your team. And that support doesn't always need to be technical.
