Evolving Opportunities for Women at Nutrien

When Sabrina Pethick entered the potash industry 15 years ago, she never envisioned a path to her current role as a Senior Maintenance Planner at Nutrien’s Vanscoy operation.

“I got a foot in the door in an administrative role covering a maternity leave,” says Sabrina. “My expectation was to get by for the year to figure out what I was going to do next. But I got familiar with SAP, work orders, parts, maintenance plans, reliability conversations. I started to see there were more opportunities inside the company. I was like: ‘I can do this…’”

Sabrina’s story was part of the conversation as she moderated a panel of Nutrien team leaders at this year’s Women in Non-traditional Environments and Roles – Potash Conference in Saskatoon. The event, organized by the WiNTER K group, attracted 170 employees to discuss the opportunities and challenges for women in non-traditional environments and roles.

Sabrina’s career development is an example of how talent, determination, innovative leadership and allyship all have a role in changing workplace cultures.

From her initial administrative role, Sabrina moved into positions that exposed her to a variety of department functions. While working in mine maintenance, she expressed to a supervisor that she wanted to pursue a maintenance planning position – even though it was a role traditionally filled by red-seal tradespeople.

Ryan Fairbrother, a Mill Maintenance Superintendent at the time and now Director of Maintenance and Reliability in potash, recognized Pethick’s potential and advocated for her to be considered for more challenging opportunities.

“I saw – and I think what a lot of people see in Sabrina – is that she had capabilities beyond an administrative role,” says Ryan, also an event attendee. “Keeping her in there wasn't going to be the best for Nutrien and it wasn't going to be the best for Sabrina. She is a phenomenal people leader. The technical skills that Sabrina brings in maintenance planning, our SAP system, IT systems, is huge. I believed that Sabrina would be able to extract the specific trade knowledge she needed from the tradespeople themselves.”

Sabrina reflected on the changing culture in the industry and at Nutrien. When she joined the company, there were few women working at site outside of administrative roles. Today, site teams are more inclusive with women filling leadership positions and working in the trades on the floor.

“That alone is a huge change,” she says.

The Next Steps

One of the most visible changes in recent years is improved access to personal protective equipment (PPE), which was often unavailable in proper sizes for female employees. Through the work of a dedicated group of employees, women now have access to proper-fitting safety equipment.

“There's something frustrating and isolating when you come to work and you don't have the proper PPE or there isn't your size of gloves,” says Lyndsay Stobbs, Mine Maintenance Supervisor at the Allan potash facility. “You feel like, ‘Am I really important here?’ Now anybody who needs smaller sizes or different sizes is able to get them. There is something powerful in that – having it here and knowing you belong.”

Elora McLeod, Mill Electrical General Foreperson at Allan, feels Nutrien has moved forward but that the work needs to continue to attract the next generation of women to the potash business.

“We have some women at our sites now, which is great, but we haven't seen those numbers dramatically increase,” says Elora. “What got us here won't necessarily get that next group of people here. So how do we get out into the schools more and let people know earlier about this as a career choice? We are doing things to make it safer and less physically demanding to do some of the jobs here. Some of that is just awareness and we have to start earlier.”

These are lessons Nutrien will take forward as it explores new ways to engage women currently in the company, to attract younger females considering their career options, and to encourage innovation and allyship across the entire employee base.

“Employees brought to the fore a number of really key issues that I don't think we would have ever really been aware of – like the PPE,” says Aaron Fornwald, Vice President of Human Resources, NPKCC. “Their work has led to having that dialogue and keeping it at the front of our minds. Now we have to carry on without losing sight of this, ensuring women have a voice.”