Women in arb - Sarah Marklove of bts Group

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WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND?
I worked in a few sectors before joining a consultancy firm as a project manager. That job included surveying and geotagging trees, providing bat surveys and so on. I became aware of bts Group – where I work now – through that role.

WHERE ARE YOU BASED?
I work from our head office in Needham Market, but I spend a lot of time out and about.

I’m responsible for an area that covers most of East Anglia, and I make sure to visit sites across the region.

WHAT MADE YOU PURSUE A CAREER IN ARBORICULTURE?
Having worked with trees at the consultancy business, I was already comfortable in the general environment. The move to arb was a new and welcome challenge.

I actually started in the commercial arb part of bts, which is a small part of what we do.

Through that I became aware of all this other stuff going on around me – the utility arb contracts – and I wanted to learn more.

I realised that there was this whole sector I knew nothing about, and I found it really interesting. So I moved over to that side of the business and worked my way up!

WHAT DOES YOUR DAY-TO-DAY WORK INVOLVE?
Liaising with my area managers to make sure we’re delivering our contractual and internal KPIs – monitoring the workload, making sure there are no obstacles in their way, that sort of thing.

I ensure my managers, supervisors, and arborists all have the resources, equipment and support they need to carry out their work safely.

I’m also liaising with my ‘opposite’. Each manager here has their equivalent at the DNO, who we work closely alongside.

READ MORE: Women in Arb: Gabriella Jardine of the RHS Garden Bridgewater shares her story

Site visits are an important part of the job. It’s vital our field staff see not just their area managers but senior management as well. Everyone at bts, right up to the MD, goes out on-site. You can’t allow yourself to become detached from the day-to-day realities of your staff, and you can’t ask them to do anything you wouldn’t do.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCE IN ARBORICULTURE?
Working with Chelmsford Borough Council to create a tender for their tree works – which were actually identified during a survey conducted by consultants at my last role!

WHAT WAS THE LAST JOB YOU WORKED ON?

There are lots of jobs going on at the same time across the areas I manage, but a challenging recent one was an A12 road closure. It was a night-time job dealing with trees affecting a transformer.

This kind of job takes a lot of liaising with clients, local authorities, and the people who might be affected by a planned outage. This particular transformer supplies a nursing home, so we arranged for it to be supplied via generator as we worked.

The job had to be done at night because of the road closure, but what made it particularly challenging was the volume of work alongside the time restraints – not just because we needed to allow the road to reopen, but because residential customers were affected by the planned outage.

WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT IN THE INDUSTRY?

Working my way up to a senior management role in such a male-dominated industry.

I started at bts coming on ten years ago. From the start, I put myself forward for all the courses I could – and I listened and learnt from those around me. Whenever opportunity arose to progress within the business, I took it.

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU HAVE LEARNED DURING YOUR TIME IN THE INDUSTRY?
The importance of safety. Safety is our number one priority. Everything else comes second.

When you consider the work that our cutters do every day – working at height, with a chainsaw, near high voltages … the more you learn, the more you appreciate the skill it takes, and the risk mitigation that needs to be in place for each of those factors.

There’s also the more general appreciation of how the country’s utilities network functions. It takes a lot of people working very hard to keep everything connected!

WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE OF BEING A WOMAN IN A MALE-DOMINATED INDUSTRY BEEN? WHAT KIND OF OBSTACLES HAVE YOU FACED/OVERCOME TO GET TO A SENIOR ROLE?
Sexism isn’t always overt. There’s a lot of ingrained doubt of women’s competence. It took me longer to gain a bit of respect – for people to really grasp that, yes, I do understand what I’m talking about.

In the early days, there was a bit of a boys’ club culture. The managers would go out and I wouldn’t be invited, even though I was a manager, because I was a girl. It was the lads going out, you know? That’s not the case now, happily!

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO ENCOURAGE MORE WOMEN INTO THE SECTOR?
More publicity. Series like this one are a great idea. Hopefully we’ll also see more representation in non-trade media, to get the attention of women and girls who haven’t even thought about it yet.

It’s tough, because it is still a very male-dominated field, and women starting out are unlikely to have many female colleagues. But as we gradually shift, it’s going to be easier for women to start, which means it won’t be as intimidating for the next generation … it can be a virtuous circle.

Within businesses, it’s good to have senior management who actively want more women in the industry – that’s one of the good things about bts. We need more women in arb because, well, they’re so good!

HOW IMPORTANT IS A GOOD WORK-LIFE BALANCE WHEN WORKING IN THE INDUSTRY?
Extremely. You need to leave work at work, where possible. That’s why I value the drive home. It’s a bit of time to switch mindsets and park the stress of the day.

Obviously, my job can’t be a simple nine-to-five – if someone needs me, they can get hold of me. But we all work hard to respect each other’s boundaries. Nobody’s getting a call at home unless it’s really needed.

Maintaining the balance was trickier during Covid lockdowns. I kept working, as infrastructure maintenance is a ‘key’ sector, so at some points I was working full-time from home while my daughter had remote school. Sometimes you’d work to fit everything in and suddenly realise it was 9 pm. But the team made the best of a bad situation, checking in on WhatsApp and keeping an eye on each other. It’s good to know your colleagues have your back.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING THE SECTOR AT THE MOMENT IN YOUR VIEW?

Changing to electrical equipment. In arb you’ve got to consider not only vehicles (by 2030), but chippers and chainsaws too. It’s a double challenge: you’ve got the logistics of it, and the fact that the technology is still catching up in some ways.

Biosecurity concerns also loom large – Avian Flu, ash dieback, Phytophthora ramorum … each comes with its own set of challenges and even (in the case of ash dieback, especially) physical danger to arb workers. Essentially, it means we all have a lot more to be aware of.

WHAT GIVES YOU JOB SATISFACTION ABOUT CARRYING OUT YOUR ROLE?
It’s the knowledge that you’ve done a good job, and everyone’s gone home safe. The power lines are clear, the clients are happy, the team is happy!

From your perspective, do you see any shift in attitudes in arb? Is it becoming more inclusive for women?

Yes, although we’re not all the way there. The very senior roles in lots of industries are still almost exclusively men. They haven’t left yet! But I’ve seen a lot more women rising in the ranks of our industry and connected sectors.

bts Group is a utility arboriculture firm. The majority of its work is vegetation management for distribution network operators (DNOs) – keeping branches away from powerlines, dealing with trees that have fallen and damaged the network, and so on.