Partner Article

Getting board of quotas

Recent months have seen the debate about equal representation on executive boards become a hot topic. While our workforces are becoming more diverse, for some reason the top level still seems to be dominated by men. Many discussions, reports, whitepapers and campaigns have tried to get to the bottom of this ongoing challenge, but few have been successful in initiating real change.

The EU’s initial proposal to resolve this issue was to set quotas for female board members, of around 40 per cent. This was hailed by some as the only approach to achieving the desired result – executive boards that better reflect the make up of the modern workforce. However most people, me being one of them, didn’t agree.

Whilst there is research to show that businesses with more diverse boards do perform better, quotas are not the way forward. This move would have only served as window dressing, instead of addressing the real issues.

In order to have boards that have a greater female representation, we need to address diversity in the earlier stages of people’s careers. In fact, engaging with people before they start their careers, to provide them with the best opportunities. There are a number of industries that are still dominated by men, so quotas alone would not have any value. If there are no women in a business, how can they become board members?

Thankfully sanity was restored and the EU’s new approach was more target-based and I agree with this.

What we should be focusing on is the provision of the best training, support, networking and other professional opportunities to allow all ambitious and talented business people to rise to board level. This should happen regardless of gender, educational background or any other factor.

The issue of equal representation won’t go away any time soon, but there are steps that business leaders can take to make real changes. 2012 seems to be have been the year for talking about this issue, so 2013 needs to be the year for tackling it.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Darrell Matthews .