The Minister for Women and Equalities launched the Women on Boards report at EY on 5 November. This report, sponsored by the Financial Reporting Council, the Government Equalities Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, monitors whether companies have complied with changes to the UK’s Corporate Governance Code (known as the Code).
The report by Cranfield University shows progress is being made in the FTSE 100 companies with 85% having a clear policy on boardroom diversity in comparison to 65% last year.
The report also highlighted that more needs to be done to improve the figure of 38% of companies who had addressed diversity in their board evaluation process, and out of 98% of companies who reported on succession planning, only 32% specified gender. However, more than half, 52% of companies, demonstrated clear policies or measures aimed at increasing the number of women in senior management.
In listed companies numbered 101 to 201, figures were lower than the FTSE 100 but still higher than a sample taken last year. Fifty-six per cent of companies had stated a clear policy on boardroom diversity, yet just 18% of companies demonstrated clear policies or measures aimed at increasing the number of women in senior management.
The government would like to see every company in the FTSE 100 addressing every point of the new code in their reporting.
Improving these figures will go a long way to building a more consistent pipeline of female talent to the boardroom.
The 2015 Lord Davies ‘Women on boards’ annual update and Cranfield ‘Female FTSE 2015’ report will be launched in March 2015. See the Lord Davies 2014 annual review.
Paul Gray is an entrepreneur and digital publisher who creates online publications focused on solving problems, delivering news, and providing platforms for informed comment and debate. He is associated with HRZone and has built businesses in the HR and professional publishing sector. His work emphasizes creating industry-specific content platforms.
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