Gender balance at board level is better business

Sometimes change happens slowly, and then fast. In 2012 the European Commission proposed a directive designed to improve the gender balance in non-executive directors of listed companies. It only took until June of this year for political agreement on it to be reached.

At issue was the fact that, despite 60 per cent of university graduates being women, women are underrepresented in high-level positions, including corporate boards, and progress is glacial.

The directive sets a target for EU companies listed on the EU stock exchanges to have 40 per cent of the underrepresented sex among non-executive directors and 33 per cent among all directors.

It ensures that gender balance in corporate boards of listed companies is sought across the EU, while allowing for flexibility for member states that have adopted “equally effective” measures.

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In July the National Women’s Council (NWC) called on the Government to support legislation to introduce gender quotas for boards in Ireland.

Its ‘Balance the Odds’ campaign sees the increase in women’s representation on corporate boards as a critical issue for women’s equality. It supports a proposed Private Members’ Bill that includes a 33 per cent quota for women on boards, rising to 40 % after three years, and introduces possible sanctions for companies that fail to comply with the gender quota.

Ireland is one of the few EU countries that has targets rather than quotas. Even without quotas there has been progress, according to Gillian Harford, country executive of the 30% Club in Ireland.

The business-led initiative aims to boost female representation to at least a third at board and C-Suite level in the world’s biggest companies.

“In 2015 when we launched in Ireland, we had 12 per cent of ISEQ companies, now it’s 31 per cent,” says Harford.

“That doesn’t mean our work is finished but we are doing well. We now have almost 300 organisations behind us, many of which are very large organisations covering a lot of employees.”

While the percentage of women on ISEQ-20 boards has more than doubled, the fact that there are only 20 companies in the index means such progress could easily be reversed with just a few changes in personnel.

The hope is that the small- and medium-sized businesses embrace the need for female representation at top level too.

“The biggest step has been the focus on collecting data at a national level as we are seeing through the CSO, which now looks at gender balance,” she says.

The government’s Balance for Better Business, an independent review group, is also helping to move the dial.

Having women on boards is great but it’s the C-suite that produces “pipeline”, says Harford, who adds that the work of initiatives such as Women in Finance and Gender Pay Gap reporting “are all helping to drive more focus and more action”.

There is progress too in the fact that Harford and her 30% Club colleagues are now rarely asked to make the business case for gender balance. “It used to be that the first question we were always asked. That no longer happens because now organisations understand the business case,” she says.

Companies no longer see gender balance only in terms of talent acquisition and retention strategies either, but in terms of benefits for everything from new product development to new markets, she continues.

The barriers now are “less about pipeline and more about career pathing. It’s about encouraging young women into higher value roles from the outset,” she says.

“The rubber really hits the road when you have diversity in roles of influence because that’s where the change really comes from.”

Getting more women into leadership is something Skillnet Ireland, the national agency for workforce learning, is proactive about.

“Skillnet Ireland believes in creating a gender balance at leadership level from the top down. This is evidenced by the number of females that hold leadership roles within the organisation, with 59 per cent of Skillnet business network managers - representing a diverse range of sectors and regions - being female. In addition, 42 per cent of the Skillnet Ireland board are female, which is significantly higher than the national average of 31 per cent,” says Tracey Donnery, director of policy and communications at Skillnet Ireland.

The agency also focuses on leadership development for women through its networks. In the STEM sector its networks support women progressing to leadership positions and retaining female talent, particularly in technology, where there are significant skills shortages.

The Digital Women’s Executive Leadership Programme from ITAG Skillnet, which is for high-potential women in middle and senior management in STEM sectors, is designed to encourage and increase women technologists’ visibility in the ICT sector.

In financial services the IFS Skillnet points to a report by Financial Services Ireland entitled ‘Financial Services in Ireland – Skills of the Future’, which highlights the need for greater gender diversity within that sector.

“The report found that fostering and harnessing the talent and experience of all women in financial services is crucial in developing a strong pipeline of talent. Its publication led to the development of Ireland’s Women in Finance charter, which is an industry-led, government-supported measure to encourage gender diversity in the financial services industry in Ireland,” says Donnery.

In addition, the IFS Skillnet network offers a series of women in leadership programmes such as the Advancing Women programme, which starts next month. “The course is designed for women across all sectors who seek to improve their leadership skills. It explores key leadership competencies from the female perspective and a practical focus ensures that participants can apply the learnings to their individual situation,” she says.