British firms are being asked to boost the number of women on their boards by measuring diversity. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has said that the UK Corporate Governance Code be revised so that listed companies are required to report on diversity within their company on a "comply or explain basis". As part of the recommendation to Lord Davies, who is carrying out a government review on the lack of female directors, businesses would have to report their progress against internally-set targets. Any targets must reflect a company's circumstances so a business with a large number of female employees would have to set a higher target of diversity on their board while a firm with only a handful of female employees would have a lower target. Helen Alexander, CBI president, said that more needs to be done to encourage women into board room positions as females still remain underrepresented despite accounting for over half of university graduates. She said: "We need to see more women progressing through the ranks and do more to keep them moving along the career pipeline into the top jobs." Ms Alexander highlighted the point that initiatives such as flexible working, mentoring and networking has helped more female employees reach board room level but said that better management is needed to help women progress further. With these changes, businesses may require the advice of performance improvement consulting experts to help their organisation learn more sophisticated talent management techniques in order to deliver world-class solutions. Other CBI recommendations for improving boardroom diversity include schemes such as having company chairmen act as mentors and advocates to female board candidates. Board-level appointments should also be made more transparent and women should receive greater support from flexible working policies when they experience natural breaks in their careers such as pregnancy. Meanwhile, there was good news for female employees as research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that the pay gap between men and women has narrowed by almost one per cent to 15.5 per cent. An ONS report found that the report the closing in gender pay gap was a result of women getting bigger pay increases in 2010 in comparison to previous years. ONS statistician Mark Williams said: "This year's results continue the pattern we've seen in recent years of the gender pay gap tending to get narrower." The study discovered that there was a 2.2 per cent increase in women's average hourly pay to £13.73, while men's wages rose by 1.1 per cent to £16.25. About the Author: Himsworth Consultancy is a leading management consultancy firm of senior business and consultancy professionals that specialise in improving corporate and operational performance, delivering world-class customer service improvements and offering alternatives to business and functional outsourcing. Visit http://www.himsworthconsultancy.com/ for more information. |
business >