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Corporate Board Diversity
Companies understand that diverse boards help make better decisions and improve stakeholder engagement and create more creative environments. However, many companies are still struggling to achieve diversity in their boardrooms. A confluence of forces has been pushing boards towards greater diversity: activism and protests by women and people of color, such as the Black Lives Matter movement; pressure from shareholders and other market players; and legislation from the state.
However, despite these improvements however, the composition of many boards remains behind the overall population in the United States. According to a recent Spencer Stuart study, white people still hold 84 per cent of Fortune 500 board seats. Furthermore, the number of women and ethnic/racial minorities on the board has not grown significantly over the last five years.
As a result, a few institutions are beginning to increase the pressure on boards to promote diversity and to adopt policies that support it. For example, CalPERS, the $330 billion pension fund for California public employees has sent letters to 504 businesses in the Russell 3000 index with low levels of gender diversity on their boards.
To increase diversity in the boardroom To encourage diversity in the boardroom, companies must expand their search areas beyond traditional networks of executive colleagues and recruit outside consultants to find new candidates. They must also eliminate selection criteria and processes that have blocked board diversification in the past, and develop new best practices. They should also look into formal onboarding programs to help different directors become more comfortable to the board’s culture and workings.