Company leaders in Ireland need to accelerate executive level gender balance to build upon on the reputational gains of recent progress.
Carol Andrews, co-chair of Balance for Better Business (B4BB), says that gender balance should be a strategic imperative for every business. Having recently published the group’s five-year strategy, she cites research showing gains for companies — from improved financial performance to better meeting customer needs — among the many benefits of gender balance at board and leadership level.
“Whatever their size or sector, gender balance should be a strategic imperative for every business,” said Carol Andrews of B4BB, an independent business-led review group examining gender balance in corporate boards and senior management in Ireland. “It is encouraging then to see the progress made by Irish organisations.”
Data published by B4BB earlier this year revealed that Ireland’s largest listed companies reached a milestone 40% female representation on company boards, a significant increase of 22% since 2018.
The number of women on individual company boards also continues to grow. More than 80% of ISEQ20 listed companies have three or more women on their board, while 60% of all listed companies have at least three women on their boards.
While this progress is laudable, there is still much work to do, in particular to accelerate change at senior leadership level and to make sure progress is consistent across every industry. The proportion of women on the leadership teams of the ISEQ20 has stalled at 27%, while the number of all-male leadership teams among listed companies stands at nearly 1 in 4 (24%).
“Of particular concern is the fact that women remain significantly underrepresented in key decision-making roles across both company boards and senior leadership,” Carl said. “There are only two female chairs and two female CEOs across all publicly listed companies in Ireland — a major shortfall which warrants urgent action across the business community.
“As highlighted by diversity advocates, ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t be it’. Prominent role models are crucial to encouraging change and inspiring the next generation of female decision-makers.”
The five-year strategy launched earlier this year by B4BB sets out an ambitious new programme to increase the number of women in key decision-making roles and other key focus areas. Setting ambitious targets for businesses is a critical part of this work.
“To accelerate change, we established a new target of 40% plus female representation across both company boards and leadership teams,” Carol said. “The purpose of this target is to encourage businesses to achieve a minimum 40% figure when setting gender balance goals and be ambitious in striving for progress on their gender balance journey.
“The 40% target is a significant figure, aligned with international norms on gender balance, which provides a key threshold for companies to realise the benefits of balanced leadership.”
To support businesses in their bid to attain these ambitious targets, B4BB’s new roadmap offers guidance on how organisations can advance their gender balance journey in a structured way.
Based on international research, this roadmap suggests structured steps across five key areas to equip organisations with the tools to accelerate progress at both board and leadership level.
These focus areas include making a plan and regularly measuring against targets, developing gender-balanced succession plans, and providing the right talent development and retention supports for talent to advance within an organisation.
In particular, developing succession plans that provide a strong pipeline of talent to senior leadership roles are critical to increasing the number of women in key decision-making roles such as CEO, Chair and CFO.
“By addressing the cultural barriers that prevent women advancing in organisations and providing concrete pathways to top positions we can enable sustainable and long-lasting change at the top of Irish businesses,” Carol said.
“With slower progress in sectors such as construction, retail and hospitality, over the coming months, we’ll be rolling out a series of roundtables led by industry leaders, which are focused on understanding obstacles to gender parity in these sectors and the steps we can take to overcome them.
“With gender pay gap reporting requirements set to include a wider range of companies next year and the EU’s landmark pay transparency directive quickly coming into view, it’s clear that companies will be under greater regulatory pressure to address diversity at leadership level and beyond.”
Along with, Aongus Hegarty, her co-chair at Balance for Better Business, Carol Andrews welcomes the fact that stronger attitudes on diversity and equity in the workplace are also gathering pace among investors and other key stakeholders.
“Failure to address DE&I issues is increasingly viewed as a serious reputational risk,” Carol said. “Given this conflagration of factors, firms cannot afford to be complacent. Fast and decisive action is necessary to ensure business keeps pace with evolving attitudes in society.
“At Balance for Better Business, we’ll continue to work closely with leaders across the country to ensure they take the right steps for success on their gender balance journey. By working together, we can enable sustainable change across the business community and achieve a more inclusive system of business leadership that truly reflects Irish society.”