It\u2019s encouraging to see that progress is being made in increasing diversity on corporate boards, especially when it comes to women directors.<\/p>\n
According to a recent\u00a0SpencerStuart<\/a> report<\/a>, as of the end of 2020 for the first time all S&P 500<\/a> boards had at least one woman in their ranks.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another encouraging fact: between 2010 and 2020 female representation among\u00a0new <\/u>S&P 500 directors grew from 21% to 47%.<\/p>\n However, we still have work to do to bring up the\u00a0total<\/u> number of women serving on boards.\u00a0\u00a0At the end of 2020, they represented 28% of the total S&P 500 board seats. That\u2019s an increase of just 2% from the prior year.<\/p>\n Clearly, women are making progress. But we still have a long way to go.<\/p>\n No progress for ethnic minorities<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Even more concerning is the fact that in 2020 ethnic minorities made no progress in getting appointed to new S&P 500 board seats, according to the same\u00a0report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ethnic minorities accounted for 22% of the 413 new independent directors that were appointed last year. And while that figure is significantly better than it was 10 years ago, it\u2019s actually down by 1% from 2019.<\/p>\n Ethnic breakdown<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n If we drill down by ethnic background we see that:<\/p>\n Limited opportunities<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The relatively small number of S&P 500 board openings (around 400) that become available each year are the windows of opportunity for companies to add diversity to their boards.<\/p>\n Here is the crux of the issue. Some companies claim they have a hard time finding qualified, diverse candidate for those 400 or so seats. At the same time, qualified individuals claim they have a hard time getting noticed by the companies who are looking for them.<\/p>\n Clearly, the problem is not a lack of candidates but a lack of ways to connect.<\/p>\n In my opinion, the traditional approaches need to be revisited by\u00a0both<\/u> companies and individuals. I\u2019d like to offer a few suggestions to each group.<\/p>\n ADVICE FOR COMPANIES<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n These tactics work. I have seen them being used very successfully by the boards on which I serve. Two of those boards just added four excellent directors (two women and three ethnic minorities) using these approaches. I know these recommendations are worthy of a board\u2019s consideration.<\/p>\n ADVICE FOR INDIVIDUALS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Diversity and inclusion at the top<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The number of minority individuals in this country is going to continue to increase.\u00a0\u00a0That makes it imperative for companies that are looking to thrive in a more diverse environment to have more diversity at the top, both in their leadership teams and their boards.<\/p>\n In my experience, I have found that diversity and inclusion are good for business and are the right thing to do. When you have a team of talented, diverse individuals operating in an inclusive environment, they deliver amazing results, often far and above what they even thought possible.<\/p>\n And isn\u2019t that the best definition of a great organization?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2021,"template":"","publication":[20],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralphdelavega.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralphdelavega.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralphdelavega.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralphdelavega.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralphdelavega.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralphdelavega.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication?post=2022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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