Only one in five corporate board members in the S&P 100 are women and just 15.6% of all board seats in the United States are held by women. In other words, there is very little diversity in corporate board rooms.
Today, WomenCorporateDirectors and the WomenCorporateDirectors Global Institute released a 14-point roadmap to improve diversity in corporate boardrooms. These steps are intended to actually be used by stakeholders to increase the number of women on boards in the near future.
You can find the full report along with details about each point on the roadmap by reading the WomenCorporateDirectors press release. Following are highlights from the 14 points:
- Make board succession a top priority.
- Encourage nominating committees to require that director slates include diverse candidates.
- Partner with CEOs to champion the diverse candidates in their pipelines and networks.
- Connect diverse director candidates with board sponsors who can influence their board placement, especially for the candidate’s first appointment.
- Candidly assess current directors and their contribution to governance each year.
- Instill a process to review multiple criteria for new board members.
- Look beyond CEOs and “well-rounded” directors for candidates with specific skills that can contribute directly to the strategic needs of the business.
- Identify how younger candidates can add fresh thinking to the boardroom
- Governance committee members can mentor first-term board members on director effectiveness, board culture, and priorities.
- Assure the “cultural fit” of a candidate with the board and the company.
- Commit to director education, staying current with all regulatory and governance developments.
- Identify a wide range of board opportunities and sponsor qualified women for them.
- Promote diversity at the board level by speaking at leadership, governance, and industry organizations and conferences.
- Use the Global Nominating Commission’s web resource.
WomenCorporateDirectors also released a Best Practices for Director Selection and Development ebook where you can get more information.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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This is certainly an interesting take on increasing the number of women in the boardroom, but all 14 points here depend completely on the corporation deciding to make changes itself.
Of course, these are great suggestions for corporations to adopt, but left to their own devices, I doubt they would due to a lack of incentive. This is why I like the Thirty Percent Coalition’s initiative to get investors involved in the conversation. (S)he who holds the purse strings… http://wp.me/p2Eern-cy