How can HR bring diversity to the board?

Citation

Pitcher, H. (2012), "How can HR bring diversity to the board?", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 11 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2012.37211daa.006

How can HR bring diversity to the board?

Article Type: Q&A From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 11, Issue 4

Leading industry experts answer your strategic questions

Helen PitcherCEO and Chairman of IDDAS.

Last year’s Davies report in the UK pushed the much debated topic of women in the boardroom into the spotlight again, with subsequent review reports keeping a close eye on its impact. The independent review report, “Women on Boards” (Davies, 2011), recommends that companies set targets to ensure talented women get into top jobs in companies in the UK. Although welcomed, it is easy to say “not good enough,” and so on this basis I would argue that there are some significant deficiencies related to the report’s targets. However, I do agree that imposing quotas is not the right approach and so what is encouraging is that over the last year a momentum has been established and a systemic flow has now started.

Since the report, figures have shown that there has been slow but steady progress as increasing numbers of businesses are casting their nets more widely and opening their doors to a wave of board capable women, many of whom had been waiting in the wings for some time. This is a positive sign that recruiters are starting to look beyond their traditional sources.

But looking forward, the interesting “second stage” dilemmas for me focus on how we ensure there are a continuous flow of women ready to take their places on boards not simply as “tokens,” but as the capable and respected next generation of senior level females. And more pertinently, where will these women emerge from?

This is where HR comes in

These points lead me to the HR community, which holds two very important stakes here. First, as the designers and custodians of the corporate career flows of women, and second as a source of board level women itself.

On the corporate career ladder process, the “feed stock” for board level women is the executive committee and the Davies (2011) report recognized this with an encouragement for CEOs to set their own target for women on their executive teams. HR professionals play a pivotal role here in the continued development of women – they can position board attainment as a commonplace aspiration and map out the steps that must be taken to help women successfully make their way there. By understanding these steps, the HR community can better prepare women through early planning and realistic and practical support to help ensure that pool of board capable females is being grown and nurtured.

HR a major potential pool

The HR profession itself provides a major pool of potential board level women, representing the largest group of senior women in the UK business environment. Very few professions provide such an early association or exposure to the senior team of an organization. That this is not translating easily into board level representation is baffling and frustrating. Clearly, there is a perception issue for HR as a profession, which must be addressed.

Since the downturn, there have been ongoing questions around the future of work, and an overall recognition that “people issues” must be at the top of the agenda – whether this is focused on board level behavior or right throughout the company. These questions provide HR with the opportunity to position itself as the strategically aware, financially astute and innovative thinking individuals who can facilitate their business colleagues into a future space and provide solutions to people issues. By doing this, the perception issues will be firmly challenged.

A 2011 IDDAS sponsored research report by David Creelman and Andrew Lambert, “The Board and HR,” (Creelman and Lambert, 2011) investigated some of these very issues and why HR is often sidelined. One of the questions asked by the report was why when organizational leaders so often declare employees to be their most important asset, do their boards rarely seem to include anyone with deep professional knowledge of people management practices and organizational development.

Grasping the issues

The task in hand is for the HR profession to grasp these issues and claim a strategic leadership space. By doing so, it will also provide a ready source of board level women who can pick up the mantel of the next generation.

As the speed and pace towards the Lord Davies target of 25 percent women by 2015 gathers pace, the challenges for the female HR community will be both corporate and personal and require a strategic and focused response.

Here I have merely posed the questions, but as a community we need to look at ourselves and start mapping our own progress towards these goals to show how HR can bring diversity to the board.

About the author

Helen Pitcher is CEO and Chairman of IDDAS. Her career spans 30 years in both the business world and the consulting sector. At the age of 27 she was appointed as board director for a division of Grand Metropolitan. In her subsequent consulting career, she became CEO of CEDAR, which she built into one of the best-regarded consultancies in the human capital world. Pitcher is a panel member of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, member of the Selection Panel and chairman of the Ethics and Bribe Committee for Queen’s Counsel, chairman of KidsOut and a trustee and fundraiser for several other charities. She has a Law degree and an MA, and is an APECS accredited coach and qualified psychometric assessor. She is a fellow of the IOD, CIPD and RSA. Helen Pitcher can be contacted at: helenp@iddas.com