Sir Philip considers executive post targets for females
The man charged with leading the review into equality in business is considering imposing tough targets, according to reports at the weekend.
The Sunday Times reported that Sir Philip Hampton believes FTSE 350 bosses may need to be told that women should occupy at least 25% of top executive posts with the potential to rise to as many as 35% of roles.
Sir Philip, who is also Chairman of the healthcare giant GSK, is due to publish his report in November. His report is also likely to highlight the importance of companies putting in place robust mapping and pipelining strategies to ensure female talent rises through the ranks.
The Sunday Times article follows research by three leading universities - Cranfield University, City University London and Queen Mary University of London - which discovered that just 5.6 per cent of executive directorships in the FTSE250 are filled by women.
Rachel Davis, Deputy CEO of Armstrong Craven, said: “Sir Philip is right to put the focus on ensuring the best female talent is able to secure the top roles on executive boards.
“At the moment, women are relatively well represented in non-executive positions, but there remains the need for a sea change in the number of women appointed to senior executive positions on the boards of FTSE 350 companies.
“In order to achieve this goal, businesses will need to ensure they have the best possible talent mapping and pipelining strategies in place to ensure they are able to recruit the right talent for now and the future.
“The number of women in senior roles in the boardroom remains shockingly low in comparison with the number of hugely talented females who could be brought through into senior board level roles.”
Sir Philip was appointed chair of the independent group charged with improving gender diversity on boards.
His work follows on from the Women on Boards Report by Lord Davies which set the target of 25 per cent of boards to be made up of women.
Rachel added: “We are working with a growing number of global businesses helping them to put in place effective talent mapping and pipelining strategies around gender diversity. They have taken the decision to be proactive rather than wait for Sir Philip’s report to be published later this year.”
