Board Diversity: Challenges, Strategies, and Recommendations Report

This report delves into the crucial role of diversity in corporate boardrooms, emphasizing its impact on decision-making, financial performance, and innovation. It highlights the benefits of diverse boards, including enhanced discussions and the ability to address complex issues in a rapidly changing business environment. The report identifies challenges such as lack of acceptance, recruitment biases, and the absence of diverse role models. It proposes specific objectives and strategies to achieve diversity, such as developing inclusive policies, expanding recruitment criteria, and promoting an open attitude towards diversity within organizations. The report stresses the importance of setting targets, ensuring transparency, and holding management accountable for fostering diversity. Recommendations include mandatory inclusion of females and minority communities, along with a commitment to diversify the board's composition to reflect a balance of gender, ethnicity, age, and experience. The report concludes that commitment and leadership are essential for effectively implementing diversity in corporate governance.

DIVERSITY IN BOARDS

DIVERSITY IN BOARDS
Diversity in boardrooms can;
 Enhance decision-making
 Drive more wide-ranging and probing
discussions
 Assist removing the blind spots
 Improves financial performance,
reputation, decision- making quality &
innovation ability

CONTD..
 Possess in-depth understanding of the
stakeholders of organization
 Globalization, speedy advancement of
technology, increasing need for risk
management & varying demographics
of employees make businesses much
more complex and require boards to
expand their composition

FORTUNE 100 TOTAL BOARD SEATS BY GENDER AND MINORITY STATUS

FORTUNE 100 TOTAL BOARD SEATS BY GENDER AND MINORITY STATUS

HOW TO BRING DIVERSITY IN BOARD
 In TAPP, there are no females in Board and only
5% females work as senior managers
 Implementing diversity in the Board is essential
for board of the organization to improve their
perception
 Reasons that drive the need for diversity in board
members is that the decisions of diverse board are
highly effective (Myatt, 2013).
 Board devises the strategies related to appraisal
and effective problem solving skills (Goldberg,
2017).

CONTD..
In order to bring diversity in board and
particularly to improve gender diversity in
boards, it is essential;
 Change mind-set towards making visible
commitment towards diversity & including
women in decision -making
 Expand criteria by considering appropriate
expertise in candidates instead of experience
 Maintaining active pipeline by expanding
network, by including more females

CONTD..
To bring diversity in TAPP organization, it is essential to;
 Develop selection criteria that could bring diverse
perspective
 Use recruitment methods to approach minority
communities not represented in the board team
 Use expert recruitment consultancies & specialist job
boards targeted at local communities or minority
(Institute of Directors New Zealand, 2016).
 To insist on finding candidates from diverse community.
 Restrict the term limits for the board members to create
opportunities

REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT OF PROBLEMS
 Lack of diversity in the boards might
lead to discrimination on the basis of
caste, creed and gender within the
organization
 Gender stereotypes is the main reason
behind lesser number of females in
boards or in senior management
 Minorities are not provided the
opportunity to get in board

CONTD..
Diversification of board could be obstructed
due to;
 Lack of acceptance among boards
regarding diversity
 Recruitment of trustees on the basis of
contacts, wealth or influence
 Young members are excluded from joining
board to make them opt for salaried
employment (Korn Ferry Institute, 2018).

ESTABLISHMENT OF OBJECTIVES & MEASURES
 Collective effort is essential to lead a diverse
workplace
 Every individual within the organization
should take an open attitude to create and
promote diversity
 The Institute of Directors in New Zealand
(IoD) believes that diversity in the boardroom
brings innovation & increase performance
(Institute of Directors New Zealand, 2016).

CONTD..
Specific objectives & strategies to attain diverse boards
are;
 Development and implementation of diversity policies &
objectives
 Modification of objectives as per the needs of the board
 Ensuring sufficient & transparent disclosure about board
diversity processes
 Consideration of short-listed targets
 Holding management accountable for developing
diversity (Arts Council England, 2017)