Public companies hit targets on boardroom diversity

Irish businesses are making progress in improving gender balance at board level, but there is still further work to be done in boosting diversity among business leaders.

That is the conclusion of the fourth annual report of the Balance for Better Business review group, which found a key 30 per cent milestone of women on boards of the ISEQ 20 was surpassed in 2021.

That was up from 18 per cent when the initiative began, putting publically listed companies in Ireland on track to meet a 33 per cent target by 2023.

Ireland now ranks 12th for women on company boards among the largest companies in the EU 27 member states, up from its initial 17th placing.

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Balance for Better Business is a Government initiative to promote the inclusion of more women on company boards and in corporate leadership positions. Launched in 2018, the review group set voluntary gender targets for publically listed companies, with private companies included 2019, and gender targets were added last year for multinational companies based in Ireland.

Some 42 per cent of Iseq 20 listed companies now have more than three female board members.

For the boards of other listed companies, the percentage of women on boards os 20 per cent, the target set for the end of 2021, and up from 9.6 per cent in early 2018. The boards of large Irish companies are made up of 22 per cent women, just below the 23 per cent target set for the end of the year.

However, the report revealed that Irish companies need to progress more on building an internal pipeline of women to move from junior to senior levels.

Despite the initiative’s target that no listed companies should have an all-male board, there are still five listed companies with all-male boards.

"We're trending in the right direction," said cochair Julie Sinnamon. "We're really getting a bit of traction. Forty-one per cent of all appointments to listed ocmpanies last year were female, 31 per ce nt [of appointments] to the larger Irish privately owned companies were female. This is getting attention, it is on the agenda and putting a spotlight on it is having an impact."

She said it was not just about eqyuity and “being nice”; numerous reports have shown there is a business benefit to a more diverse board and leadership team.

A target of 33 per cent set for female representation in multinationals operating in Ireland was marginally missed by 1 per cent.

“One of the big areas we want to focus on going forward is increasing the number of women in those leadership teams,” Ms Sinnamon said.

Co-chair of the initiative, Dell’s Aongus Hegarty said they were calling on companies to keep the momentum going by setting targets and having an action plan to achieve those targets; building a gender balanced succession plan at both board and executive leadership team level; and reporting on progress.

“Our focus is on settign the targets to help people guide and aim towards those targets. We beleive that is the best way to drive cultural change and ultimately to get the benefit from a business perspective on business decisions.

“Our real emphaisis is around targets, drive cultural change, to have strong positive bsuiness imapcts.”

The fourth edition of the report was launched by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth Roderic O'Gorman, along with Ms Sinnamon and Mr Hegarty.

“It’s encouraging to see further progress has been made this year and I’m especially pleased that we have reached the interim target of having 30 per cent female representation on the boards of the ISEQ20 companies. “In 2018, the average was only 18 per cent, so this is significant progress, however it is a far cry from the equal representation we aspire to and clearly more needs to be done,” Mr Varadkar said.

“Women are still underrepresented in executive director roles and progress to rectify this issue has been too slow. There are still five listed companies with all-male boards. Change takes time, but the progress made shows what can be achieved when companies focus on making change happen. I hope next year to see greater progress on senior leadership targets.”