We have been talking about Diversity for some time but what has actually changed?
If we take gender as an example, as it has been talked about the most over the past 10 years and we would expect it to have made significant ground.
In 2021 the Women In Finance charter saw an increase in represented women of 0%, in previous years it was 1%.
The Female FTSE Board Report from the Cranfield School of Management (Nov '22) shows that there are only 9 female CEOs in the FTSE 100, for FTSE 250 companies only 47 are female EDs. (Executive Directorships). Whilst the proportion of women increased by 40%, 91% of these were Non Executive Director appointments.
Recent statistics from WUN (Women in Utilities) state that "78% of Energy businesses currently have no women in executive roles", and data from the ABI (Association of British Insurers) (2021) showed that Women held 29% of Board roles, suggesting that over 70% of insurers have no women in Executive roles.
Whilst employers recognise the strong business case for improving the level of diversity and inclusion within their workforce and across all levels of their senior leadership, change is shockingly slow.
'If we consider other characteristics; Ability, enthinicity, LBGTQ+, socioeconomic backgrounds etc, are no better. If we get any slower we will start to go backwards' Amanda Blanc, Group CEO Aviva ABI, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit.