A BLOG POST BY BARONESS GOUDIE FOR OECD The 30% Club is a group of company chairmen, chairwomen and CEOs committed to achieving better gender balance at all levels of their organisations through voluntary actions.
Business leadership is key: this takes the issue beyond a specialist diversity effort and into mainstream talent management. This is a collaborative approach to creating change.
The 30% Club launched in the UK in 2010 with an aspirational goal of 30% women on FTSE-100 boards by the end of 2015. There are now 120 members of the UK club and the proportion of female FTSE-100 directors has risen from12.5 % to 23%. So there is still work to be done.
The 30% Club does not believe in mandatory quotas and instead believes the right approach is voluntary action to achieve meaningful, sustainable change.
The 30% Club is becoming an international, business-led approach focused on developing a pipeline of senior female talent. It is complementary to individual company efforts and existing networking groups–adding to these through collaboration and visible commitment of senior business leaders.
Scarce representation of women at senior levels is a global phenomenon. Business leadership combined with a measurable goal can create a paradigm shift. Beyond the UK, 30% Clubs have been launched in the US, Hong Kong-China, Ireland, and southern Africa and east Africa. We are picking up pace this year with clubs expected to be launched in Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Italy, Poland, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
Companies should be working to create a better gender balance at all levels–this requires a sustained series of talent management efforts and agile working to develop the pipeline.
Ultimately, there needs to be an acceleration towards gender balance at all levels, with men and women working together for real change.
More information on the 30% Club can be found on http://30percentclub.org.
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