Current news
July 2011 - Women on Boards: EU calls for 45% quota
The European Parliament is calling for EU-wide legislation which would require the boards of listed companies to consist of at least 40% female memvers by 2020. Currently only 10% of directors are femal in the largest listed companies in te EU. The percentage of femal board directors continues to be be very low across the western world despite women's high participation in the workforce as well as attainment at both undergraduate as well as advanced degrees.
July 2011 - Eversheds Board Report: Measuring the impact of board composition on company performance - Link to a copy of the Board Report
April 2011 - Fact sheet from CIPD on The Non Executive Director role - Link to the factsheet.
February 2011 - 'Women on Boards' - Link to Lord Davies independent review of Women on Boards which highlighted the pernnial problem of diversity in the workplace.
The study suggests that companies should publish the number of women sitting on their boards and working in their organisations and recommends that businesses in FTSE 350 companies should set their own targets for increasing female representation on their boards by 2015. The review suggests that the FTSE100 should challenge themselves to increase the proportion of female directors on their boards to 25% by 2015.
October 2010 - New community and voluntary sector governance code.
An updated version of Good Governance: a Code for the Voluntary and Community sector has been launched this week. The Code is designed to ensure that every voluntary or community body can use the guidance to improve their governance processes. It lays out 6 principles that trustees and/or chief executives should apply to their organisations. An effective board will provide good governance and leadership by:
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understanding their role;
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enusring delivery of organisational purpose;
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working effectively both as individuals and a team;
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exercising effective control;
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behaving with integrity; and
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being open and accountable.
The Code is an updated version of the previous Code launched in 2005. The new Code is designed to be clearer and easier to use for all organisations.
A copy of the Good Governance: a Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector is available for download here.
23 August 2010 - Equal pay for women by 2067
Research has shown that female managers will have to wait until 2067 to be paid the same as their male counterparts. Research conducted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) shows that in the last year, men's managerial salaries increased by an average 2.3%. During the same period women's salaries increased by 2.8% however, the average male manager earns £10,031 more than their female equivalent. It would take 57 years of increased at the same rate for the two figures to be equal.
The pay levels of 43,000 employees across 197 organisations were examined. Men at the top of the managerial profession earned an average of 24% more than their female equivalents. 7% of femal directors left their posts last year compared to 3.6% of men. Female resignations at directors level have also increased and are up 5.3% from the previous year.
Although the pay gap has shrunk since the Equal Pay Act became last 40 years ago there is still room for improvement.
6 August 2010 - Government seeks strategy for more female directors
Lord Davies of Abersoch has been appointed to investigate and develop a business strategy for getting more women on to the boards of FTSE 100 companies.
Lord Davies, who is a former chairman of Standard Chartered plc and a former Government minister, will build on the work Professor Laura Tyson carried out on her 2003 report, The Tyson Report on the Recruitment and Development of Non-Executive Directors. Lord Davies will seek to identify the obstacles to women becoming directors of listed companies making a number of proposals to improve the situation by the end of 2010. Lord Davies said 'while it is essential that the boards of UK companies are meritocractic, the fact that there are only 131 female directors in FTSE 100 companies means that we cannot be using all the skills and talents that make our workforce so competitive'.
The coalition Governmen has also announced that it aims to ensure that at least half all appointees to the boards of public bodies, such as quangos, executive agencies, NHS bodies and Government departments, will be women by the end of the current Parliament.
28 May 2010 - Corporate Governance Code: a woman's place is in the boardroom - Link to an article recently published in the Times Online
28 May 2010 - Company Regulation and Corporate Governance - Link to briefing note prepared by the Extended Enterprise Team at One North East about recent changes to corporate governance.
24 May 2010 - Lessons in a Crisis - Link to an article on changes in corporate governance from the Chartered Secretary (ICSA Magazine)
26 March 2010 - ICGN sets out Non-Exec Pay principles
The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) has pubished new guidelines on the remuneration of Non-Executive directors. Following two years' consultation with ICGN constituent members, the guidelines consider all aspects of Non-Executive remuneration including annual fees, equity-based remuneration, disclosure and accountability issues.
Companies are encouraged to:
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place an emphasis on Non-Executive director alignment of interest with long-term owners;
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avoid the use of performance based remuneration for Non-Executives directors;
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favour solely cash retainer and equity, and avoid paying share options; and
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make a clear disclosure of remuneration to Non-Executives, including describing the philosophy of the Non-Executive Director programme.
A copy of the guidance can be ordered from ICGN www.icgn.org
11 March 2010 - Lack of women on boards is unacceptable, says PM
The Prime Minister has said that the lack of women on FTSE 100 boards is 'completely unacceptable'. Speaking at an event to celebrate International Women's Day, on 10 March 2010, Gordon Brown expressed that 'when more than half of graduates are women it is completely unacceptable that some of our top 100 public companies do not have a single woman on their boards, and that non at all have a majority of women on their boards'.
The Prime Minister went on to say 'we all recognise the value of strong role models for women in all walks of life and there are many in politics, the arts, public services, sport and the third sector, but there are too few in Britain's boardrooms. If we don't see a dramatic change in the compisition of company boards in future, we will meed to consider taking more serious action to ensure that companies recruit from the exceptional talent we have in the UK.
It was reported that the Prime Minister has asked the Financial Reporting Council to consider including a new principle in the UK Corporate Governance Code that would require companies to 'consider' the diversity of their boards. Mr Brown has also promised that all state-owned companies would be required to increase the number of women on their boards in the next two years.
17 February 2010 - SMEs are urged to consider non-execs. Click here to read an interview with Angela Toner, partner at Baker Tilly Corporate Finance by Peter McCusker from The Journal.
June 2009 - How to become a non-executive director - Article from The Times on-line