Gender diversity and the staffing sector - City Comment
28 March 2014
A dynamic and healthy recruitment market is good for the staffing industry. Therefore, we are encouraged to see data showing improved gender equality in the workplace.
Thu, 28 Mar 2014 | By Adrian Kearsey, equity analyst at Hardman & CoA dynamic and healthy recruitment market is good for the staffing industry. Therefore, we are encouraged to see data showing improved gender equality in the workplace.
Recent research shows that female and male pay for full-time workers under the age of 40 is now broadly at parity. This position largely reflects improved mobility and a demand for skills, with employers looking beyond gender when recruiting.
Elsewhere, a recent government survey showed that female participation within the larger UK-quoted companies continues to be on an uptrend. In 2011 a government-commissioned review found that women accounted for 12.5% of FTSE100 board positions.
Three years on and women now account for 20.7% of FTSE100 board positions. Indeed within the largest 100 quoted public companies on the London market only two have all male boards (both mining stocks). Though many boards still only have a token female and the improvement in top-level positions is less pronounced in the FTSE250 (only 15.6% of board directors are female and 19.2% have no female representation on the board whatsoever). Nevertheless an uptrend is still in place.
There remains a disparity between the proportion of women who are non-executive directors and the number who have executive positions. Therefore, while a quarter of non-exec directors at the largest UK companies are women, only 7% of executive directors are female and 4% of chief executives are female.
Unsurprisingly some commentators are using the data to argue that the pace of change is too slow and that formal quotas need to be put in place. However, in our opinion formal quotas only serve to create labour market inflexibility. This stifles innovation and hinders the progress of firms. Indeed the most powerful reason for gender diversity is to ensure that strategic and operational decisions are strengthened. Companies are best able to achieve this if they are led by a strong team with a broad set of experiences and not led by a bureaucratic process of box ticking.
The staffing sector has marginally higher levels of female board representation than the wider market. Our analysis shows that a sample of 12 quoted staffing firms have a total of 89 directors. Of these 16 are woman, which represents 18% of the total. This is slightly less than the FTSE100 but slightly better than the FTSE250 and much better than the whole market. Within the 12 stocks analysed, Impellam has the most significant level of female board representation, with three out of eight board members being women (ie. 37.5%). Two out of the 12 staffing firms we looked at have all male boards (you know who you are).
Given the nature of the staffing industry, we are not surprised to see these firms leading the way. Indeed we would expect to see even greater levels of female participation in the coming years. Moreover, we anticipate investors will increasingly look at board composition when making their investment decisions.
The figures for board representation of women used in this article were compiled from the investor relations pages of the following staffing companies: CPL Resources, Empresaria, Harvey Nash, Hays, Hydrogen, Impellam, Matchtech, Networkers, Page, Robert Walters, Staffline, SThree
Recent research shows that female and male pay for full-time workers under the age of 40 is now broadly at parity. This position largely reflects improved mobility and a demand for skills, with employers looking beyond gender when recruiting.
Elsewhere, a recent government survey showed that female participation within the larger UK-quoted companies continues to be on an uptrend. In 2011 a government-commissioned review found that women accounted for 12.5% of FTSE100 board positions.
Three years on and women now account for 20.7% of FTSE100 board positions. Indeed within the largest 100 quoted public companies on the London market only two have all male boards (both mining stocks). Though many boards still only have a token female and the improvement in top-level positions is less pronounced in the FTSE250 (only 15.6% of board directors are female and 19.2% have no female representation on the board whatsoever). Nevertheless an uptrend is still in place.
There remains a disparity between the proportion of women who are non-executive directors and the number who have executive positions. Therefore, while a quarter of non-exec directors at the largest UK companies are women, only 7% of executive directors are female and 4% of chief executives are female.
Unsurprisingly some commentators are using the data to argue that the pace of change is too slow and that formal quotas need to be put in place. However, in our opinion formal quotas only serve to create labour market inflexibility. This stifles innovation and hinders the progress of firms. Indeed the most powerful reason for gender diversity is to ensure that strategic and operational decisions are strengthened. Companies are best able to achieve this if they are led by a strong team with a broad set of experiences and not led by a bureaucratic process of box ticking.
The staffing sector has marginally higher levels of female board representation than the wider market. Our analysis shows that a sample of 12 quoted staffing firms have a total of 89 directors. Of these 16 are woman, which represents 18% of the total. This is slightly less than the FTSE100 but slightly better than the FTSE250 and much better than the whole market. Within the 12 stocks analysed, Impellam has the most significant level of female board representation, with three out of eight board members being women (ie. 37.5%). Two out of the 12 staffing firms we looked at have all male boards (you know who you are).
Given the nature of the staffing industry, we are not surprised to see these firms leading the way. Indeed we would expect to see even greater levels of female participation in the coming years. Moreover, we anticipate investors will increasingly look at board composition when making their investment decisions.
The figures for board representation of women used in this article were compiled from the investor relations pages of the following staffing companies: CPL Resources, Empresaria, Harvey Nash, Hays, Hydrogen, Impellam, Matchtech, Networkers, Page, Robert Walters, Staffline, SThree
