Fri, 21 Feb 2014 | Matt Bodimeade
Businesses are turning to headhunters to hire more women for senior roles and as non-executive directors.

With a 25% target for women in boardrooms in sight, Jenny Willott, junior minister for women and equalities and for employment relations and consumer affairs, tells the Work & Family Show 2014: “The government is now looking to work with headhunters as they tend to go to the same group of people, with all the right qualities we require.

“However, we need to make sure they’re looking at a broader poll of women. Headhunters tend to go for people with the same likeness to themselves, and we need to break away from that.

“We need to encourage more women to put themselves forward for roles, and break out of the mould. This will inevitably mean that a headhunter’s choice becomes more varied.”

Economist and consultant Vicky Pryce tells the same event she agrees but feels headhunters tend to discriminate when they seek potential candidates.

“Headhunters tend to discriminate against people who do things differently,” she says. 

“It’s down to the HR department to ensure this doesn’t occur, and that they employ a more flexible approach to their hiring procedure.”

The EU has set a quota for four out of 10 non-executive directorships of quoted companies to be  filled by a woman by 2020.

Statistics published in October 2013 showed that among the FTSE 100 largest companies some 23.8% of non-executive directors are women.

But among the middle rank of FTSE 250 companies, the proportion is lower, standing at 18.6%.

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