Getting Women On Board

Successful North East business woman Linda Hitman, CEO of Exclusive Business is backing the gender equality issue.

Anyone who has attended business meetings over the past decade or so will have noticed that there has been a steady increase in the number of women who are now representing companies, local authorities, charities etc.

However, it is still widely accepted that the number of women present on the boards of these organisations is still stubbornly low. The vast majority of board meetings continue to feature a high percentage of men.

In a bid to address this problem, Linda Hitman of Exclusive Business has organised a conference the Boardroom Diversity Conversation…to investigate the issue of how get to more women into senior roles, enabling them to then step up to board level. Linda, a well-known figure on the North East business scene said “I believe it is important to get men and women into an environment where experiences can be shared, questions asked and allow a discussion on how to start to address the imbalance.”

It is too easy to suggest that women are being overlooked on purpose. There are other reasons and, crucially, there are solutions. Delegates will also hear how diversity is beneficial for any company.

The objective behind the Boardroom Diversity Conversation is to explore those reasons and solutions. There will be guidance from guest speakers who have been involved in research or have experience in appointing women. Delegates will also hear from women who’ve achieved senior boardroom positions within companies and organisations. You will hear of their experiences along the way.

The event, staged at Ramside Hall Hotel on the outskirts of Durham on November 7th gets underway with a welcome from Dr. Joanna Berry of Durham University Business School. There will be a discussion between panel members who include Katie Marshall (Head of Corporate and Legal and Company Secretary at Virgin Money); Kerrin Wilson (Assistant Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police); Gary Lumby (MD of Focus on Success); Andy Armitage (Regional Director at Lloyds TSB), and Herb Kim (Board Director of Tech City).

The panel members have been instrumental in their sector at championing boardroom diversity. They will each speak for 15 minutes after which there will be ample time for questions from the floor.

“Women have been absent from (or worse, invisible in) too many boardrooms for far too long,” said Dr. Joanna Berry. “While there is an increasing awareness of their absence and the potential benefits of their presence, there is still too much cynicism about this issue and too many tokenistic appointments being made. Women have a very definite place in the boardroom and a huge beneficial impact on both culture and the bottom line of a company.”

In other words, appointing women to be board members should not be done merely to tick the numbers box; the appointment of any director, female or male, needs to be done for the benefit of the company or organisation, and as Gary Lumby from Focus on Success comments, having a mix of skills and experience is invariably a recipe for success.

“There is clear evidence from the experiences of businesses overseas in places such as Norway but also here in the UK, that boards with a diverse mix of specialisms and backgrounds enable a business to make better decisions. In my experience…..all businesses would benefit from an external viewpoint no matter what the background or gender of that person so long as it was a position gained on merit.”

Katie Marshall from Virgin Money says that diversity is a major aim across her company.

“We have made gender balance a strategic priority because we believe a gender balanced workforce at all levels will undoubtedly improve culture, outcomes, profitability and productivity. To achieve this, leaders need to take responsibility and lead from the front.”

The Boardroom Diversity Conversation is an opportunity for businesses seeking to generate greater diversity to gain an insight into how to achieve this and introduce best practice. It is also for those seeking to make the move to a senior role or into a boardroom position who need support, advice and guidance to help them take this next step in their career.