More than a third of the UK’s top companies have no ethnic minority representation on their boards and will struggle to meet diversity targets, according to a UK government-backed report.
The Parker Review revealed 37% of FTSE 100 firms still have no non-white members on their boards. Although this is a slight improvement on 2017, when the review was launched and half of boards had no ethnic minority representation, it warned it was going to be a challenge to meet the review’s aim to have at least one BAME individual on every FTSE 100 board by 2021.
For the first time, the review looked at FTSE 250 boards, finding they performed even more poorly than the FTSE 100 – 69% had no ethnic diversity on their boards. Across the FTSE 350, 59% of boards had no BAME representation.
The Review Steering Committee highlighted two key problems: longstanding systemic talent bias, with little interest in or appreciation of the benefits of ethnic diversity in the boardroom, and the fact that race and ethnicity are the most difficult things to talk about because they “are just too hard and too sensitive”. However, the fear of things going “wrong underestimates the breadth and depth of the available talent pool, and the benefits to be gained”, it said, suggesting “an unwillingness to be open, to be inclusive and to value diverse experiences and perspectives.
“The value is in the difference itself, and that is what must be understood and appreciated more fully than it is today…. Acknowledgement, understanding, appreciation and ultimately respect are what is needed, and never have any of those things been a source of discomfort,” it said.
The Committee urged leaders to “learn to be comfortable talking about the way in which race and ethnicity may shape and informs a person’s lived experience.”
The review, produced by Sir John Parker, with EY and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, set out plans to develop a pool of high-potential ethnic minority leaders as part of a cross-sector sponsorship programme across FTSE 350 companies.