Analysis: Women on boards - how is retail doing?

In 2016 the Hampton-Alexander review of women in leadership set a target for 33% of leadership positions in all FTSE 350 companies to be held by women by Decemeber 2020. With just over a year to hit that target, there is still a long way to go, the latest report this week showed.

The pool of women with board experience is continuously growing, over 900 females serve on FTSE 350 boards. However, only 25 have been appointed as chair. 

In the FTSE 100 around two thirds of leadership positions are still going to men.

Over the last year there has been a slight increase in female leaders to 28.6% from 27% the previous year. However, the appointment rate remained low for a second year running at 36%.

At that rate, the appointment of women must jump to 50% next year to hit the desired target.

The FTSE 250 produced slightly better results. Women’s leadership roles increased to 27.9% compared to 24.9% in 2018. But like the FTSE 100, it is still falling behind the 2020 target and must improve in the coming year.

How well is retail doing?

Although the numbers are disappointing, the retail sector fared well in comparison to others.

Burberry (1^st), Next (5^th) and Kingfisher (7^th) all feature in the top ten list of FTSE 100 rankings of women on boards and in leadership.

Other retailers including B&M, Dunelm, M&S and Dixons have already gone beyond the 2020 target of 33% of board positions specifically to be held by women.

Not far behind the retail leaders is Card Factory and Pets at Home, at 29% and 25% respectively by the same measure.

Card Factory chief executive Karen Hubbard says in the report: ”A large proportion of our customer base are women, therefore it is vitally important that women are in the position to represent and influence any decisions that impact our customers.

”This starts at leadership level and we are proud to have a healthy balance at senior management level,. We want to ensure that the right people are in the right roles so that we continue to have an appropriate voice.”

How to improve?

Of the FTSE 250, 111 companies have hit the 33% target ahead of schedule - meaning 139 are yet to reach it. According to Hampton -Alexander only 13 of those have the potential to hit the 2020 target.

Clarity Search founder and managing partner Fran Minogue says retailers must be more flexible on criteria when looking for new board members if they want to hit the targets. 

She observes: “So often the requirement is to have prior plc experience, but that’s a Catch-22, as so many bright and up and coming female executives have never sat on a board before.

“If they have broad exposure to areas outside their own discipline and have sat on an exco and been exposed to the wider issues around P&L and balance sheet management, they will be able to make a valuable contribution.”

At a non-exec level Minogue suggests looking outside of retail too.

“Given the challenges in the sector looking at women from more technological backgrounds from Silicon valley and unicorn start-ups [for example] will have the skills retailers need,” Minogue said. 

Other retailers can also learn from Burberry (classed as a personal goods business for the purposes of the review) , which has programmes in place to ensure inclusion and diversity is maintained throughout the pipeline of its next generation leaders.

And even as the highest ranking company in the Hampton-Alexander Review, Burberry, aims to do more in the coming year. 

Burberry chief people officer Erica Bourne says in the report: ”All colleagues will have completed unconscious bias training by the end of this year and we devote time to teaching and role modelling inclusive leadership as part of our leadership development programme.”

With many listed companies falling behind the target there is still a long way to go - 126 companies in the FTSE 250 are still adrift from the target. 

According to the Hampton-Alexander review: ”Some are working hard and are not too far off, but too many still have a long way to go. Those companies know who they are and we call on the 38 “One & Done” boards in particular to move on from a tokenistic approach to gender equality in leadership and take swift action in this final year to meet the 33% target. ”