Personnel Today: Number of BAME directors ‘flatlines’

Recruitment and diversity specialists Green Park have found that the number of BAME board directors at Britain’s top organisations have virtually flatlined over the last year. 

The research follows the launch of their BAME 100 Business Leaders index, identifying the best of Britain’s black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) board-ready talent across the private, public and third sectors. 

Comparing the movement of individuals in the past BAME 100 Business Leaders indices, Green Park’s research suggests a “one in, one out” policy in private, public and third sector board appointments.

Since the first BAME 100 index was launched three years ago, 28 of the 178 leaders shortlisted have been appointed to 30 new board roles across the private, public and third sectors, with Green Park responsible for 10 per cent of these appointments. However, after taking into account board directors who have relinquished their roles, moved abroad or have passed away, there has been a net gain of just one new British BAME board member in the last three years.

Trevor Phillips, Green Park’s Chairman, called on the Government to speed up implementation of mandatory ethnic pay gap reporting in a similar way to the current gender pay gap reporting regime: “Monitoring and reporting ethnic pay gaps at our top organisations will throw a light on progress in appointing BAME leaders. It’s helped increase the number of women at senior levels and the new government should not drop the ball on taking the same positive approach to ethnic pay gap reporting,” he added.

The BAME 100 Business Leaders index was drawn up by an independent assessment panel, made up of leading figures from some of the best-known and highly successful private, public and third sector organisations in the UK, all of whom regularly make these judgements and appointment decisions.

This article was covered in Personnel Today. For the full article, please click here.