Regression not progression

Female representation on FTSE 350 executive committees drops for first time in 8 years

Welcome to the Women Count Report 2024 by The Pipeline, an exploration of gender dynamics within the executive committees of FTSE350 companies.

Now in its ninth edition, The Pipeline’s Women Count report has been analysing gender parity data, sourced from BoardEx, at executive committee level since 2016, shining a spotlight on the glacial rate of change for women in leadership.

Key Insights:

• CEO Positions: Just 9% of CEOs in the FTSE 350 are women: a figure which has only increased twice in eight years
• CFO Positions: Only 18% of CFOs are women – despite women making up over 44% of chartered accountants
• Commercial Roles: And just 19% – less than a fifth – of commercial roles in the boardroom are occupied by women, a drop from the 2023 report. This figure is particularly concerning as these are key feeder roles to CEO and CFO positions

Four Key Success Factors:

Based on 12 years’ experience with over 130 organisations, The Pipeline has reviewed what practical actions are driving progress in those organisations that do have greater gender parity. The report distils these insights into four key success factors:

• Lead From The Top: Business leaders have to walk the talk when it comes to gender parity – clearly linking it to business strategy, actively demonstrating their personal commitment and sponsoring and promoting more women
• Fix The Culture: Workplaces must support women to thrive and develop at the rate they deserve. This includes being accommodating to unique life changes which many women experience, such as woman-specific health issues
• Drive Accountability: Progress is best achieved if leaders are made accountable for it – but businesses must also ensure they are capturing robust, clear data in order to drive forward accountability
• Don’t Declare Victory Too Soon: A staggering 47% of Britons have said that ‘things have gone far enough’ when asked about giving women equal rights. This is an untrue and unhelpful dynamic which must be tackled – businesses cannot afford to slam the brakes on DEI processes, as it will only undermine previous progress

Download our Four Key Success Factors guide.

Your Role in Driving Change:

As you explore the Women Count Report 2024, consider the impact of these findings on your organisation. Share the report with your network, initiate conversations, and join the dialogue on gender diversity in leadership.

Simon Linares Chair, The Nottingham Building Society - Former Group HR Director, Direct Line

Whilst at Direct Line, Simon Linares and his colleagues wanted to create greater parity in leadership and over three years they were able to increase female levels from 17% to 37%. He puts this down to a number of actions, including “investing in high potential women to unlock their potential and making them feel supported” as well as the (entirely male) executive team publicly announcing their strategy for delivering gender parity.

At first Direct Line sent talented women leaders to Pipeline’s Top Flight programme. Initially, they tested out the programme by sending one participant and were delighted to see that over six -12 months she grew to become “completely different in terms of her potential. That's why we sent more people.” Simon’s goal was to ensure the delegates were ready for the next level. “Sometimes their self-confidence was the barrier. Some were already capable but not confident and you need people to be capable and confident to take on that role.”

Sponsorship was also vital. Simon noted that without it delegates would get lost in the normal talent review conversations, since “they were one of 15 people being discussed”. Sponsorship enables powerful conversations to take place with the CEO which leads to “a focus on that person and what they are capable of.” Simon thinks reverse mentoring can be helpful too with a senior leader mentoring a female “so that he can understand the reality from her perspective, and she can understand his reality.”

Simon encouraged a cultural shift by creating performance measures for senior leaders, connecting their annual bonus with “progress towards our Women in Finance target of 30%.” He says it was “amazing how that focused peoples’ minds when 10% of the bonus was linked to diversity and inclusion”, particularly when the primary measure was shifting the gender balance in senior leadership. He applied the same high standards to executive search firms, banning one “for two years because they kept failing to give us balanced shortlists of candidates.” Instead, Simon shifted to other search firms who could provide the right candidates, saying this is the “signalling you have to give.”

Setting expectations early on was also important, ensuring the executive team role modelled behaviours that aligned to the strategy. He said it was really important to be “public with and honest with your extended senior leadership team that this is what we expected them to do.” He feels that we can “make it difficult by being too subtle around it... there's no point in being subtle about change” otherwise people stay in denial and don’t move on.

Whilst Direct Line were successful in moving the dial, it wasn’t all plain sailing. The focus on women upset some of the male leaders because, as Simon notes, “a level playing field feels uneven when you've had it playing to your advantage for so long.” Some leaders realised they needed “to promote twice as many women as men over the next three years to achieve that target.” Despite this, he’s clear it was the right thing to do, even if it was uncomfortable at times.

Michael Lewis CEO, Uniper - Former CEO, E.ON UK

Michael Lewis makes diversity a priority because “apart from being the right thing to do, more diverse teams reach better decisions, so you don't have groupthink and you get different perspectives.” As CEO of E.ON UK, Michael balanced the board to become 50% female including roles less frequently filled with female candidates, such as COO and CIO, creating a “level of diversity with role models for the future.”

We asked Michael how he produced this shift. Firstly, they went through Pipeline’s Top Flight programme which he says “speaks for itself, doesn’t it!” He notes it’s “pretty unique and very effective because it offers “a different perspective on life, not just purely professional development, it's about taking a step back and getting perspective on their career and their life and how it all fits together.” He thinks these focused programmes “allow women to share experiences in a way that men can't because their experience is different” and as long as there’s “a gender imbalance in leadership, gender imbalance in pay… then there is a role for female only development.”

Michael also asked male leaders to “approach women proactively” encouraging them to go for senior roles, since “the more females you get into senior positions, the more it opens up space for the people coming behind them.” He set targets too, although he differentiates between targets and quotas as promoting women for the wrong reason won’t help. “If, after you've interviewed everyone, you still think the male candidate is better, you appoint them.” However, he emphasises that you must “have women on the short list so there's a pool to talk to… making a conscious choice so you don't just go to the usual suspects by default”.

Michael believes processes must support gender parity too. “Female staff tend to take more caring responsibilities outside of work” so it’s key to be flexible and focus on work life balance. He says it is “possible to work very flexibly now so we are extremely flexible now at Uniper.” He notes that other processes like recruitment are also key. “The way you talk about a role and the language you use in describing the role can really affect who applies for it.” He was shocked when he became aware of this. “It seemed counterintuitive, that the words you use in an advert” could have such an impact. His advice is “make sure everybody understands that and the way they talk about roles.”