Investors see diversity as growing issue

By 2022, the ethnic composition of company boards will be an important consideration for investors, according to a research report.

The research was carried out by Green Park, which specialises in recruitment and diversity issues. In a survey of institutional investors, it found that 56% believe that the diversity of company boards will become a key factor when looking at the investment case for a stock. In addition, 50% of the investors said that people tend to recruit board members in their own image, as a reason for the lack of diversity on company board. And 37% said that boards do not understand the financial value of diversity.

The research also found that there are barriers to building greater diversity among the upper echelons of management in UK firms, with 27% of respondents agreeing that the board should have access to the right talent pools and networks outside their usual mono-cultural targets. The same percentage said that boards are failing to build up a pipeline of ethnically diverse future leaders.