Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Minorities Remain Outside Boardroom, Executive Suite

Workforce Management
Only 13 percent expect the numbers to increase in coming years.
By Garry Kranz
June 18, 2008

Uniformity: How important is diversity within corporations? IMD International Search and Consulting, an executive recruiter in Morristown, New Jersey, paints a grim portrait. According to its global study of 2,000 “market-leading” organizations, only 13 percent of respondents are optimistic that more minorities and women will move up to the executive suite during the next three years—in spite of the fact that 78 percent of organizations cite diversity as an important organizational strategy. Women also continue to be underrepresented on corporate boards, according to the findings, with nearly half the surveyed organizations having no female members. Succession planning and acquiring talent also are listed among top concerns for companies, but this may be mere lip service. IMD says only 30 percent of company boards have identified successors to their top leadership. And while recruiting gets tougher by the day, only two-thirds of corporate directors are making talent acquisition a central strategy in their planning.
Workforce Management contributing editor Garry Kranz is based in Richmond, Virginia. E-mail editors@workforce.com to comment. http://www.workforce.com/section/quick_takes/55953_2.html

No comments: