The latest Hampton-Alexander report issued in November 2017 highlights the continuing progress being made in achieving a gender balance in business leadership. The immediate goal remains to achieve 33% of women on Executive Committees and their Direct Reports by 2020.
However, as the Women’s Business Council (WBC) recent report ‘The Pipeline Effect’ points out it will take until 2043 to achieve gender balance in business leadership at the current rate of progress.
The WBC believes that the next stage is to actively engage CEOs – the majority of whom are male – and other senior business leaders as change agents in championing and delivering the required change.
The Men As Change Agents “handbook” is designed for CEOs of FTSE 350 companies and other prominent businesses and contains practical ideas and insights with the potential to make a real difference.
The document suggests three ways in which men can be change agents:
- To personally champion the achievement of the Hampton Alexander challenge of 33% of executive level business leaders being women by 2020.
- To sponsor between 1 and 3 women in your organisation with the potential to secure an executive level role within 3 years
- To be an active “change agent” and be part of the wider business conversation towards achieving better gender balance in UK business leadership
and offers examples of good practice with recommended action from organisations including BT, Sky, Barclays, Deloitte, MyFamilyCare.
