Crisis promotes diversity boards

Both the number of women and professionals with a non-Dutch background are increasing at the top of the corporate world. This is due to internationalization, quotas and the corona crisis. According to Van der Groen, women are increasingly on the candidate shortlist for executive positions, but the number is not growing explosively. Van der Groen: "Ultimately, about 15 percent of the executive vacancies I mediate are now filled by a woman."

The picture of meager progress with diversity also emerges from the Top Women 2020 Corporate Monitor, released in January 2021. The average share of women on the boards of large companies rose from 7.4 percent in 2013 to 12.4 percent in 2020. On supervisory boards, the average share of women rose slightly faster over the same period: from 9.8 to 20.4 percent. Nevertheless, seven years after the introduction of the statutory target, two-thirds of large companies still had no women at all on the BOD and two-fifths had no women at all on the SB.

Work-life balance

One of the main reasons why women do not move on often enough to top jobs is because they are more likely to work part-time and work less overtime. Consequently, the public sector, where there is a better work-life balance and more flexibility, leads the way when it comes to women at the top. According to Van der Groen, this very flexibility is now seeping into the corporate sector because of the corona crisis. "In the public sector, flexible working used to be more readily accepted than, say, at an Anglo-Saxon multinational. But because of corona, everyone now organizes their time more by themselves. Because we work from home, or by necessity because we have to teach the children during the day." Van der Groen does not expect this trend to change after the pandemic. He is already seeing business becoming more flexible when it comes to arranging one's own time and working from home, making the demands of the private sector more compatible with the needs of women in executive positions.   

Does this model, combined with a quota, soon for more women at the top of industry, then it will also be easier to put together a more diverse boardroom in the future. Van der Groen: "In senior positions, it is important to already know the industry. Because the percentage of top women in the public sector and the healthcare industry has been high for years, it is easier to appoint someone there at the executive level who comes over from another organization, for example. In the future, the more women hold top positions in business, the easier it will be to have executive vacancies filled by women."

Internationalization and globalization

Further internationalization and globalization offer opportunities For top people with a non-Dutch background. Van der Groen saw this happening in his own working area with the rise of "Brainport Eindhoven. "When I started as a headhunter in Eindhoven in 2006, there was a very regional labor market. Now there is a large cluster of top technological companies that work quickly and internationally. That gives you more exposure to the global market and attracts a larger group of executives with an international background."

The increase in the number of international students in Dutch higher education according to Van der Groen, also provides a (future) growth in the number of executives from more diverse backgrounds. In 2018-2019, the last entire academic year before the corona crisis, 85,955 foreign students from 170 countries completed full studies in the Netherlands, 11.5 percent of the total number of students enrolled. A year earlier, the figure was 10.5 percent.

Some of these students continue to live and work in the Netherlands even after their studies. According to Van der Groen are that professionals with a lot of drive, entrepreneurship and ambition. Consequently, he sees the number of international candidates for executive positions increasingly increased. Meanwhile, often half of his shortlist has a non-Dutch background. And companies like to see this group coming.

Van der Groen: "A lot of companies, large, medium-sized or SMEs, today have customers and suppliers from all over the world. Then you must also have diverse cultures within your organization. If there are only Dutch people in your company and you do a lot of business with China, for example, I don't think you will ever achieve optimal business results."

Source: Financieelmanagement.co.uk