Why You Should Recruit Women to Your Board

Thinking About Recruiting Women to Your Board?

Windsor Group is a Brisbane-based recruitment firm and social enterprise with over 22 years of experience. This blog by CEO, Dylys Bertelsen OAM, is a ‘must read’ for companies seeking a recruitment specialist to recruit board members. It gets straight down to business about why you should recruit women and how Windsor Group can help you achieve a winning result.

In my recent blog, I shared my Top Tips for Women Aspiring to be Board Directors. Now in this blog, let’s look at this topic from the other side of the coin – the company that wishes to recruit women to the board.

As a recruitment specialist, I aim to meet your brief about what you are seeking. Generally, companies will outline the skills and experience they need and, only then, may request improving gender diversity in the mix rather than as the top priority.

Companies that wish to achieve gender balance are likely to be aware of research that shows that women on boards improve financial, social and workforce performance, as well as company reputation. Through inclusiveness, boards enjoy greater effectiveness in decision quality and improved governance.

Other companies are more explicit about seeking women directors. I know of large companies with a strong focus on Corporate Social Responsibility that fall into this category. They understand the need to improve gender balance to improve fairness, equity, and power sharing in society.  They are mindful to reflect and relate to broader groups of stakeholders (such as their staff, supply chain and customers) rather than take a narrow, short-term focus on annual shareholder dividends.

Boards seek directors who understand the company’s vision and strategies and can contribute additional business acumen to the boardroom table.  When companies approach Windsor Group, they’ve usually had discussions about the skills they need. If they haven’t, we can provide a simple tool to conduct a skills gap analysis. If needed, we can also help with board evaluations – a respectful assessment designed to help you gain insight into board performance.

While you have been busy governing your company, here at Windsor Group, we have been working hard developing a comprehensive talent base.  That talent base extends across government, community, commercial and social networks, and is supported by well-developed industry affiliations.  This gives us high level industry intelligence so that we know who to approach.

That’s how we know the women who are strong candidates for your board!

These include women who are at the top of their game and have the broad skill sets to make significant contributions to your board’s performance.  We also know high achieving women who have not put themselves forward yet, but who would make terrific Board members – particularly if provided with your next generation mentorship. I encourage you to get them on your board before someone else does.

Before presenting candidates to you, we carefully assess their competencies in strategy, financial literacy, people-skills, their unique contribution to your board, and whether they would be a good fit in your board. Please feel free to contact me to discuss how I can help you to achieve the best possible board for your company.