The role of Executive Search Firms in Increasing the Diversity of Senior Leaders in Higher Education ... Parallels with the NHS?
Robert Wright
4000+ Connections: Networking & Recruiting in Built Environment, Engineering and Manufacturing
A week or two ago a great chap called Roger Kline (Director, NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard and Research Fellow at Middlesex University Business School .... look him up!) shared an interesting report with me. It was produced by The Leadership Foundation and is called: "Increasing the Diversity of Senior Leaders in Higher Education: the role of executive search firms" - an exploratory study into the interaction of executive search firms or “head hunters” with their clients and the extent to which equality considerations are taken into account.
A link to a downloadable copy is available here: Link
The report clearly has parallels with some of the issues and challenges we are experiencing in the NHS so I thought I'd post it here and offer a few comments and thoughts to perhaps stimulate some discussion:
- Report states “almost all HRDs [saw] commitment to diversity as one of the main considerations when choosing a search firm” And “75% of client organisations ask about track record in diversity” (Page 19) Really? If so that way more than we see in NHS.
- Diversity of University Board of Governors (page 22) … can see parallel here with NHS. If we do more to attract diversity into Foundation Trusts' Council of Governors (CoGs) they would then sit on panels for NEDS/Chairs, which would perhaps in turn become more diverse and then in turn might have positive impact on executive diversity? Don’t really see much noise in system about the diversity of CoGs, focus tends to be on boards … why is this?
- Interesting suggestion (Page 12) that Neo-Liberalism and the advent of “new managerialism” which favours private sector values such as targets and profit has made sector less appealing to women …. Could this happen in NHS? Is it happening?
- Really liked the section on “merit” as a new form of bias. Really don’t think enough hiring managers / decision makers are sighted on this.
I'd be interested in people's thoughts on the report and some of the comments I have made above. Be good if there was a rounded response that included HRDs/HRMs, Search Firms, Chairs/NEDs, Governors and candidates/applicants.
Creative Director at Communities Inc
7 年I've been headhunted for a few jobs and board roles by agencies but always get the impression that I add the diversity to their candidate offerings. having also developed a programme for future leaders to plug gaps in senior mgt and boards I found this taken over and systems introduced that prevented the very candidates we wanted to apply! In effect they recreated the institutional bias in a new structure mirroring existing ones and expected change!
HR EDI Investigation Governance People Consultant | NED/Chair
7 年The private sector also suffers from the 'snowy peaks' phenomenon, Robert. Having a diversity statement is not the same as deploying good diversity practice. Headhunters/ recruitment agencies act as gatekeepers and will obviously do what thise that commission them require whether spoken or unspoken. The NHS is perfectly content for inequality to be a matter of ongoing discussion rather than for any actual change in leadership demographics to take place.