Recruitment International: Promoting diversity in business

Green Park is a campaigning business that has championed diversity and inclusion for over twelve years. Since our inception, we have placed the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our business. As a result, we hold ourselves accountable for not only setting but meeting a higher standard by widening the gate without lowering the bar.

During this time, we have advocated and championed the acceleration of exceptionally talented and appointable minority candidates into some of the most senior leadership roles in the UK’s top boardrooms across the private, public & third sectors.

Highlighting great talent

As part of this year’s annual Black History Month celebrations, which takes place throughout Britain during the month of October, Green Park is proud to announce the launch of its third annual ‘Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business’ index (2018). The #BAME100 list showcases the talent, experience and expertise of Black, Asian & Ethnic Minority (BAME) board-ready leaders who are chronically under-represented across Britain’s organisations.

Green Park applies a strict selection criterion to identify 800 ethnic minority individuals that comprise the talent pool from which the Top 100 will be selected, with the majority occupying director, executive and non-executive positions. To establish the final shortlist for the Board Talent Index, Green Park utilises a propriety scoring methodology judged by an independent panel of experts, which identifies candidates’ professional achievements and commitment to delivering positive change.

Green Park’s esteemed judging panel for this year’s #BAME100 list comprises of: Amee Chande, non-executive director at BBA Aviation PLC; David Tyler, chairman at J.Sainsbury PLC; Karen Blackett OBE, chairwoman at MediaCom; Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London and Natasha Adams, chair people officer at Tesco PLC.

Tyler comments, “I am convinced that organisations make better decisions if they have a diverse management team, ensuring that there a more informed debate and that there is no danger of groupthink. I was therefore delighted to participate in the creation of this list of BAME business leaders – even though it was really tough to leave so many strong candidates out as we narrowed our choice down to only one hundred people of talent.”

Improving diversity

As an executive search and interim management firm, Green Park has had the pleasure of working with some of Britain’s most dynamic and prestigious organisations and have subsequently had the privilege of meeting many inspirational leaders. The exceptional people in this year’s Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business index all share that high level of achievement in business, government and other fields. They are talented and ready to sit at the highest level of their current enterprises. But there are not enough of them.

Our most recent annual market map of the FTSE 100 shows that just five per cent of senior leaders hail from ethnic minority backgrounds. More broadly, across government, charities and the private sector, only three per cent of the top 1,000 most powerful positions in the UK come from ethnic minorities, as demonstrated in The Colour of Power, our report co-authored with Operation Black Vote.

The team at Green Park are extremely proud of our record as change-makers. However, there is still much to tackle as we look to change the face of leadership by helping people and organisations think differently about talent. Therefore, Green Park will continue to invest time, effort, talent and money into valuable research to support the conversation for greater and more inclusive leadership, reflecting the vibrant and multi-cultural society we are all fortunate to live in.

This timely recognition and celebration of Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business index will be held on Thursday, 11th October 2018 in the State Rooms, Speaker’s House, House of Commons by the kind permission of Mr. Speaker, The Rt Hon John Bercow MP.

Should you wish to receive a digital or hard copy of the ‘Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business’ index, please send an email to bame100@green-park.co.uk or call us on +44 (0) 203 145 3436.

This article was published in the Recruitment International Magazine in October 2018. For the full magazine, click here.