Diversity targets don’t work – they ignore the real issue

Commenting on recent attacks on FTSE groups for a lack of women at board level, the firm’s co-founder has stressed that movement on this issue cannot be made through enforcing diversity targets. Instead, a focus on addressing the heart of the issue will drive real change. 
diversity

Setting diversity targets for FTSE groups hasn’t worked because they don’t address the actual barrier to equality: the bias in hiring processes. Contributor Juliet Eccleston, Co-Founder – AnyGood?

Commenting on recent attacks on FTSE groups for a lack of women at board level, the firm’s co-founder has stressed that movement on this issue cannot be made through enforcing diversity targets. Instead, a focus on addressing the heart of the issue will drive real change.

Juliet Eccleston, Co-Founder of AnyGood? explains: “The fact that there is such a lack of diversity at board level isn’t just a result of narrow-minded corporate cultures or embedded stereotypes, it’s also a recruitment issue. In many of these companies, the lack of equality is prevalent across the company as a whole, so it’s no wonder there’s a lack of diversity at the top.

To me, much of the issue stems from age-old hiring biases that have yet to be truly addressed. When we look at how businesses have evolved in the last decade, we’ve come on leaps and bounds, with technology changing the way we work exponentially. However, how we hire has barely made it past infancy – in fact you could argue that the methods used have hardly changed since recruitment emerged as an industry after WW2.”

“There’s too little diversity in hiring processes in general. This can, of course, be demonstrated by the fact that it isn’t just a lack of women at this level, but an overall absence of representatives from the whole range of demographics beyond white males. Enforcing diversity targets at the top simply won’t resolve this issue if the talent isn’t being brought in from the bottom. What we need is a complete overhaul of recruitment as we know it – then maybe we’ll stop ‘discussing’ this issue and start seeing results.”


Receive more HR related news and content with our monthly Enewsletter (Ebrief)

Read more

Latest News

Read More

The ESOP “not to do” list – 10 mistakes to avoid

2 July 2025

Newsletter

Receive the latest HR news and strategic content

Please note, as per the GDPR Legislation, we need to ensure you are ‘Opted In’ to receive updates from ‘theHRDIRECTOR’. We will NEVER sell, rent, share or give away your data to third parties. We only use it to send information about our products and updates within the HR space To see our Privacy Policy – click here

Latest HR Jobs

University of Strathclyde – Professional Services – Human Resources DirectorateSalary: £59,139 to £66,537

University of Strathclyde – Professional Services (Continuous Improvement, Estates, Finance, HR) – Human Resources DirectorateSalary: £37,174 to £45,413

You will lead HR Business Partnering, OD, and Learning & Development, and also oversee HR related managed services. You may already be an HR Director

HR Project Manager Job Title: HRProject Manager Location:North London Sector: Education ContractType: Permanent About the Role We havepartnered with an Educational establishment who are looking

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE