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Principle 4Objectivity: Balanced, inclusive and skilled Board

Objectivity: Balanced, inclusive and skilled Board

NGBs, CSPs and representative bodies fed in responses to a consultation and the Code was re-drafted based on the views of the sector

Objectivity:

The Board should be made up of individuals with the right balance of skills and experience to meet the needs of the organisation. Included in this is a need for independent expertise and for representation of the diversity of the sport and the communities they serve.

What does it mean?

• Objective – without personal prejudice or influence, self interest, conflict of interest

• Balanced – diversity and inclusion, representative of the population, breadth or perspective

• Skilled – the best people to do the job

Hockey Wales

• A case study …..

Learning from Hockey Wales• Member-based Board, change needed to deliver the ambitious vision and

strategy• Used Articles as the starting point and made changes which Board and

AGM agreed• Clear vison and strategy critical• May have to have difficult conversations• Created a process to review board and its functions using a skills,

knowledge, experience and behaviour matrix• Benchmarked against the matrix externally to understand what hockey

didn’t know and for individuals to realise what they could/couldn’t offer• The benchmarking really helped identify the gaps in skills, knowledge and

experience but also in the behaviours to assist in new recruitment and ensure diversity of thinking and styles

• Why might gender balance be important?

Why do you think independence is important?

How and where can we recruit new Board members?

• Women on Boards http://www.womenonboards.co.uk/ • Social media – Twitter, Facebook etc.• Through your corporate partners • Chwarae Teg http://www.cteg.org.uk/ • Women in Sport http://www.womeninsport.org/ • Women Ahead http://www.women-ahead.org/ • FAB – Females Achieving Brilliance http://www.femalesachievingbrilliance.org.uk

/ • DSW http://www.disabilitysportwales.com/ • Womens SportsNet http://wsnet.co.uk/ • UK Sport http://www.uksport.gov.uk/ • Sport Wales http://sportwales.org.uk/

• Sport England https://www.sportengland.org/ • Sports Resolutions https://www.sportresolutions.co.uk/ • BME network in Wales• LGB&T network in Wales• Diverse Cymru https://www.diversecymru.org.uk/ • Linkedin• Word of mouth• Institute of Directors http://www.iod.com/ • Sport and Recreation Alliance http://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/

• Sporting Equals http://www.sportingequals.org.uk/ • The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/

Other guidanceThe EHRC has produced guidance on the equality law framework within which appointments to boards must be made. It is intended for companies, nomination committees, search firms and recruitment agencies in England, Scotland and Wales - Appointments to Boards and Equality Law July 2014 and has examples of what positive action can be taken to achieve a balanced board which can also be applied to decision-making bodies http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/publication/appointments-boards-and-equality-law Further guidance is on positive action and the steps that you can take as an employer to encourage people from groups with different needs or with a past track record of disadvantage or low participation to apply for jobs. Exceptions where a particular protected characteristic can be looked at during recruitment but which are not the same as positive actionhttp://www.equalityhumanrights.com/private-and-public-sector-guidance/employing-people/recruitment/positive-action-in-recruitment

Vote now!Is it lawful to have a quota for the number of women on a board?

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/publication/appointments-boards-and-equality-law

• Appointments to boards must be made on merit, demonstrated through fair and

transparent criteria and procedures.• In general, it constitutes unlawful sex discrimination to select a person for a role

because of their gender. The law does not permit positive discrimination when making an appointment or a promotion.

• However, the law provides scope for companies to address any disadvantage or disproportionately low participation on boards by enabling or encouraging applications from a particular gender, provided selection is made on merit.

• Individuals responsible for appointments to board positions must avoid making unwarranted assumptions based on gender which result in one gender being favoured over another for appointment.

• Selection criteria and procedures that are likely to present barriers to the appointment of either gender will constitute unlawful indirect discrimination unless they can be justified.

• Selecting a candidate for appointment to a board on the basis of gender is only lawful when the individual is objectively assessed as being equally qualified as a candidate of the opposite gender, when the individual’s gender is under-represented on the board and when other conditions have been satisfied.

A model

Other questions

• How do you sell the need for independents to your Board?

• How do you convince your constituent's that independent Board members are important?

• How do you review your corporate governance structure to be able to move forward?

Windmill House, Crowborough Hill, Crowborough TN6 2RPtel: +44 (0) 7950 235651 email: lucy@lucyfaulkner.com skype: lucyfaulkner.com

Lucy Faulkner Ltd

Thank you.