Guess Which Management Trend Could Affect The Value Of Your Company The Most

29 January 2018 -

Investors will look to this key policy according to analysts

Jermaine Haughton

Companies that demonstrate gender, ethnicity and disability diversity throughout each level of their organisation are likely to significantly increase their investment potential, according to experts.

Market analysts believe new rules by the European Securities and Markets Authority, forcing the Europe’s biggest companies to publish their board-level diversity policies this year, will sharpen the focus on the development of fairer high-performing workforces, and boosting organisations’ value to investors.

A report by the Financial Times draws parallels with similar regulatory-driven policies in clean energy and environmental initiatives, which have seen an influx in investment by investors. The value of the green bond market, for example, has surged by more than £31bn in three years.

Managers aiming to diversify their teams to maximise performance and market value can borrow innovative tactics used by some of the world’s most successful companies.

This includes following the path of Netflix by allowing staff to take off important days from work, creating employee networks like AT&T, removing names and universities from application forms like the BBC, and making diversity a key part of a middle manager’s role like IBM.

Heather Melville OBE CCMI, the director of strategic partnerships and head of business inclusion initiatives for corporate and private banking at RBS, explained that managers must deal with the issues head-on.

Speaking to the Chartered Management Institute’s chief executive, Ann Francke, the chair of CMI Women said:  “I think we’ve still got a lot of work to do. [In the workplace,] I think there’s a 50/50 mix of old-school thinking and some newer, more innovative managers, saying: ‘This is about opportunity and we’ve got to reach the brightest people to be the most successful organisation.’ We still have to reach those middle managers – I call them the ‘sticky-floor layer’ – who think that everything is fine and we don’t need to change anything.”