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Awards

FTSE Executive Women Award

Lloyds TSB

At the end of 2007 the International Centre for Women Business Leaders at Cranfield School of Management published The Female FTSE* Report 2007. It looked at the number of women on UK boards. The research revealed that the number of female-held directorships had increased from 117 in 2006 to 123 in 2007. The proportion of women taking new appointments had increased substantially, with 20% of new FTSE 100 director appointments going to women – the highest level since the first benchmarking report was published in 2000. Overall the proportion of female-held directorships is 11%, with women making up only 3.6% of Executive Directorships.
The report ranked organisations according to how many women they had on their boards. Sainsbury’s had the highest level overall with three female Non Executive Directors making up 30% of its board whilst Lloyds TSB had the highest number of women Executive Directors at 44.4% of its Group Executive Committee. This year Opportunity Now will recognise both organisations for their commitment to women leaders.

Lloyds TSB has such a high number of women on its executive committee because it has actively looked to recruit a more diverse board. When its Group Chief Executive, Eric Daniels, joined the board in 2001 he consciously set about ensuring the company’s board better reflected its customer base.

He made it clear to head hunters and search agencies that it was not an option to have non-diverse shortlists for key senior roles. His passion and drive for a more balanced board is supported by a comprehensive set of practices and policies within the company which have enabled women to succeed and thrive. So although back in 2001 it was necessary to bring in outside talent to ensure the board was more diverse, the company worked hard to develop its own talent pipeline of women internally.

Lloyds TSB has set and publicly promoted the fact that it has goals for the composition of the workforce at different levels of its workforce and these are continuously measured and monitored throughout the recruitment and promo process.

It has a top-down/bottom-up approach to managing talent and has ensured that all associated processes are transparent. Unusually, the Chief Executive gets actively involved in the organisation’s approach to talent and senior succession planning and asks divisional heads to identify female talent. Its women board members are all personally involved in mentoring, whilst its women’s network plays a significant part in encouraging women further down the organisation to go for managerial roles.

Fiona Cannon, Head of Group Equality & Diversity at Lloyds TSB, believes that leadership commitment in combination with clear diversity strategies and action plans have created a corporate culture change, "Both men and women can now look to our senior management team and see themselves reflected there. If you are talented, Lloyds TSB is a place where you can succeed regardless of your gender."

Head of Group Equality & Diversity at Lloyds TSB, believes that leadership commitment in combination with clear diversity strategies and action plans have created a corporate culture change, "Both men and women can now look to our senior management team and see themselves reflected there. If you are talented, Lloyds TSB is a place where you can succeed regardless of your gender."