Gender benchmarks in stock corporations: Who meets and who does not (yet)
What is the status of the gender benchmarks required by the new stock corporation law? The Diversity Report Switzerland 2021 analyzed 231 listed companies and 7,656 Swiss stock corporations with more than 50 employees.
The new stock corporation law has been in force since the beginning of 2021. Among other things, it requires that both genders be represented by at least 30 percent on the boards of directors of listed companies and by at least 20 percent on executive boards. A total of around 200 companies are affected in Switzerland. If the gender benchmarks are not met, the companies concerned must state their reasons in the compensation report and explain what measures they intend to take to improve the situation. However, they do not have to fear any sanctions - and this is criticized in particular by feminists.
Ten largest companies with an exemplary function
But what is the actual situation regarding gender equality in listed Swiss companies? This has been investigated by the Diversity Report Switzerland, published for the second time. The full survey, published by GetDiversity GmbH with the support of EXPERTsuisse and the magazine Swiss Ladies Drive, compiled the composition of 231 executive boards and 7656 boards of directors.
This time, special attention was paid to Switzerland's ten largest companies, which, with a total of over one million employees, also serve as role models in terms of human resources policy. With over 30 % of women on the Board of Directors, over 20 % on the Executive Board and over 30 % among authorized signatories, Zurich Insurance Group tops the list of the top ten. Other top-ranked companies include UBS and Nestlé, also with 30 % women on their boards, and Lafarge Holcim, ABB and Roche, with over 20 % women on their executive boards. This means that all of them together are already close to the legal requirements.
Where the gender benchmarks are met
This compares with 83 of the 231 companies listed on Swiss stock exchanges (36 %) with all-male boards of directors, 134 (58 %) without a single woman on the executive board and 51 (22%) with no women at all as authorized signatories. So there is still work to be done for the 231 listed companies before they meet the legal requirements. The same applies to the entirety of the companies analyzed. Of the 7,656 stock corporations analyzed, 4,908 (64 %) have no women on their board of directors. On the positive side, however, 1,495 (20 %) of the companies already comply with the gender guidelines for boards of directors of listed companies.
It's not just about gender guidelines alone
However, the gender benchmarks do not only refer to the proportion of women on management boards and boards of directors. They also apply equally to men. Dr. Marius Klauser, Managing Director of EXPERTsuisse, makes this clear in an interview. The authors of the Diversity Report Switzerland, Esther-Mirjam de Boer and Carla Kaufmann, co-CEOs of GetDiversity, therefore want to counter the misconception that it is always just about promoting women. This association is committed as a know-how ecosystem for equal opportunities and equal rights for all gainfully employed talents in the working world on the basis of their abilities - regardless of gender.
Relying on talent - the Swiss "Diversity Champions
Among the stock corporations evaluated, there are already 267 "diversity champions". They seem to have long understood the principle of "talent before gender". This refers to companies that have a gender representation of 50 % women and 50 % men on the board of directors and among the authorized signatories, which is why the Diversity Report Switzerland 2021 designates them as "Diversity Champions". These companies include
than companies with over 500 employees:
- Peter Steiner Holding AG, Zurich,
- YX Magnetic SA, Sierre
as the oldest companies, registered in HR in 1883:
- Hotel Europe Davos AG, Davos,
- Effingermedien AG, Brugg
than companies with six female board members each and the largest board teams:
- Groupe Médical de Versoix SA, Versoix
- Valmont Group Holding SA, Geneva
- EF Education First AG, Zurich
- Montanstahl SA, Stabio
- Informaticon AG, Frutigen
- Alters- und Pflegezentrum Au AG, Steinenn
Diversity instead of inbreeding
What is the opposite of diversity? Or, put another way: Why these "pull-ups" for good mixing? Why does diversity make companies more competitive and resilient? "In nature, the answer is clear. Here, a lack of diversity is synonymous with monoculture and inbreeding - and that is not a sustainable state. Because it is well known that the exclusion of foreign genetic material makes people weak, short-lived and feeble-minded in the medium to long term," explains Esther-Mirjam de Boer.
According to a Harvard study, the 60-year lifespan of an S&P 500 company predicted as recently as the 1960s has been reduced to 18 years in the meantime. Is this the consequence of a lack of diversity? As de Boer puts it: "In recent decades, the templates for supposedly good employees have become extremely narrow, because people want to play it safe. As a result, many talents outside these standards fall through the cracks, which reduces diversity and promotes blind spots."
Source: GetDiversity GmbH
