Directors Australia Board Recruitment Specialist, Glee Mitchell shares her insights on trends, focus areas and advice for boards and their directors.
What key trends are you seeing in your work with boards at present?
I work predominantly in the board recruitment team, and alongside our board advisory team. I am seeing several trends emerging with board recruitment in the past 12 months or so. These include areas such as:
- Skills based recruitment: Board recruitment is increasingly based on identifying specific skills and expertise needed to address the strategic needs of the organisation, rather than just relying on traditional networks and connections. Directors Australia works closely with each board to review the board composition and identify skills gaps, and fill those ‘gaps’ through objective processes.
- Apart from skills we also work with the board to identify the diversity requirements of directors being recruited. There is a strong emphasis on increasing diversity within boards. This includes diversity in gender, age and culture as well as bringing in individuals from different professional backgrounds. Diversity targets are increasingly common.
- Succession planning is becoming a key focus to ensure continuity and stability in board leadership. Directors Australia often works with boards to ensure that chair succession planning is in place, as well as mapping out director tenure and planning for orderly and well managed board succession. This is important given that a board recruitment process can take between 3 – 6 months.
- Regarding the specific skills and experience we are seeing in high demand, there are probably three key areas at the moment:
- Deep financial expertise with appropriate qualifications (CA/CPA) and the ability to chair the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee (or equivalent)
- Digital and technological expertise this includes expertise in digital transformation, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies to navigate the rapidly changing technological landscape.
- ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) focus. There is growing attention on ESG issues. Boards are looking for members with experience and knowledge in sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and ethical governance practices.
NOTE: There is also an emerging expectation that all board members have a minimum level of experience in the above areas.
What do you suggest boards should be focussing on?
In addition to the above trends that are at front of mind for many boards, boards are always focused on strategic oversight, risk management, stakeholder engagement, financial oversight and by no means the last or least important, the culture, ethics and values on which the organisation is based.
Do you have any other advice for boards or their directors?
There are so many competing priorities and regulatory requirements for many organisations, that boards can feel weighed down. It will depend on the type of organisation, but I would suggest that boards and directors need to be prepared to adapt to changing circumstance and market conditions. Agility and responsiveness are critical in today’s fast-paced environment. To support being agile and adaptive, I believe boards and directors need to prioritise continuous learning to stay informed about the latest trends, regulations and best practices in corporate governance.
Directors Australia provides board and governance advisory and specialist recruitment services to the boards of publicly listed, government, private, APRA-regulated and not-for-profit organisations across all sectors and industries Australia-wide. For further information on our services, reach out to Glee directly or contact us here.
