Top jobs a pale reflection of NZ society
Growing diversity is yet to be displayed in the nation’s executive offices, survey finds
New Zealand's biggest indepth analysis of ethnicity in the workplace has shown that top-level decisions are predominantly being made by people of one ethnic group, even though New Zealand is one of the world's most multicultural nations.
The second diversity report, published by the group Champions for Change, surveyed 69,000 employees on ethnicity and found on average just 18 per cent of the three top-tier company roles are held by non-New Zealand Europeans.
Census data from 2013 shows nonNew Zealand Europeans make up 26 per cent of New Zealand's population and they are a growing group of people.
Michelle Embling, co-chair of Champions for Change, and chair of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, said it had not been surprised by the findings but tracking it would allow members to increase the diversity of their leadership teams to better reflect New Zealand's society.
It had been difficult to collect the ethnicity data, with one in five people not answering the question.
Embling said the group would be working to improve its ethnicity data collection next year but did not have any targets at this stage.
The report also revealed an improvement in the number of women on boards and in management. Year-on-year comparisons for the 26 organisations which took part in both reports found women on boards increased from 35 per cent to 39.4 per cent.
Women in key management grew from 32.4 per cent to 34.1 per cent and other executive roles rose from 29.9 per cent to 31 per cent.
The group also had more members join this year, with 39 organisations signing up and employees measured rising from 83,000 to 113,000.
Of the 39 participating organisations in 2019, women represent more than 37 per cent of board members and 34.6 per cent for executive officer roles.
That compares to NZX-listed companies which have 22.8 per cent women on boards and 23.5 per cent in executive roles.
Champions for Change co-chair David McLean, who is also chief executive of Westpac New Zealand, said the results showed progress was possible when leaders made it a focus.
"Our target is 40:40:20 for gender balance on boards, so it's great to see us getting so close," he said.