Creating gender balance at the board table

Major sports boards around the country are leaning into female representation around the table as a major deadline looms.

In 2018 the Government, under its Women and Girls in Sport and Active Recreation Strategy, introduced a 40 per cent female representation on boards quota for sports that receive more than $50,000 a year in public funding. Those who don’t meet the quota deadline in December potentially put their public funding at risk.

Of the 64 eligible sports, all but six have already met the requirements, which is pleasing to Sport New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle.

‘‘Because it’s population representative – we have men and women play sport – so it’s important that those female voices are represented on sports boards,’’ she said.

‘‘Organisations with great level of diversity perform better, so when you add those two things together it becomes a no-brainer.’’

Sport New Zealand can reduce funding to non-compliant sports, but ongoing support is being offered to sports who might miss the deadline. While Castle wasn’t a fan of quotas initially, this exercise has proven quotas work.

She said ‘‘if you want to expedite something’’ it was important to have a quota with criteria people needed to meet and have ‘‘some consequences’’ for not meeting the target.

‘‘It’s moved the dial in the most constructive way,’’ she said.

‘‘When you do put a firm plan in place, and work really hard to get that outcome, then great things can be achieved.’’

The next phase, she said, was wider diversity on boards, including cultural diversity to ensure those who play sport were well represented around the boardroom table.

Among the six yet to meet the target is New Zealand Rugby. It only has two female board members, including deputy chair Dr Farah Palmer, and Jennifer Kerr who joined the board in 2020.

NZ Rugby board chair Stewart Mitchell said having a 22 per cent female representation on its board was ‘‘not where we want to be’’ and action was being taken to increase the numbers. NZ Rugby’s next annual general meeting is in April, which means the organisation will miss the December 31 deadline.

‘‘We have been told [funding] will be at risk in the future. We are not treating that lightly,’’ he said.

Institute of Directors chief executive Kirsten Patterson said it was well established that diversity on boards was good for business and for performance, and was an area all sports boards ‘‘should be prioritising’’.

She said there were several ways to increase diversity on boards.

‘‘That starts with diverse nomination committees. For many it’s about considering recruitment pathways and constitutions, which can be difficult in sporting incorporated societies, but there’s no shortage of qualified diverse board candidates available and ready to serve,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s critical they assess their appointment processes and pathways.’’

She also suggests sports bodies seek out candidates to ‘‘shoulder tap’’, offer mentoring, and develop future director and development programmes.

‘‘The pathways of how to make this change are well established. Nobody needs any more research on why they need to do it. No-one needs more research on how to do it. It’s a case of knuckling down and getting the work done,’’ she said.

‘‘Organisations with great level of diversity perform better.’’ Raelene Castle Sport NZ chief executive