Industry must redouble leadership diversity efforts, trustees say
A majority of industry professionals polled believe greater strides must be made to improve the diversity of the leadership on trustee boards, Professional Pensions finds.
June results from PP's Pensions Buzz showed 57% of industry figures agree with the statement that diversity efforts must be "redoubled".
Attracting "new blood from all sectors of pensions schemes will brings new ideas to the table and strengthens the future of the industry", one respondent said.
Another stated that master trusts specifically had a greater role to play in encouraging board diversity as "they have small trustee boards which lack diversity and have removed the voice of the scheme member".
One pundit said key decisions makers "do not yet understand that a diverse team is a better decision-making team" as trustees were likely to look for people like themselves.
Another in favour of redoubling efforts warned against "box ticking", however.
"There should be a promotion of meaningful change, but not at any cost," they said. "Trustee boards need to remember their role and where possible should at the very least reflect the membership they are representing."
Conversely, a third of respondents to the poll felt efforts around diversity did not need to change. One pundit with this view said appointments should be based solely on "people's interests, knowledge and qualities".
Another added that additional diversity efforts meant "discrimination in a different form" while a third said it was "difficult enough to find trustees willing to stand" without being specific on gender.
Earlier this year, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) policy lead for investment and stewardship Caroline Escott said a "growing body of evidence" showed diverse boards made better decisions and avoided behavioural biases such as groupthink.
This came alongside the March launch of PLSA's Diversity and Inclusion Made Simple guide aimed at occupational pension scheme trustees, outlining detailed steps for trustees to follow in order to promote greater diversity.
The trade body revealed research shows just half of trustee boards have a female trustee headcount of 50%, while 83% of scheme trustees across the industry are male.
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