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Annual statistics for top leadership placements in South Africa have, for the second year in a row, shown a sustained increase in race and gender transformation.
Annual placement statistics collected by top executive search firm, Jack Hammer, show an 8% increase in black economic empowerment appointments last year, building on the near 10% increase logged the year before.
The two-year upwards trend follows a period of very static placement statistics between 2012 and 2015, with the tide turning notably in 2016.
What this means is that the increase in the number of BEE executive level appointments is not just incremental – it’s significant, and gaining momentum year on year.
In 2017, total employment equity placements stood at 56%, up from 48.4% in 2016 and 39% in 2015.
Black female appointments were up from 13% in 2016, to 25% in 2017.
Appointments of foreign candidates dropped from 6.5% to 3%.
The continued increase is reflective of two things – that there is ongoing pressure to transform at senior management and executive levels within corporates, and also that there is a growing pool of talent at senior management level to fill these positions.
Notably, this data reflects employment equity appointments in the private sector, as opposed to in parastatals or government.
There has also been a significant uptick in the number of female appointments in general, which were up from 32% in 2016 to 38% last year.
This is significant, because until last year, we were struggling to get above the 30% mark. At the end of 2016, we moved that needle a little, but now we can see that the trajectory is moving in the right direction.
And most positively of all, the big shift has been with the appointment of black women, whose appointments increased by 12% last year.
Both statistically and anecdotally – in terms of briefing patterns – it is clear that South African companies are pushing hard to transform, particularly in high-level and hard-to-fill roles.
While we can’t comment on other segments of the market, it is clear that where companies mandate search firms to find and place top-level talent, they seek to focus on diversity in addition to qualifications, experience and track record.
The comparative data is showing a significant and sustained move in the right direction.
It is clear that companies no longer consider transformation a box-ticking exercise, but rather an essential element to ensure continued, sustainable and inclusive growth.
At the end of last year, we noted that it would be interesting to see whether the positive trajectory of 2016 continues into 2017, or whether the turn was not much more than an outlier.
It is therefore extremely encouraging to see not just a continuation of this trend, but a substantial one at that.
So why are so many companies still so untransformed at executive levels? We continue to see executive teams that remain completely untransformed, and seem to have no intention of changing the status quo.
I think it’s important to frame the diversity stats in the context of companies that are feeling pressure to transform (a push factor), as well as those who recognise the value of diversity at leadership levels (a pull factor).
Those are the ones who reach out to us, and give us a search mandate, and then actually make the appointments.
We do not see or hear from the many organisations who have neither the pull nor the push factors.
They are content to remain in their comfort zones, and seem to be ignoring all the external messages regarding the importance and value of transformation.
And, when such companies show profit year after year, there is absolutely no motivation to change.
• Debbie Goodman-Bhyat is chief executive of Jack Hammer
