Principle 4: The Players
A diverse board to enable considered decision-making
A board should be a diverse group of people who collectively provide different perspectives and experience to facilitate more considered decision-making.
| Standard | 2021 Avg | 2022 Avg | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | The board should have a diverse mix of skills, expertise and experience in order to meet the strategic goals of the organisation | 3.2 | 3.5 |
| 4.2 | The board demonstrates a strong and public commitment to progressing towards achieving its diversity targets within its board composition including: Geographical locality, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, CALD, Age, SES, Disability, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Race, Religion | 2.1 | 2.4 |
| 4.3 | The board, while ensuring the prevailing criterion for election is eligibility, skills, expertise and experience should be composed in a manner such that no gender accounts for more than 60% of the total number of Directors | 3.5 | 3.4 |
| 4.4 | The organisation’s directors should be independent, regardless of whether elected or appointed | 3.5 | 3.6 |
| 4.5 | The organisation has a documented and transparent process for the identification and appointment of directors | 3.1 | 3.2 |
| 4.6 | The board has a composition which incorporates both elected and appointed directors | 2.7 | 2.7 |
- Standard 4.2, focuses on the Board’s diversity and commitment to achieving diversity goals. Whilst there was a 100% uplift of NSOs and NSODs who reported a score of 4, 33% of NSOs and NSODs scored a 1 in 2022. The Standard remains an area for further improvement and has been identified as a priority Standard across the sector.
- Following the ASC’s focus on improving Nominations Committee processes over the last 12 months, NSOs and NSODs demonstrated pleasing progress in the documentation of transparent processes in the selection of directors
- NSOs and NSODs reported improvement across 5 of the 6 Standards within Principle 4, including having a diverse mix of skills expertise and experiences within the board and directors being independent, rather than representative.
- While scoring remained high, there was a reduction in Standard 4.3 – Gender diversity, indicating the gender mix on NSO and NSOD boards is subject to annual election and appointment cycles. There is an opportunity for NSOs and NSODs to sustain improvements in board diversity by embedding sustainable governance practices.
SPOTLIGHT ON HOCKEY
Hockey Australia identified in their Governance and Organisational Enhancement Plan a priority to mature its director nominations process. Hockey Australia worked with an ASC governance advisor to benchmark its process against other industry and governance standards and draft a robust new policy to attract, assess and provide members with critical information about gaps identified in director skill and experience to enable a diverse and effective board to be elected. Alison Gaines, a highly regarded corporate governance and recruitment expert, was appointed as the independent chair of the nominations committee. The more mature process led to an expanded list of talented candidates for consideration by the members.
This governance improvement helped Hockey Australia increase their maturity score for Standard 4.6, from 2 to 3.