Diversity, equity and inclusion in French companies

Enhancing diversity reduces the risk of groupthink, which we believe should benefit company performance over the long term. It also supports wider social inclusion benefits, which can help to reduce social strains, protect the wider economy and enhance portfolio-level returns.

In 2020, we spoke to Inès Dauvergne, a business consultant with expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion, about how French companies could address inequities. While it is illegal in France to hold certain types of information on individuals, she dispelled the myth that measurement is impossible. We recently spoke to Inès again about research into the representation of minorities on the boards of SBF 120 companies.¹

Pauline Lecoursonnois, EOS: What was the goal of this research?

Inès Dauvergne: We wanted to have more informed discussions regarding the effectiveness of companies’ policies. We used two main indicators to quantify the representation of what we refer to as ethnocultural minorities. These are individuals perceived as “non white”, or with a non-European sounding surname, which may mean African, Arabic, Indo-Pakistani or Asian. We also indicated the gender, nationality (European versus non-European) and whether the person had graduated from a prestigious university.

Based on these results, we can make recommendations to create more competitive businesses, and to progress collectively towards a fairer society that is more inclusive and uses the potential and richness of its diverse population.

PL: What were the key takeaways from your study?

ID: One key takeaway is that the governance bodies of the largest French companies do not sufficiently reflect French society, where a third of the population is comprised of immigrants or their descendants. (Or 16% of the population if we only count immigrants or their descendants from outside Europe.)²

At SBF 120 companies, more than 90% of executive committee members are considered as white with a European-sounding surname, while only 6% of executive committee members could be said to represent diversity. In fact, 50% of SBF 120 companies had no ethnocultural minority on their executive committees.

PL: You also analysed the composition of executive committees and boards. Did you find a difference between the two?

ID: Yes and no. It is striking to see that while the selection process is very different, the results are similar, with only 6% of board members (8% in CAC 40 companies) representing ethnocultural minorities. This means over 90% of board members are considered as white and have a European-sounding surname. Similarly, 50% of SBF 120 companies had no ethnocultural diversity on their boards (33% for CAC 40 companies).

However, there is an intriguing element of difference in gender representation between executive committees and boards when you look at ethnocultural minorities. Among the 6% of board members representing ethnocultural minorities, 64% of them are women and 36% are men, while among the 6% of executive committee members representing ethnocultural minorities, only 34% of them are women and 66% are men.

The Zimmermann-Copé law, which required women to account for 40% of boards by 2017, could partly explain this. It is possible that as companies were forced to improve the representation of women on their boards, they took a more proactive approach and widened their talent pool, which ultimately had a positive effect on other aspects of diversity.

PL: What recommendations did you make?

ID: We made five key recommendations for companies:

• To be credible and impactful, companies’ policies on diversity, equity and inclusion must be exemplified by the leadership team itself.
• To address the insufficient representation of ethnocultural minorities, companies willing to make progress must adopt measurement tools that will enable them to identify a baseline, set objectives and track progress.
• To access leaders with a more diverse profile at the hiring stage, companies must review how they identify, and where they source their talent, to avoid the over-representation of individuals from universities with insufficiently diverse alumni. It is important here to challenge recruitment teams and external recruiting agents.
• To create more diverse talent pools inside the organisation and diverse role models, companies must review how they identify and develop talent internally to ensure the process is inclusive with objective evaluation criteria.
• A quota on gender diversity within senior executive teams of at least 30% by March 2026, and 40% by March 2029 for members of management bodies, was introduced with the 2021 Rixain law. A two-year grace period was given to companies for the 40% level, during which reporting is expected on corrective measures and targets. By March 2031, companies that do not comply with their obligation may be sanctioned with a financial penalty of up to 1% of the annual payroll. To prepare for this, companies will review how they detect and identify talent. When doing this, they should not only focus on women but also integrate other diversity criteria such as the diploma, the socioeconomic background or the ethnocultural diversity of individuals.