Andrew MacDougall
Nov 30, 2016
Osler has joined up with the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) to develop a Board Diversity Policy Template, which is aimed at helping boards meet their gender diversity requirements. Designed to simplify the process of drafting a gender diversity policy and drive the diversification process, the template includes customizable content and can be downloaded free from the websites of both organizations.
In an article for The Globe and Mail, Janet McFarland talks to ICD chief executive officer Rahul Bhardwaj and Osler’s Andrew MacDougall, a partner who specializes in corporate governance, about the template. According to the article, ICD launched the policy template project after seeing the results of a review of diversity-reporting rules by securities regulators in September, which indicated “slow progress since regulators introduced new ‘comply or explain’ rules in 2015 requiring companies to report on their approach to gender diversity.” ICD’s chief executive officer says that he deduced that “many smaller companies weren’t acting because they didn’t know where to start or didn’t have the resources to hire consultants and lawyers to help them develop policies.”
Andrew, who wrote the policy, told The Globe and Mail that many small companies could find it helpful to have access to a model that is similar to policies adopted by larger companies with help from professional advisers.
“Often the hardest part about making any change is taking that first step,” states Andrew. “We thought that the easiest way to jump-start a dialogue at the board level would be to help them with the first step, which is the adoption of a policy.” Andrew also says he hopes many who use the template will choose to include a target for women on the board, but that “might be a step too far for some.”
“We wanted to make sure that they at least had a policy that forced them to have a dialogue about whether or not to adopt a target,” says Andrew.
For more information about the Board Diversity Policy Template, read Janet McFarland’s full article “New policy template aims to encourage gender diversity on boards” in The Globe and Mail.