Goldman Sachs Diversity Announcement

As an ex Goldman Sachs employee, a person of colour and someone who has worked in and with a number of large organisations, the news announced last week by David Soloman (Goldman Chief Executive Officer) that Goldmans will no longer handle Initial Public Offerings of companies that lack either a female or a diverse (going to assume this can either be BAME or LGBTQ) director does not surprise me.

When walking through the offices of Goldmans, if always felt that what ever background, colour or gender, if you had the talent and the right you always had a chance to make it to the top.

Goldmans have put down a marker and what is acceptable. There have already been moves to force diversity on boards, such as State Law in California now fining companies with all white male boards $100,000, other oragnisations, such at Blackrock and State Street are using their shareholder voting rights to create change. By Goldmans taking this stance, they are now firmly on the side of change will need to be enforced.

Older, more established companies with a diversity policy seem to be further ahead of the newer companies. Some of the larges IPOs still have white male boards, One of the most talked about companies, the WeWorks IPO last year proposed an all male board until there was a public outcry.

At Ohcul, like all other companies the priority is to hire the best person for the role. But the reality is, a system which promotes a certain type of individual along with Bias in the recruitment process leads a cycle of not achieving the change that is needed. Adding measures such as what Goldmans are doing along with government intervention of fines can only be seen as positive.

Its clear that this is not the end of the journey, Goldmans plan does not include Asia but is due to expand in Europe and North America to require 2 directors next year. Nothing is currently on the horizon in the UK in relation to forcing fines, however as more and more diversity data is published we would expect there to be further pressure for the government to implement change.

At Ohcul jobs, we promote diversity within the workplace through removing the opportunity for people’s unconscious bias to reflect in the recruitment process.

Employee diversity provides a number of benefits to any organisation (large and small). Ethnically diverse companies perform 35% better than their industry median and gender diverse companies are 15% more likely to haver returns above the industry median. With the national customer base becoming more diverse, it is important that a company is representative to fully understand its clients’ needs and, according to the latest research, 67% of employees cite a diverse workforce is a key factor when looking at a role.

At Ohcul, we remove the opportunity for hidden bias from a CV review stage. Our unique tool removes identifying data from a clients CV allowing a recruiter to progress the best candidates.

If you would like some more information you can contact us on info@ohcul.com or visit the web site www.ohcul.com