WOB Survey 2006

WOB’s objective is to facilitate women onto boards. Our annual survey is to determine whether this our strategies are working. The results in 2006 are encouraging when compared with 2005.

1. Overview of results

  • 10% increase of WOBers on 1 or more paid and unpaid boards
  • 11% increase on paid boards
  • 85% increase on 2 paid boards
  • 13% increase on 1 unpaid board
  • 11% increase on 2 or more unpaid boards

2. Demographics of WOBers

  • Sole trader - 13%
  • Micro (<5 staff) company - 13%
  • Small (5-20) company - 13%
  • Medium (21-200) company - 16%
  • Corporate (>200) - 45%

3. Role in companies

  • Executive Director/Chair - 27%
  • Non-Executive Director/Chair - 9%
  • Senior Executive - 34%
  • Middle Level Executive - 21%
  • Junior Executive Corporate (>200) - 9%

4. Board Positions

  • 37% of WOBers applied for one or more board positions in past 12 months
  • 78% were approached by a board
  • 52% applied for WOB posted vacancy
  • 50% applied to public advertisement
  • 42% applied via word of mouth
  • 20% applied via a professional recruiter

Key Message

WOB posted vacancies are at least as important as word of mouth and public advertising and more important than professional recruiters. However, when networking based approaches are aggregated this accounts for 55% of all applications, reinforcing the importance of becoming known to the relevant boards.

5. Motivation of WOBers for the next 12 months

  • 60% are looking for a/another paid position
  • 29% are looking for a/another unpaid position
  • 66% are looking to build there network to access future board opportunities
  • 50% are looking to build their network for business development
  • 46% are seeking to support other women

6. Response to subscriber model

  • 32% of Survey respondents said they had paid their subscription fee
  • 60% had questions on value for money
  • 14% had tried but had problems actually paying via website
  • 18% were procrastinating and 8% were unaware that payment was required

7. What are WOBs best attributes (most important first)

  • Can provide good networking
  • Women supporting women
  • Director information in one place

8. What needs to be changed (most in need first)

  • Better/More networking
  • Better/easier to use website
  • Spread events beyond Sydney

Key messages

The two factors most highly linked to WOB member satisfaction are networking function performance and general ease of use of website.

We will continue to improve the number and quality of networking events with the objective of introducing more male directors to WOBers and offering smaller networking functions. It is a slow process but we are building up our supporters amongst male directors. An increasing number are asking for/ receptive to receiving CVs from WOB.

As to the website we will do our best to improve this but it costs $ and time.

9. Other organisations

What other organisations do WOBers belong to? There were 540 in total. The top 10 are:

  • Australian Institute of Company Directors- 20.8%
  • Australian Institute of Management - 9.0%
  • CPA Australia - 4.4%
  • Australian Human resource Institute - 2.8%
  • Zonta International - 2.2%
  • Rotary - 2.0%
  • Women Chiefs of Enterprise - 1.8%
  • FINSIA - 1.8%
  • Institute of Public Administration Australia - 1.6%
  • Law Society - 1.6%

10. About the survey

  • Survey respondents - 500 Members of Women on Boards
  • Audience - 2,950 Members of Women on Boards
  • Proportion respondents - 17%
  • Survey Method - Internet based survey instrument
  • Location of respondents - Australia wide
  • Survey execution dates - September 2006
  • Source of respondents - Women on Boards