Quotas "nigh impossible" for social enterprises

With increasing amounts of research backing up the benefits of diverse teams, the profits of having a mixed workforce are becoming near unquestionable, but this still hasn’t stopped the idea of quotas being mooted, with contradicting reports supporting both sides of the argument.

38% of social enterprises are led by a woman, according to research from Social Enterprise UK, compared to 19% in small and medium size businesses,  but Tom Rippin, CEO of On Purpose, says that quotas are “impossible” in social enterprises as they decrease the size of their talent pool and make “an already difficult task nigh impossible.”

Speaking exclusively to HR Grapevine, he said: “Just like other organisations though, social enterprises hire the best person for the job. Social enterprises are, by their nature, complex organisations with intricate incentive systems, complex stakeholder maps and multiple “bottom lines”. Imposing even more constraints on them by shrinking their talent pool makes an already difficult task nigh impossible. (The exceptions to this are of course social enterprises whose purpose is to provide employment or opportunities to individuals facing barriers to or discrimination in the labour market.)”