Caribbean boards are under pressure to deal with disruption and drive change, while addressing ever increasing regulatory and societal expectations.How are they responding? PwC’s Pulse Survey reveals that board executives recognise that change is needed in areas ranging from boardroom diversity to the management of climate-related risks. Yet the pace of change remains slow and good intentions aren’t always being translated into meaningful actions.

PwC in the Caribbean’s Turning words into actions: Caribbean Corporate Governance PulseSurvey 2024 surveyed more than 50 directors from a cross-section of private and public sectororganisations within the region. The pulse survey was a follow-up to our 2022 report and thefindings offer fascinating insights into progress, emerging challenges and updates needed ingovernance practices.

Board members report progress but still struggle to make headway
Directors report that overall progress on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) matters ismore positive – more than half of respondents have built ESG considerations into their strategy andrisk management to some extent, but less than 10% strongly agree that ESG is regularly on theboardroom agenda or that their boards have a defined process for ESG oversight.

Board executives believe that diversity improves board (44% strongly agree) and company (30%strongly agree) performance. Despite this, nearly a quarter report that they’ve taken no action toboost boardroom diversity since our last survey two years ago. A further third have engaged indiscussions, but got no further.

Meanwhile, more than 40% of the organisations in our survey don’t conduct regular boardassessments. Of the nearly 60% who do, most are evaluated internally rather than independently.

Kevin Cambridge, Advisory and ESG leader, PwC Bahamas, said:
“Once again PwC in the Caribbean has embarked on a very transformative initiative using theplatform of a survey to sharpen our approach to ESG in our various markets. With this being oursecond iteration, the information gives us a fresh look to evaluate what has changed, what hasimproved and what work needs to be done. Building on the knowledge and research we’veconducted allows us to continue to lay the groundwork for our approach to see what gaps need tobe filled. For example nearly 60% of respondents have carried out an assessment in the past year,which is an increase from our previous survey in 2022.

PwC is well positioned to assess similar gaps to help our clients determine the way forward. Locallyand across the PwC in the Caribbean region, our firms continue to upskill our people to ensure weare leading the charge in ESG developments. In November 2023, we hosted our 2nd Annual ESGWeek, which included a series of webinars among our week of activities and allowed both our staffand clients to interact with industry experts who are trending forward in their ESG journeys.”PwC’s Pulse survey raises questions as to whether Caribbean boards are moving far and fastenough to address the rapidly-evolving challenges they face and to turn words into actions.

Drawing on our work with public and private sector organisations across the Caribbean, fivepriorities stand out:

Associate good governance with strength and opportunity
Governance is far more than just compliance. Taking a broader, more innovative and informedapproach to governance can help boards to seize opportunities, stay ahead of uncertainty andmeet changing stakeholder expectations.

Refocus oversight and control
Boards need appropriate expertise, experience and data to deal with emerging issues. Technologyand ESG are among the areas where boards may need to broaden their skill sets. Howeverchange management could be just as important at a time when change is the one constant basedon the industry and focus of an organisation.

Get on the front foot on ESG
ESG should be at the centre of the boardroom agenda alongside other key strategic priorities suchas sales, share prices and returns. Caribbean boards must step up and lead their enterprises inmaking ESG an integral part of their strategy, putting the mechanisms in place to support executiveteams in delivering.

Make boardroom diversity a reality
The starting point for broadening the lens on diversity is the executive pipeline.This should includeidentifying high potential employees from underrepresented groups and ensuring that they have thementoring and support to move up the management and executive directorship ladders.In addition, some high potential candidates may lack the confidence to push for a position on theboard or don’t think they meet the criteria for selection. It’s therefore important to convince morepeople that being a board member is a role that they could perform well in and in which they canmake a difference.

Make assessments count
Regular board assessments can help to ensure that members are focusing the right amount of timeon the right areas as demands change. Assessments can also help to gauge the performance ofthe board and identify any issues that need to be resolved. Engaging an independent reviewer canbring greater objectivity and fresh insights to the process.