MSCI Canada IMI Women’s Leadership Select Index

The MSCI Canada IMI Women’s Leadership Select Index aims to represent the performance of companies that exhibit a commitment towards gender diversity among their board of directors and among the executive leadership positions. The index includes companies which are gender diversity leaders in Canada.

Key Points:

• MSCI has developed the MSCI Canada IMI Women’s Leadership Select Index to support investors seeking exposure to companies that are promoting and maintaining gender diversity among their workforce.
• The index is constructed as a sector neutral index so that each GICS Sector weight is equal to its weight in the MSCI parent index.
• The Index includes all companies from the parent index which meet certain criteria in the following three areas: Number of Women in Leadership Position, Percent of Women on Board & Discrimination and Workforce Diversity Controversy.¹
• MSCI ESG Controversy Scores are used in the index construction process, with an aim to exclude companies implicated in serious labor rights or human rights controversies, or any companies involved in very severe controversies as defined by MSCI ESG Research.

MSCI research shows that companies with both a more diverse board and stronger talent management practices enjoyed higher growth in employee productivity compared to companies with a diverse board only or to companies with strong talent management practices only. All of these groups outperformed companies with both mostly male boards and lagging talent management practices; those companies had the lowest rates of employee productivity growth, relative to industry peers.²

Collectively, these findings bolster the idea that board gender diversity is a reflection of the attention being paid by companies to human capital recruitment, management and development. Executed effectively, we believe this could contribute to higher long-term value creation by the firm. Companies prioritizing talent at all levels, including the board, consistently outperformed all other groups analyzed in this study. Meanwhile, companies that failed to make talent management a priority across the firm consistently underperformed. Investors might point to companies with strong human capital practices when seeking to engage companies whose practices are behind the curve.²
 

¹ MSCI Canada IMI Women’s Leadership Select Index Methodology, 3.2 Security Selection

² The paper cited contains hypothetical, back tested or simulated performance results.  There are frequently material differences between back tested or simulated performance results and actual results subsequently achieved by any investment strategy.  The analysis and observations are limited solely to the period of the relevant historical data, back test or simulation.  Past performance — whether actual, back tested or simulated —is no indication or guarantee of future performance.  None of the information or analysis herein is intended to constitute investment advice or a recommendation to make (or refrain from making) any kind of investment decision or asset allocation and should not be relied on as such. Collectively, these findings bolster the idea that board gender diversity is a reflection of the attention being paid by companies to human capital recruitment, management and development. Executed effectively, we believe this could contribute to higher long-term value creation by the firm. Companies prioritizing talent at all levels, including the board, consistently outperformed all other groups analyzed in this study. Meanwhile, companies that failed to make talent management a priority across the firm consistently underperformed. Investors might point to companies with strong human capital practices when seeking to engage companies whose practices are behind the curve.