We’ve spoken a lot recently about the benefits of diversity, and how tech is lagging behind in many respects, particularly when it comes to diversity in gender and ethnicity.
Part of creating and sustaining an innovative, dynamic business is embedding diversity into your business, processes and culture – but where do you start?
Head of HR for Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the UK and Ireland, Debbie Irish, recently spoke about diversity trends within the tech industry at large.
Let’s take a look at what we can learn from HP.
Flexibility levels the playing field
With up to 50% of female employees still cited as abandoning their tech careers even as diversity is becoming a focal point of conversation, the common question is ‘why?’.
Debbie explains how, for many women in the industry, a work-life balance is seen as a high priority that often isn’t met.
Since many women will both want and require flexibility from their workplaces to attain a good work-life balance, if they don’t feel as though this is an available option, they may just up and leave.
In many ways, the pandemic has shifted this due to remote working, meaning that home and familial responsibilities can be split more evenly between men and women.
In turn, both male and female employees feel more comfortable taking parental leave, increasing retention in the long-term and benefitting both employer and employee.
The key takeaway: Flexible work is beneficial for the entire workplace, as it offers the opportunity to achieve a good work-life balance, and normalise taking leave and returning to the workplace.
The recruitment process adjustments
As mentioned above, flexible and hybrid working are new and essential aspects of job advertising in the wake of the pandemic, and Debbie believes them to be equally important in showing adaptability to potential candidates.
Hiring managers and employees alike should be focused on supporting flexible working arrangements so that people can work in a way that suits them in terms of location, method and time.
Additionally, Debbie discusses the use of ‘Gender Decoder’ language software, which has been at the forefront of diversity discussions regarding recruitment for some time.
By running job adverts through this software, any language that may be potentially off-putting is eliminated, meaning that HP job adverts don’t contain gendered wording.
This is a great example to tech businesses looking to list openings, as gendered language can immediately impede diversity efforts by presenting a bias that causes women to feel as though they shouldn’t apply.
Technology is paving the way with this element of diversity, ensuring that the process is eliminated of bias and that recruitment starts on an equal foot.
The key takeaway: ensuring that the recruitment process has diversity embedded from the beginning can begin by removing gendered language from job adverts to ensure more women feel compelled to apply.
Gender balance pledge
The pay gap between men and women in tech has been a contentious issue for some time, with women receiving a medium hourly pay that was 1.8% lower than men’s, according to HP’s 2018-19 gender pay gap report.
There is the additional worry that the pandemic may have negatively impacted progress in this area too, which is why HP has globally pledged to achieve 50/50 gender equality in HP leadership by 2030.
Reaching a zero percent pay differential and narrowing the male to female employee percentage (currently 74% and 26% respectively) are other key areas requiring effort, which is expected to be tackled by recruiting, retaining and supporting career growth of female talent at all levels.
HP UK has always had a commitment to diversity, aiming to ensure 50% of their top-quality annual interns are women, and developing a returners programme that encourages women to resume their career after extended absence.
The important aspect for other businesses to emulate is that HP has made commitments that they stick to – by creating, tracking and recording their initiatives and progress, they can ensure their diversity efforts are taking root.
The key takeaway: it takes a collective effort and commitment to promote diversity, which is why laying out commitments towards diversity can make sure you are accountable and can track your progress in the area.
Early efforts should be a catalyst
The reason that diversity efforts can often be short-lived or lacking in impact is that they are a short-term action without a long-term intention.
Debbie describes HP’s short-term goals as a ladder up to the long-term goals, with the intention to reflect the society that we live and operate in.
This is an essential part of diversity in the workplace, as short-term goals should act as a catalyst for long-term goals in your business to ensure longevity.
For example, HP has announced their global Sustainable Impact goals for 2030, including pledges towards gender and racial equality in the tech industry, which is achieved by hitting short-term goals in order to make the long-term impact.
Key takeaway: make sure that your short-term goals are accelerating your business towards the long-term goals (and achievements) so that efforts can make maximum impact.
Representation impacts diversity
Debbie Irish discussed the impact representation has on all levels of a business, namely, that by fostering a diverse and inclusive environment, a culture of belonging is created that drives progress due to female employees feeling empowered.
This can be done by creating a network in which female employees can work with their management team in order to have a direct line to accelerating positive change.
Women in tech events can be a vital element of representation, by showing female employees role models in their sector and also allowing the opportunity to network with other women.
The key takeaway: when representation becomes a priority, it creates a sense of belonging that can empower women to effect genuine, meaningful change that they can be supported in.
As evidenced by HP’s diversity efforts, diversity starts at every level and having a strategy in place is essential in making significant progress.
Not only does diversity have the potential to increase retention and engagement, it can also set a precedent in an industry that still has some distance to move in order to achieve diversity on a large scale.
From de-biasing the recruitment process to creating diversity initiatives and career development programmes, HP is an example of how a commitment to diversity is wholly beneficial to businesses in tech and the employees within them.