As the tech sector begins to navigate a new year, it also has to tackle the challenges that come with it.
Many of these challenges relate to issues that the sector has been facing for some time, primarily, the urgent need to address diversity in the sector – from recruitment and career development to representation in senior roles and creating an inclusive environment – which is an area tech has notoriously lagged behind in.
Research has found that three in five tech businesses in the UK still believe there is a long way to go towards diversity and inclusion in the sector.
What is the gender diversity outlook for tech in 2022, and what changes can be made to have a positive impact?
The disruption caused by the pandemic has impacted nearly every area of work, and in the tech sector, this has also not just caused a standstill for diversity efforts, but in some cases, reversed them entirely.
A third of UK women in tech say that gender roles have regressed 10-20 years in an industry survey, widening inequalities between working men and women.
This also applies to problems around entering the sector, with 54% of respondents stating Covid has made it more difficult for them to break into the sector.
Before the pandemic, 59% of those surveyed felt that gender roles were progressing towards parity.
This significant step back for the sector when it comes to gender diversity means that many will be waiting to see how diversity plays a role in the recovery period of the pandemic.
Between July and September 2021, the UK created an additional 58,000 tech and IT jobs, with women taking the majority of new roles.
This coincides with data that reveals tech to be the third fastest sector for growth in jobs in the UK overall, and third fastest for the creation of jobs for women (with 41,000 women being employed by the information and communications sector between July and September, compared to 17,000 men).
Though this represents a significant rise in the number of women in tech, if this momentum is to be continued – particularly during the Great Resignation – the sector will need to make a greater effort towards diversity.
In the US, a 2.1% drop in representation from March 2020 occurred in 2021, with women only making up 26.7% of technologists.
There are also significant retention gaps to contend with in the US tech sector, with only 38% of women who majored in computer science working in the field compared to 53% of men – a trend dubbed the ‘leaky pipeline’ in which it is difficult to retain women in STEM jobs once they have graduated with a STEM degree.
Though traditional office working may be lagging behind hybrid working in popularity, in both cases, workplace culture can be actively working against the tech sector’s diversity goals.
Male-dominated workplaces, according to research, pay less attention to gender diversity (43%) and cause women to feel a need to prove themselves all or some of the time (79%).
This is important for tech organisations to take note of as it ties in heavily with the leaky pipeline – even if organisations can improve the diversity of their recruitment processes, it will contribute very little towards larger efforts if retention is poor.
Additionally, the research has pointed towards the fact that women working on more gender-diverse teams were less likely to perceive gender inequalities at work, being less likely to feel as though their gender is getting in the way of their success.
Women working in male-dominated environments are, contrastingly, more likely to report higher rates of gender discrimination and hostile work environments, highlighting the importance of workplace culture as part of wider diversity efforts.
Even with the challenges facing diversity efforts in the sector, there are plenty of ways that organisations can begin to hit their diversity goals.
- Reconsider employee benefits
We’ve spoken previously about the benefits that tech candidates value most, including hybrid working, choice of technology, growth opportunities, and work/life balance.
However, when targeting diversity, it is worth noting that women in tech care about compensation too.
52% of women care about compensation and pay compared to 33% of men, with 75% of men believing their employer offers equal pay compared to only 42% of women saying the same.
Though other benefits are of increasing importance to tech candidates, compensation is an important factor when looking to increase diversity within an organisation due to pay gaps.
- Make diversity and inclusion central to workplace culture
It might sound obvious, yet what is often overlooked is that even if an organisation has a diversity and inclusion strategy, if the workplace culture has not been aligned to this, they will still have the same difficulties as before.
This requires a commitment from every level of an organisation. Encouraging all employees to be engaged with diversity efforts and continually informing them of progress is likely to shift the culture in a positive direction.
- Adjust your recruitment process
There are a number of ways in which recruitment processes can be made more diverse, from blind recruitment drives (in which CVs are stripped of identifying information and instead focus on qualifications and skills) to using a variety of recruitment channels.
Primarily, an organisation should begin by considering the ways in which their current recruitment practices might be excluding certain demographics and work backwards from there and consider utilising a recruitment agency to streamline the process.
- Record and improve
Being transparent about diversity data can not only encourage more proactive behaviour in an organisation but also provide insights into the success of diversity and inclusion strategies and initiatives.
Beyond acting as an accountability measure, this data can also be utilised by diverse businesses to show their commitment to candidates.
The pandemic has further highlighted the necessity for the sector to take notice of and address gender diversity.
With data beginning to suggest that more women may be seeking and getting tech roles due to hybrid working, it’s time for tech organisations to consider how effective their current diversity and inclusion processes and strategies are for 2022.
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