Diversity Now Please
Why is diversity in tech (or more correctly the lack of) it such a difficult problem to solve? Manchester Digital report a slight improvement in 2018 but we are still nowhere near where we need to be. Everyone deserves a chance to the career they want without barriers and equality in pay is obviously a no brainer. But diversity also leads to better company performance financially so it makes good business sense too. Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity for example are 15% more likely to have above average financial returns.
If we are going to really tackle the problem, here in Federation we believe that we need to address three things:
- Education
- Recruitment
- Retention
Education and Diversity
EngineeringUK’s report “The State of Engineering” in 2013 estimated that between 2010 and 2020 there will be 1.86 million new jobs needing engineering skills giving a net increase in jobs in the sector of 204,400. This means that we need to double the number of graduates and apprentices in the engineering discipline alone by 2020 to meet demand. But our schools don’t seem to be set up to meet this massive challenge:
- 54% of English schools do not offer Computer Science GCSE
- 30% of English GCSE pupils attend a school that does not offer Computer Science GCSE — the equivalent of 175,000 pupils each year
- Only 11% of Key Stage 4 students took GCSE Computer Science (62,703 out of 588,000)
- Only 1 in 5 Computer Science GCSE pupils are female
- England meets only 68% of its recruitment target for entries into computing teacher training courses, lower than Physics and Classics
In addition, teachers in disadvantaged schools often have lower (stereotypical) expectations of under-represented groups in STEM reinforcing their non-STEM-self-identify. Pupils themselves from age 10 start to self-identify as “not STEM”
In a survey carried out in 2014 ((Improving Diversity in STEM: A report by the Campaign for Science andEngineering (CaSE) May 2014) with parents from socially deprived areas the most common responses to why the parents of children surveyed did not consider engineering as a career choice were that they didn’t know anything about engineering, didn’t know any engineers or just hadn’t considered it. So focusing on families and not just individual children is important.
In addition the CaSE research shows the strong impact that primary teachers’ knowledge and confidence in science have on students’ attitudes towards science and their attainment and progression on it. Currently only 5% of teachers in primary education have a science related degree. This severely limits their ability to promote the uptake of science and technology related activities and this unintended bias by teachers in turn contributes to low participation rates.
So we in the tech sector need to redouble our efforts to engage with schools at an early stage to help them vision what future careers in technology can be. For example The Manchester Digital Skills Festival run by Manchester Digital brings those interested in a digital career together with education providers and digital and tech businesses from across the region to celebrate an exciting shared future. There is also loads of great work being done by organisations like Hive, Hack Manchester and others but largely built on the work of a huge volunteer base. Isn’t it time we started to take a city-wide joined up approach to our schools about the importance of technology for their pupils?
Recruitment
Words matter. Especially when you are looking to recruit a functional, inclusive and naturally diverse tech team. So pay careful attention to the working of your job adverts. One study published in 2013 in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found “that masculine wording in job advertisements leads to less anticipated belongingness and job interest among women.” The study suggested that this perpetuates gender inequality maintaining the status quo. Based on this Kat Matfield has built a wonderful gender decoder to help you test whether your job advert has the kind of subtle linguistic gender-coding that has such a discouraging effect.
But it doesn’t start or stop with your advertising strategy you should also be offering unconscious bias training as part of your recruitment process. No one is intentionally biased against a certain person or profile, but it’s an inherent part of everyone’s learnt decision making process. We associate certain jobs with certain types of people. When looking at job applicants, we’re more likely to use biases to analyse people that are the same sex, race, religious conviction and nationality. When we lack information our unconscious bias fills in the gaps.
And pay particular attention to your interview panels. People generally have a bias towards hiring people like themselves. So it’s critical that the interview panel and decision makers are as diverse as the talent that you want to hire.
As well as doing this your recruitment processes should be mindful of not excluding neurodiverse people who may suffer from conditions like Autism or Aspergers. According to Sarah Hendrickx, an autism consultant and trainer, “Some highly talented, unusual thinkers may have struggled for many years to find their niche, and [might] not look great on paper.”
To improve the recruitment process, Hendrickx suggests offering work trials, which allow candidates to demonstrate their capability. She also recommends focusing less on CVs and more on evidencing the skill required for the job. “Put your preconceptions to one side — don’t assume that someone who doesn’t play the interview game well or make eye contact is bored or arrogant.” Neurodiverse people may only answer the questions asked and may not know how to expand in ways that will highlights their skills or experience, she adds.
Retaining and Growing
And if you have managed to recruit a functional, inclusive and naturally diverse tech team how can you be sure to keep them? Well don’t be sure. There is lots of research to indicate that while most companies spend lots of time and money on recruitment strategies they often pay zero on diversity retention. The Kapor Centre for Social Impact last year published a first of its kind in-depth analysis as to why people in tech left their jobs voluntarily. Their key findings suggest that when 5 common diversity and inclusion initiatives are in place employees are less likely to leave due to feeling mistreated.
By definition diversity means difference — which can make it harder for new hires to assimilate. If they don’t experience the emphasis on diversity that they expected from the hiring process then they will certainly start thinking about their departure.
It’s important too to challenge company culture and provide leadership from the top. This blog from Matt Miller one of the Founders of Ustwo is a really good example. Titled Family before Fampany — learning the importance of parental leave the hard way, Matt sets out why the company has taken the decision to offer 6 months parental leave to both men and women in the company at full pay:
“Now, both men and women can take 6 months off at full pay within that first year. They have the choice to not pay any attention to what happens at ustwo and the time to give their partner support and love, in a way that I wasn’t able to. Go off and be a little family… enjoy the time… it goes quickly… form that proper bond. There is another, perhaps larger reason why this change in parental leave is so important — and this is something I have been slower to realise. Until companies enable men and women to care for families equally there won’t be societal change. Outdated gender roles — ones ingrained in any unequal parental leave policy — will persist.
Here in Federation we want your help to shape the future of Diversity in Tech so in April we’ll be hosting a number of workshops from 6pm — 9 pm on the 5th, 10th and 16th of April 2018. We’ll be exploring some of the topics touched on in this blog but more importantly hopefully learning of new issues and challenges from you along with creative ways of solving them. Follow this link for more details on each workshop.
- Thursday 5th April: Tech Education and Diversity: How do we increase the pool of diverse people wanting to work in STEM?
- Tuesday 10th April: Creating an inclusive recruitment strategy: How do we recruit a functional, inclusive and naturally diverse tech team?
- Monday 16th April: Retaining and growing diverse talent: How do we create a workplace that intrinsically nurtures the needs of a diverse workforce?
