Diversity Aside from delivering on the bottom line, gender diversity, or any
form of diversity of underrepresented groups, delivers many other enormous benefits to a company.
Attract the best talent A diverse workforce will support inclusion and belonging, which naturally attracts and retains talent, and all companies benefit from attracting the broadest network of talent. Tis only increases the chances of hiring the best and brightest workforce. A lack of diversity automatically narrows the talent pool and puts you at a disadvantage when competing for talent with more diverse companies.
More accurately reflect your customer base A diverse workforce will more accurately reflect a broader customer base. When customers see employees that reflect them, it increases their propensity to do business with the organisation. A diverse workforce will contribute to diversity of thought in product development, which means the organisation can create products or services with broader appeal, which will only contribute to increased adoption and revenue growth.
Lack of diversity squashes innovation A lack of diversity has an adverse impact on innovation. It constrains a company’s view of its ideal customer profile. It can fail to incorporate design considerations for a broader set of consumers, missing vital wider consumer trends or needs.
Breaking down barriers A huge barrier to underrepresented groups is not seeing role models, mentors, and people who ‘look like them’. Belonging and inclusion is created when we feel we can identify with colleagues who can understand us and our experience. On the flip side, the unconscious bias we may all have, particularly if we don’t belong to an underrepresented group, can creep into our recruiting, hiring, and advancement processes and create barriers to even bringing underrepresented groups into the tech industry. A key area to drive diversity is to work with the education sector
to encourage women to pursue technical subjects and introduce young women to tech and STEM and all the opportunities it offers. Tis requires a shiſt in mindset, as technical roles are oſten not
recommended to women as viable career options. For instance, in the UK, only 23% of students enrolled in computing courses at the undergraduate level were female in the academic years 2019/20 to 2021/22, according to the higher education statistics agency. Clearly there is a need to educate and make diversity a part of
the conversation with employees in the tech industry. Tis involves giving teams metrics that make them accountable for recruiting, hiring and promoting underrepresented candidates, focussing on and rewarding behaviours and practices that foster inclusion. It means making diversity part of employee training and conversations, and helping employees understand their own unconscious biases Unconscious bias sneaks into all parts of the employee lifecycle,
from hiring to promotions and so on. For example, do we limit recruitment practices to the places we know have had past success or to profiles that have been successful, but probably continue to perpetuate a lack of diversity? Are we guilty of passing over CVs
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where candidates have names that are not traditionally white, or do we assume people with families may not want demanding roles with promotion opportunities? We need to consistently challenge ourselves to expand our
recruiting pools, making sure our job descriptions, advertisements, and cohorts for hiring contain a balance of diverse candidates, and that we explore other techniques to take bias out of the process, using blind CVs, for example. Retaining diverse talent means helping create support structures to make individuals feel included, providing them with some of the advantages that their white male peers may have more readily. Retaining diverse talent will be easier when recruits can see leaders and peers that look like them and have similar experiences.
“A diverse workforce will contribute to diversity of thought in product development, which means the organisation can create products or services with broader appeal, which will only contribute to increased adoption and revenue growth.”
Education and training are essential, particularly in opening
our eyes to our own unconscious biases. Education and training programmes also demonstrate that the organisation takes diversity seriously.
The power of allies Men can be powerful voices and allies for women. Because they typically enjoy the comfort and power of being part of the majority, their voices may resonate more strongly with other men, so their advocacy or allyship, active engagement, and support of diversity initiatives help normalise it with others. Men can mentor and sponsor women for promotion and high-visibility opportunities. Tey can speak up or challenge assumptions when they see others exhibiting unconscious bias. Action is required to change the percentages, and we can all play
our part. If we see something is not working, then we must take action and speak out. We must seek to understand the challenges for women and respond to these with action. Ultimately, allyship is an empowering activity that everyone can
get involved in; it doesn’t have to be a big program or project of work. Sometimes the simplest actions can make a difference and if everyone supports in a small way – eventually those small gestures will make a big differ
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