In the UK, women make up 50% of the workforce but only make up 26% of tech talent. Further afield, women represent a mere 17% of the tech workforce in Europe.
Gender disparity in tech is a chronic, worldwide problem.
CodeOp was founded in 2018 to help solve that very problem. We’re the first international tech school providing accessible education for women, trans and gender non-confirming individuals (women+) to transition or upskill into tech. The Bumble Tech Academy is one such example: we partnered with Bumble to offer a paid six-month technical training programme for women+, culminating in a full-time junior developer role.
Do you regularly hear “but there just aren’t many women applying for these roles”?
Kyra Seay, a core member of the Bumble team who delivered this game-changing initiative, is a Social Innovator and expert on Inclusive Leadership. She’s shared with us her advice on how to tackle such objections and how to get the buy-in you need to attract and retain diverse talent. This covers 4 main areas:
- Focus on progress, not perfection
- Embrace data to tell your DEI story
- Get ready to talk ROI
- Align the needs of the business with its people
As a bold and creative thinker, Kyra applies much-needed radical, non-linear thinking to complex problems at the intersection of brand values, product, internal culture, and societal issues. As our Founder, Katrina Walker says – this can “no longer be a ‘nice-to-have’, but a ‘must have’ requirement for attracting top talent that truly represents our society today”. According to Kyra, when done effectively, social innovation truly delivers on traditional business metrics, societal improvements, the needs of employees and diversity outcomes.
Focus on progress, not perfection
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) can no longer be an optional box-ticking exercise: it futureproofs the business and delivers new ideas. But it’s not just good for business, it’s good for belonging. Today, the political is the personal and the personal is the professional. In Kyra’s own words: “companies are made of people, and their ability to perform professionally is so often impacted by personal and political external factors”.
A 2020 Glassdoor survey backs this up – it found that 32% of US employees and job seekers would not apply to a job for a company where there is a lack of diversity among its workforce.
So when it comes to launching diversity recruitment initiatives, don’t make the mistake of waiting until your ‘house is in order’. “Get your house together as you go”, Kyra advises. There’s no time to wait to achieve perfection. There will constantly be gaps in our understanding. We’ll always want to improve our policies, procedures and processes.
“In innovation, inevitably, there will be failures”, Kyra says. And that’s ok. We’re always learning about the needs of others. Those needs are always changing and so there are always more ways to improve. Instead, get ready to feel uncomfortable – embrace humility and encourage feedback, every step of the way.
The best time to get started on your organisational journey is today. Candidates and existing talent don’t expect perfection – rather, an ongoing and enthusiastic commitment to meaningful change.
Embrace data to tell your DEI story
Data is one of your greatest assets in challenging the mythical “pipeline problem”. Use hard data and non-disputable facts to counter the false narrative that there isn’t enough interest in tech roles from women+.
For example: the Bumble Tech Academy received over 1600 applications in just two weeks.
Simple, anonymised questionnaires or surveys can be an easy starting point. Here’s the thing – data doesn’t need to be sexy, nor should it feel intimidating or overcomplicated. Kyra advises: “Be prepared to get creative with it. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Identifying data points and measuring that data simply starts with identifying the questions you want answers to. Data is simply information.”
Your initial approach to DEI data can be as simple as asking questions like:
- How well do your tech teams represent the full gender spectrum?
- What kind of data matters most to you and your organisation?
- What challenges do your employees and candidates face?
- How diverse is your pool of candidates?
The answers (some of which will provide quantitative and some, qualitative data) to your questions, and in fact how you ask them should be met with curiosity, not judgement. Take that last question of candidate pool diversity, for example. In some contexts, Kyra reminds us – it’s not always legal to ask directly about identity or store that data.
When it comes to diversity recruitment initiatives, ask yourself also “What will success look like?” and “What change do we want to see?” Kyra raises the important question: “How do you know if you’re moving the needle in the right direction if you’re not tracking what’s measureable?”
Your research and data should provide a basic snapshot of where you are. Then find consensus with where you want to go. Finally, define a plan of action to drive change that will help you achieve measurable progress.
It’s also important to work out what changes matter most, to:
- Decision makers and budget holders
- The organisation as a whole
- Society around you
If there is overlap of these three areas/stakeholders, start your work there!
Get Ready to Talk ROI
CodeOp was founded in response to the fact that socio-economic factors are the biggest barrier to under-represented communities accessing technical education. To create genuinely meaningful change, you must remove those barriers. 41% of those who apply to our own tech courses cannot move forward due to financial constraints.
That means not just funding training or transition programmes but also funding the income required to live day-to-day while doing that training. Guarantee paid employment at the end of that training. Closing the gender gap in tech requires bold, yet straightforward action.
Commitment to delivering diversity programmes requires financial investment from the business, for marketing, outreach, training and more. So it’s likely you’ll be expected to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI).
Kyra shares some benefits to highlight when pitching that all important return on the company’s investment:
Stand out from the crowd
The long-term return is clear differentiation from your competitors. Some might say you can’t put a price on that. Competition can keep CFOs up at night. Focusing on strong market share and constant innovation are two powerful investments in the future success of a company.
To retain market share, you need to (amongst other things) offer greater products or services than your competitors. That involves acquiring and retaining the best talent.
So when 76% of job seekers and employees today report that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers, it’s clear that investing in DEI initiatives will increase your organisation’s appeal to top tech talent.
Happy, loyal customers and regular new customers can contribute towards healthy profits, which in turn can generate funds for innovation.
So when one of the biggest risks and threats for businesses in 2022 and beyond is the failure to innovate, it’s clear that having diverse teams will increase the output of your innovation but also enable it to reach more diverse beneficiaries.
When you build teams with diverse perspectives and experiences, they are more likely to reflect the lived experiences of the customers you want to gain and your innovation will be more robust.
Profitability, productivity, performance
Are you battling that age-old meritocracy argument? Do your colleagues ‘just want the best person for the job’? When you remove the socio-economic barriers that under-represented candidates experience, you create a world of opportunity for you and your prospective, talented employees.
Data can also be your best friend when it comes to generating buy-in, so keep these statistics in your toolkit:
- Ethnic and cultural diversity on the executive team increases the likelihood of outperformance by 33%
- Racially diverse teams are more likely to outperform their non-diverse counterparts by 35%.
- The most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers on profitability.
- Inclusive cultures are 8x more likely to achieve better business outcomes, 6x more likely to be innovative and agile, 3x more likely to be high performing and 2x more likely to meet or exceed financial targets.
And this is why DEI and innovation strategies should be completely aligned. Social Innovation creates new solutions to societal problems, and within a business context they also solve business challenges.
By investing in social innovation now, your impact will be a future-proofed business. One which stands out from the crowd, enjoys higher profitability, productivity, performance and just as importantly, recognises its social responsibility to build a workplace that is truly diverse, equitable and inclusive.
Align the needs of the business with its people
Ambitious company growth goals can require aggressive hiring targets. Meanwhile existing employees need to see professional growth opportunities and increased diversity. Similarly, future employees and candidates need evidence of those diversity efforts.
You can align the commercial needs of the business with the needs of your workforce by hiring and investing in diverse, homegrown talent. For Kyra, this means “a commitment to their success – through nurturing, respecting, welcoming and including this new and junior talent. It’s a long-term play: once they’re embedded in the organisation, be sure to offer continued access to mentoring, leadership, HR and paired work opportunities.”
This enables you to bring in a wide range of diverse employees, shape their skills and experience for the long-term success of both them and the business.
But what’s the alternative?
Keep doing more of the same. Bleeding existing talent due to employee dissatisfaction and a continuous cycle of new talent to bridge the gap. Thinking short-term only. By bowing to the pressures to hire new talent quickly, matching exact skills requirements and desired experience, you continuously hire people with a similar profile, Kyra reminds us. Unconscious bias creeps in and you end up focusing on ‘culture fit’ instead of ‘culture add’.
This ongoing churn, or employee turnover, is more costly than it is to retain talent. Investing time, effort and resources into helping diverse, homegrown talent ramp-up towards productivity while offering ongoing development and support is the key to aligning the needs of the business and your people.
Conclusion
Creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive tech workforce isn’t ever going to be easy, but it’s essential. It’s good for business and it’s good for society. So focus on progress, not perfection. Embrace data to tell your DEI story. So use it creatively, to ask questions and come up with answers to form a plan of action. Data is simply information. Use that data to counter the false pipeline problem theory. So get ready to talk about ROI. The returns are plentiful – increased differentiation, innovation, profitability, performance and productivity. Homegrown talent is key. An investment and commitment to its long-term success enables you to align the needs of the business with its people.
Closing the gender gap in tech requires bold, yet straightforward steps. So what action will you take today?
