THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY IN TECH

The world of technology is the most powerful and growing industry, with the potential to grow to unimaginable heights. However, it is one of the industries that lack diversity and inclusion, gender and race specifically. Due to this very apparent lack, it can often be seen as a deterrent for women or ethnic minorities to feel comfortable entering these environments or even believing they’d have a chance at success. Why is that?

Here is a personal account of a Black woman in tech

Q. How and what made you get into tech?

“I’ve always been interested in the growth of technology and the potential it has to change the world, I decided to study computer science at university and begin my career “

Q. What have been your biggest struggles?

“Choosing a particular path after finishing university has been a struggle and trying to find a specific role that I love at a company where I am comfortable. I’ve worked at three different fintech firms and find that I tend to be the only woman or very few women within my team, especially being in my mid-twenties.

Everyone has always been much older than me which makes social events and socializing at or outside of work sometimes awkward or boring. As you spend the majority of time at work / working, I think it’s important to have some friends or people you can relate to. It helps with motivation which in turn links to productivity and creates a safety bubble.

When you need help or make mistakes, it’s easier to approach the situation rather than approaching team members who may not be able to relate to the issue, and could potentially overreact to the mistake made. To conclude, I tend to be the only young black woman working in tech and find that the biggest struggle of this is finding someone to relate to.”

Also, here are some statistics for you to have a look at:

- 17% tech students are female

- 26% of people in tech are women

- Less than 3% of those women are black

- More than 50% of women in tech report gender inequality or discrimination in male dominated environments

- At Facebook, only 2.1% of tech jobs are held by Black employees

- At Microsoft, only 6.6% of employees are Black

Having diversity in tech is important for businesses to stay relevant to their customers and stay competitive in their market as it provides an opportunity for growth. Although companies are aware of this importance, 68% of business leaders still report a lack of diversity in the workplace, even after spending billions on diversity and inclusion efforts such as workshops, seminars or spreading awareness for the minority in tech. While there has been an increase in diverse hires of the years, it’s simply not increasing quickly enough and it is still something that is very much an issue.

Diversity in tech is also important as it can help businesses to understand their customers better and be more relatable to them if they have a diverse workforce. Would an all-male workforce be able to create products that can relate to or benefit a woman? There are various examples of companies who have created products without input from women of colour, which is essentially bad for business as statistics show that women control about £16.2 trillion in consumer spending. If the company promoted diversity, and spent more time trying to hire and hire women or people of color in their workforce, it would lead to better business engagement and an increase in their customer base, as they can relate to the product more, and even better, the people behind the product.

Though women are unrepresented in the tech industry, it is even worse for women of color. Not only are they misrepresented in the workplace, but they are more likely to be subject to discrimination, and often feel intimidated, especially in all male environments. They also experience things such as being underpaid, not having career progression opportunities, being misunderstood, and receiving less support from senior leaders. These factors, lead to women/people of color find tech jobs less appealing and less accessible, as they recognize it as an industry that is simply not made for them.

Some statistics show that 61% of tech employees worldwide believe diversity and inclusion initiatives can be effective in the workplace, but 14% think it is not effective at all, for CEOs and founders, 51% of them think D&I initiatives aren’t effective. Could this be because they aren’t implementing the right practices?

Understandably, as it’s been an issue for so long, it may be hard for businesses to know where to begin when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. But here are a few ways that diversity can be included in tech:

Focusing on improving company culture

Developing an inclusive culture and allowing minorities to feel a sense of belonging, as well as recognizing inclusive holidays such as black history month and ensuring employees have undergone inclusivity or bias training. It is also important to show the misrepresented groups such as women or people of color on the company website, on the company’s social media or at conferences etc.

Changing the recruiting strategy

Perhaps working with organizations who support and develop diverse tech talent.

As well as hiring diverse talent, put an emphasis on developing diverse talent within the company

Support the growth of employees by creating training programs, giving opportunities for employees to learn new skills, and allowing growth opportunities to be more accessible and attainable. Developing a leadership training program for unrepresented employees would also be beneficial.

As written in this blog, diversity and inclusion is beneficial for those who are unrepresented to have a presence in tech and with  minorities becoming more apparent in the tech world, it would encourage more people to strive for a career in tech, as they will have people to relate to, and are seeing programs and initiatives that would mean they’d be supported. It is also beneficial for companies to invest in these initiatives as it would improve their businesses and customer relationships and retention, and therefore strengthen their brand.

There is still a long way to go with diversity in tech, but it is important that it is recognized and the commitment to changing and improving it starts now.

 

At Franklin Fitch we are committed to raising awareness, tackling bias, and giving people a voice through our Inclusive Infrastructure. To read more about this please click here or feel free to speak to one of our team about finding a new opportunity.