Employer appeal, diversity and new careers in tech

CWJobs’ Commercial Director Dominic Harvey recently joined by Steve Ward, UK & Ireland Director at Universum in a webinar to discuss employer appeal, diversity and new careers in tech.

Some of the topics discussed included:

• What tech talent cares about when choosing an employer
• How Covid-19 impacts the UK’s tech workforce
• The state of gender equality in tech
• Candidates’ outlook for a career in tech
• Practical advice to secure the best tech talent

Watch the webinar

A resilient market with an active talent pool

Dominic began by highlighting the impact that Covid-19 has had on many industries, including tech. Despite an initial slowing in the sector, he shared the positive news that in the last three months, CWJobs has seen a 14% increase in its applications-to-visits ratio. He also revealed that there has been a 25% increase in jobs posted on the platform, and a 6% increase in website visits. These figures refer to August to October compares to May to July.

Dominic shared an insightful statistic from CWJobs’ Confidence Index 2020, which finds that 49% of IT leaders believe their business will increase tech budgets in the future because of new learnings from Covid-19.

Employer appeal to tech professionals

Discussing the UK tech talent market, Steve shared insights from a recent Universum survey of 1,577 IT and tech professionals. He revealed that when looking for jobs, tech talent considers 34 companies on average. Steve supplemented these findings by saying:

This shows that tech talent is open to considering more organisations. They are quite judicial about who they want to work for, which is why it’s so important to understand what tech talent wants from an employer. Tech companies are finding it harder to differentiate themselves from competitors and grabbing the attention of tech talent is increasingly hard.

Steve then shared another statistic, which shows that although tech talent is open to opportunities, they are still loyal to employers. He revealed that 62% of IT and tech professionals would recommend their current employer and 66% are satisfied with their current employer.

Dominic then conducted a poll with the webinar attendees and asked: ‘In which area do you focus the most in your job ads to attract tech candidates?’ The results revealed that 56% said job characteristics, followed by people and culture (26%), employer reputation (15%) and career advancement (4%).

When discussing what tech candidates care about when choosing an employer, Steve revealed that the top answers are embracing new technology (50%), flexible working conditions (46%), friendly working environment (50%) and a competitive base salary (56%).

How Covid-19 has impacted the UK’s tech workforce

Steve then shared insights into how candidate expectations have changed since March as a result of Covid-19. He revealed that 16% of men and 13% of women are looking for opportunities to embrace new technology. Also, 7% of men and 5% of women are looking for good flexible working conditions and 9% of men and 5% of women are looking for innovation.

Steve went on to say that although these results are somewhat unsurprising, employers need to clearly demonstrate in their communications how they are catering for candidate demand for embracing new technology.

The state of gender equality in tech

On the topic of gender equality, Steve began by saying that in tech, the gender gap doesn’t appear to be narrowing and that in fact, it’s widening. He shared the statistic that women have 20% lower salary expectations in tech compared to their male colleagues. Based on the Universum research, the average expected salary for men is £47,547, yet only £38,074 for women.

Dominic then ran an internal poll and asked: ‘Do you know what to include in a job ad to resonate better with female tech talent?’ The results revealed that 42% said they were unsure, 39% said yes, and 19% said no.

Steve revealed that there was a significant difference in what men and women look for in a tech role. Whereas men look for a competitive base salary, opportunities to embrace innovation and work with new technologies, women look for good flexible working conditions, opportunities to embrace work-life balance, and a friendly work environment.

Universum’s findings show that the most attractive companies to women in tech are Google, Microsoft, NHS, Amazon and Apple. When considering the most attractive companies to tech talent overall, Dominic commented that it was encouraging to see British companies like the Secret Intelligence Service and the BBC included in the list.

Practical advice for employers in tech

When discussing what conclusions employers can draw from Universum’s survey findings, Dominic outlined some practical advice. He said it’s important for employers to understand that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to recruiting and that companies need to have tailored messaging.

It is also very important to adapt communications to suit the new working environment and the need for companies to provide clear guidance on opportunities for female talent.

Dominic also shared insights from CWJobs’ Turning to Tech survey. He revealed that 1 in 2 non-tech workers in the UK who are thinking of a career change would consider a tech role. He also revealed that 22% of all workers have taken online tech training as a result of Covid-19.

In order to attract a growing talent pool, Dominic said that companies need to be open to considering talent from far and wide. They need to clearly communicate training opportunities within their job ads and consider various job backgrounds, levels of experience and transferable skills.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions for our webinar speakers.