The importance of making the UK tech industry diverse and accessible

According to McKinsey’s recent Delivering Through Diversity report, companies with the most ethnically and culturally diverse boards worldwide are 43% more likely to experience higher profits – an important reflection as many companies try to recover from the impact of COVID-19.

Let’s take a closer look at the importance of making the UK tech industry diverse and accessible:

Keeping diversity and inclusion at the top of the tech agenda

Despite the benefits of a diverse tech industry, it seems that companies aren’t doing enough to enforce positive change. Hays’ Diversity and Inclusion Report 2021 finds that while 62% of professionals say their employer actively talks about the importance of ED&I in the workplace, less than half (48%) think their employer combines discussion with noticeable action. What’s more, less than half (46%) of professionals believe there are sufficient efforts across their organisation to recruit diverse talent.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the CIPD reported that 14% of employers put diversity and inclusion in their top three HR priorities, compared to just 5% one month into lockdown. Keeping inclusion on the business agenda as we move on from the COVID-19 pandemic is vital in driving real change in the tech industry.

In the current climate, it’s important that companies foster inclusive cultures to broaden their tech talent pool and inspire talent of all ages, ethnicities, orientations, and genders in order to cope with the increased demand for tech skills. Employers that don’t have D&I as a top priority could be missing out on quality talent.

Encouraging the development of tech skills

Encouraging people from diverse and minority backgrounds to develop tech skills is a positive step towards bridging the UK’s tech skills gap. Harvey Nash’s Digital Leadership Report 2021 finds that 67% of organisations report a technology skills shortage.

For example, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) state that the recruitment pool for cyber security professionals has a shortfall of 10,000 people a year, despite being the most sought after tech skill in the UK.

According to a recent report by Accenture, failure to close the digital skills gap could see the UK economy forfeit as much as £141.5 billion of the GDP growth promised by investment in intelligent technologies over the next ten years.

Digital literacy is important in every career nowadays and the need for tech skills will only increase as companies continue to rely on technology post COVID-19.

How companies can support diversity and inclusion

One of the principal ways that companies can support DE&I is to communicate their own efforts towards achieving a more diverse and accessible workforce. Hays’ Diversity and Inclusion Report finds that employers within large companies are more likely to communicate their commitment and progress towards improving ED&I to their employees (61%), compared to those in SME organisations (37%).

Smaller companies in particular, would do well to develop industry partnerships, internal policies, and employee focus groups in order to improve their commitment to DE&I and ensure they communicate their efforts to the wider industry.

CWJobs’ Confidence Index 2021 reveals that over a fifth of tech workers (23%) want their company to have a more diverse and representative boardroom. They want their company to make more hires from ethnic backgrounds (22%), different socio-economic groups (22%) and women (20%).

Companies should also use data to recruit under-represented groups. Tools such as Equality Boost, can help companies make their DE&I strategies a reality. Leveraging a unique blend of data science, Equality Boost pinpoints when, where and how to reach the tech talent you need by demographic, location and interest.

Likewise, AI-powered technology like Instant Candidate Recommendation tools can suggest highly relevant and active candidates based on their skills and match to the role. This removes any bias in the recruitment process and ensures that people are hired for their skills above all else.

Providing employees with inclusive benefits can also help support women. CWJobs’ Turning to Tech research finds that nearly one quarter (24%) of female tech workers want a better work-life balance. Companies that offer benefits such as shared parental leave, flexible working, and childcare subsidies, make themselves more appealing to female candidates.

Supporting charitable organisations

Companies can further their DE&I efforts by actively supporting charities that strive for a more diverse and inclusive tech industry. At CWJobs’, we’re supporting the work of two industry charities, Tech She Can and codebar.

Tech She Can works with industry, government and schools to improve the ratio of women in technology roles. They aim to inspire and educate girls and women to study technology subjects and pursue technology careers so that they have an equal opportunity to participate in the jobs of the future.

Codebar runs free programming workshops for minority group members. The charity’s goal is to enable minority groups to learn programming in a safe and collaborative environment and expand their career opportunities. They run free workshops and events to try and create opportunities for their students and make technology and coding more accessible.

CWJobs is proud to be a sponsor of the codebar London workshop on the 8^th of December.