Diversity and inclusion | Young workers call out big tech – DIGIT.FYI
Tech businesses are failing in their inclusion and diversity efforts, according to a new study surveying young workers.
The failure to create inclusive work environments is contributing to poor employee retention rates amongst young tech workers and hindering efforts to address the lack of diversity in tech.
Wiley Edge’s new Diversity In Tech 2022 report surveyed 2,000 18 to 24 year olds to find out their perceptions of the technology industry, and spoke to 200 senior business leaders in key industries to establish what is currently being done to improve diversity in their teams.
The findings show some stark statistics on each side of the conversation.
Conception Versus Reality
Average tech salary is currently up to 50% higher than the average for all vacancies in the UK, and is increasing despite all other job salaries decreasing in 2021.
Tech salaries, however, face the same issues as other industries in the UK.
The latest ONS data suggests that about 78% of reporting employees said median hourly pay was higher for men than for women in their organisation.
However, only 31% of UK business leaders believe they have a gender pay gap problem.
Further, race and ethnicity pay gaps are also an issue: the research found that 25% of businesses admitted to having a race and ethnicity pay gap problem, with 26% of businesses failing to collect data on the matter altogether.
Conceptions are also keeping people from joining the workforce altogether – the research found many negative perceptions of the tech industry’s culture and demographics, with 11% saying that the tech industry was too male dominated.
The industry is also perceived as too white – 9% of mixed-raced respondents said they would be deterred from the industry because it is not ethnically diverse enough, with 10% of Asian respondents and 36% of Black respondents saying the same.
Meanwhile, the average response among all ethnic groups to the same question was 5%, meaning that white respondents dragged the average down and did not see the lack of diversity as an entry barrier.
Those working in the tech industry seemed to feel the effects of this: 48% of people felt uncomfortable in their job because of their gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background or neurodevelopmental condition.
This number rose for certain demographics: to 53% for women, 66% for mixed-race respondents, and 59% for gay respondents.
People’s perception on culture also seems to be largely correct, with only 20% of respondents saying they like their company’s culture, and 20% saying they felt welcomed by their colleagues.
Women were even less likely to feel welcomed and enjoy their company’s culture, and 45% said they didn’t have enough personal support.
Black African respondents, who were the most deterred from entering the tech industry, were the most likely to say they did not feel welcomed by their colleagues and that they did not like their company’s culture.
While workers say one of the main reasons they left their tech role was a lack of sense of belonging, 65% of company respondents said they worked hard to foster an inclusive environment.
This is despite 64% admitting they struggle to retain employees from underrepresented backgrounds, and 18% say they’ve received complaints about diversity and inclusion from current and former employees.
It seems that perceptions of the diversity and inclusion in the tech industry by potential young workers are proving true, while corporations are turning a blind eye to even their most glaring issues.
Awareness and Actions
The research highlighted that most businesses are aware of their diversity and inclusion struggles: 87% are aware of a continuing lack of diversity in their tech teams.
Addressing these issues is more disjointed, however.
While 55% of businesses have a mentorship program for young workers, less than half have a system to review if additional support is needed for their fresh staff.
Only a quarter of businesses have an employee resource group, and only a quarter have an onboarding process that takes into account exit interviews and historical feedback from employees.
More than half of businesses say they are actively trying to address diversity issues, but the persisting problems show that their current efforts may not be enough.
As such, only 43% of respondents currently have diversity targets in place, suggesting that most are failing to take it seriously.
While companies say they struggle to attract diverse entry-level tech talent, they also mostly higher from a narrow pool of applicants.
Recommended
21% said they exclusively hire graduates from top universities, with 39% saying that they are more likely to hire grads from those schools. Only 8% say they consider applicants from all types of higher education qualifications.
This narrow talent pool makes hiring overall more difficult: 62% of those who only recruit from top universities struggled to find entry level software engineers.
“In order to achieve greater diversity at a junior level, businesses must actively work to widen their talent pool, publicising their roles to a wider variety of people and encouraging them to apply,” Scott Coleman-Allan, Director of North AMerica Talent, Wiley Edge said.
Businesses also appear guilty of not tackling unconscious bias in hiring. 61% do not use neutral job descriptions, and only 32% anonymise CVs.
Further, only 40% of businesses have invested in anti-bias training for hiring managers, and applicants are feeling the effects, with only 27% saying that diversity is a big focus during recruitment.
The report surmised that the tech industry certainly still has a ways to go to address their diversity gap, and changing their hiring tactics will help overcome the skills shortage overall.
Get all the latest news from DIGIT direct to your inbox
Our newsletter covers the latest technology and IT news from Scotland and beyond, as well as in-depth features and exclusive interviews with leading figures and rising stars.
To subscribe, click here.