How Can The Tech Industry Bridge The Workplace Diversity Gap

While diversity in technology teams and how to improve it, is certainly not a new topic, there is little doubt that more work still needs to be done. 

It is clear that the diversity in tech teams still does not fully reflect India’s increasingly-diverse society, whether this is in terms of gender, religion, region, language or caste, indicating continued room for improvement. 

If not addressed, this lack of diversity can create serious issues for technology businesses, including unintentional harm, reputational damage, and talented staff leaving a less diverse employer in favour of forward-thinking competitors.  

Let’s take a closer look at three key areas in which businesses can go about addressing this shortfall. 

Think Outside The Box When Hiring 

It is estimated that up to 70-80% of job vacancies are not posted online but rather filled internally or via referrals. This phenomenon, known as the ‘hidden jobs market’, means that the makeup of an organisation’s current workforce plays a key role in its future.  

If the organisation’s current workforce is already dominated by certain demographics, hiring through the current staff’s personal and professional networks is likely to exacerbate this discrepancy. Or, put more simply, if a business’ tech workforce is mainly made up of those who identify as men, future applicants to this business are also more likely to be men.

Given this, it is important for businesses to look outside their usual networks when sourcing new talent. This could be done both geographically (looking outside India’s “traditional” tech hubs and instead hiring employees from across the country) and virtually (ensuring jobs are posted on as many job boards, community groups, and networking organisations as possible). 

It may also be advisable to establish relevant geographical quotas. For example, setting a target for at least 50% of the tech team to be non-local, made it increasingly possible with the rise of hybrid and remote work. 

To overcome language and dialect barriers that this diversification may cause, companies could establish a common language for all to speak in work-related communications. 

Hire Full-Time Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Staff

Less than half (44%) of technology employees report that they work at a company with a dedicated D&I department. Given this shortfall, it may be that many technology businesses either do not have the in-house resource to dedicate to improving diversity or simply do not grasp the critical importance of D&I. Both of which can contribute heavily to the undiversified technology industry in which we now find ourselves. 

For smaller businesses that may not be able to invest in an entire D&I team immediately, it could be advisable to hire either a dedicated D&I officer or to assign relevant D&I responsibilities to a current employee. 

Some examples of jobs that might fall under this employee’s remit could be researching and implementing relevant company-wide D&I policies, creating internal training programmes for current and future staff, and tracking the companies’ ongoing diversity and inclusion metrics to identify where improvements could be driven. 

Establish Initiatives & Programmes Dedicated To Improving Diversity 

Part of dedicating specific resources to improving diversity in tech could also involve establishing initiatives in the business to improve and celebrate diversity in the workplace. 

Assigning diverse mentors to senior positions can provide current and future tech talent with positive role models at the company. Looking at women in tech as a specific example, just over a third of India’s tech industry is female at present, but only around 7% of these hold executive-level positions, indicating a rich pool of talent that could be hired, developed, and promoted to senior roles. 

Blind hiring, referring to when a hiring manager blocks out candidates’ personal information that might bias a hiring decision, is an often-cited area that may hold significant diversity benefits. This blind hiring can be applied to several diversity metrics, such as gender, religion or caste as identified above, and can be useful in removing unconscious bias and improving diversity. 

Diversity Is Not Optional For Forward-Thinking Tech Teams 

In conclusion, improving diversity across the technology industry is not just a moral imperative, but rather a requirement for businesses looking to grow and scale in pace with the modern world of work. 

In particular, working towards greater diversity will be critical in engaging and retaining skilled talent. Around two-thirds (67%) of jobseekers consider workforce diversity as an important factor when deciding where their next job will be — a statistic that skews more highly for younger demographics, who will form the workforce of the future.

No matter where a business might be with its diversity efforts right now, there is always more that could, and should, be done. Those organisations that fail to take the requisite action now run the risk of significant financial and reputational damage, as well as driving away the talented staff needed to remain competitive and innovative in an ever-evolving industry.