Businesses need to do more to demonstrate their commitment to improving diversity to their current tech employees, new research has shown.
When asked if the company they work for is making a concerted effort to increase the diversity of its tech teams, only 27% of tech workers aged 18-24 said that diversity is a big focus during recruitment*.
Encouragingly, more than a third (35%) have noticed more efforts recently to improve diversity, but 10% said that current efforts are unsuccessful and 12% said diversity is not a priority.
This is despite 53% of UK businesses stating that they are actively trying to address a lack of diversity on their tech teams, one in 10 stating that they have successfully improved their lack of diversity, and 9% saying that their tech teams have always been diverse.
While this may be the case, the research also found that there are a number of well-established anti-bias hiring practices that many businesses are yet to introduce. Only two-fifths (40%) of businesses surveyed currently invest in anti-bias training for hiring managers, 38% said that they request diverse shortlists from recruiters, 39% use deliberately neutral job descriptions, and 32% currently anonymise CVs.
More positively, only 4% said that they have no anti-bias hiring practices in place at all. Of those that do, the vast majority (88%) have noticed an improvement in the diversity of their tech teams.
More than half (51%) said there has been a significant improvement, while 37% have noticed an improvement but still have more work to do, showing that anti-bias hiring practices are essential in the fight for greater diversity in the tech industry, and could make a marked difference if adopted by more businesses.
Becs Roycroft, senior director of global emerging talent at Wiley Edge, commented: “These findings really highlight the importance of not only implementing anti-bias recruitment tactics, but also ensuring that these tactics are communicated to existing employees. Doing so can make a big difference to the way that young people perceive their employer and provide them with the reassurance they might need that improving diversity is genuinely a priority for them.”
*according to Wiley Edge’s ‘Diversity in Tech’ report.
