Tech employers don’t prioritise diversity enough, shows new research
27 March 2023
‘Diversity in Tech 2022’ report has revealed that businesses in the tech industry need to do more to improve the diversity of their employees.
When asked if the company they work for is making a concerted effort to increase the diversity of its tech teams, only 27 percent of tech workers aged 18-24 said that diversity is a big focus during recruitment, according to Wiley Edge’s new ‘Diversity in Tech 2022’ report.
Encouragingly, more than a third (35 percent) have noticed more efforts recently to improve diversity, but 10 percent said that current efforts are unsuccessful and 12 percent said diversity is not a priority.
This is despite 53 percent 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 nine percent 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 percent) of businesses surveyed currently invest in anti-bias training for hiring managers, 38 percent said that they request diverse shortlists from recruiters, 39 percent use deliberately neutral job descriptions, and 32 percent currently anonymise CVs.
More positively, only four percent said that they have no anti-bias hiring practices in place at all. Of those that do, the vast majority (88 percent) have noticed an improvement in the diversity of their tech teams.
More than half (51 percent) said there has been a significant improvement, while 37 percent 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.”