Hiring Diverse Tech Talent 18^th April, 2019  ·

Browns, Covent Garden, London

• Defining diversity & inclusion, and why it matters when hiring
• Building an inclusive culture and what it adds to the culture of your business
• Leveraging talent marketplaces effectively
• What defines a great tech hire and what to consider outside of skill sets
• Alternative ways of reaching talent, hackathons, coding challenges, community hiring

With digital transformation continuing to drive business change across industries, the demand for tech talent is continuously increasing. Technology is moving at an unprecedented rate and organisations in the tech space are usually revered for their impact and growth. However, in terms of the diversity in their workforce, they are lagging way behind the wider market.

A report from Inclusive Boards highlighted that while the tech sector outperforms other sectors in its senior level BAME representation. With one in nine senior leaders compared to one in twelve in FTSE 100 from a socio-economic and gender representation, it is a long way off the wider market.

Gender is the furthest off the mark. Almost two-thirds of boards, and more than 40% of senior leadership teams, have no female representation at all, the sector average is just 12.6% of board members and 16.6% of senior executives. Compared to 30%+ in FTSE 100 companies. The well documented sexist culture in tech firms is not helping this, further compounded by online communities studies on Github, showing that women’s submissions were accepted more frequently if their gender is hidden.

The socio-economic background of the tech sector is also very different from wider UK society. More than 33% of board members and 31% of senior executives attended private schools, compared to just 8% of the UK as a whole.

So there is clearly a problem. However, there is also an opportunity for organisations in a talent-short market to engage with underrepresented groups.