Can you believe that the tech sector is expanding almost 3 times faster than the rest of UK economy? However, that being said, only 15% of the tech workforce are from BAME backgrounds along with gender diversity only sitting at 19% compared to 49% for all other jobs. White people are highly represented at executive levels within the tech industry compared to other ethnicities such as African Americans, Hispanics and Asians.
There isn’t just a lack of diversity in technology working environment, but also in education. Studies have shown that individuals from a BAME background are twice as likely to be unemployed after they graduate compared to white graduates. White individuals who have studied a STEM subject at A-Level are also 3 times more likely to be employed than individuals who are from a BAME background. This is can be seen as a large issue for the technology industry as many organisations are trying to work with schools and universities to promote STEM subjects to help increase diversity.
Given the opportunity and support in the workplace, individuals from a BAME background would add 24 billion to the UK economy. There is also a proven correlation between cultural and ethnic diversity with a higher profit.
With diversity in technology being a critical step towards growth within any business, some may question what positive impact it can have on a business. There are several benefits that diversity can bring a company, the main one being greater success. But it doesn’t just stop there, it has been proven that having a diverse workforce can generate diverse ideas and potentially play on every workers strength to provide greater innovation. Generating diverse ideas within a business can enable a team to perform better as they can solve problems faster and effectively. Another benefit of diversity is making it easier to retain and recruit talent and reduce employment turnover, this not only enables a business to achieve more but can also reflect how a company delivers customer service. Diversity has also been proven to bring many benefits to a company not just internally, but externally.
However, although diversity can bring many benefits to your company, there are also challenges that you may face along the way. The way individuals perceive others can influence how they interact with others, and this can be a problem when trying to increase diversity within the workplace. Individuals who have negative stereotypes of other cultures can have an impact on the atmosphere in the work place and being bias can be hard to overcome. Cultural differences can make it hard to ensure that everyone can communicate professionally without offending each other and having equal working styles that suit everyone. It doesn’t just affect the workplace environment but can challenge other departments to ensure diversity in the workplace is increasing.
Overall, diversity in technology is a working progress for several companies in the UK. Although they may face challenges, diversity matters in the technology industry. Technology has a huge influence on our daily lives, it shapes the way we live, communicate, work and play and therefore it is necessary. There have been several mistakes that technology companies have made when creating products which have resulted in discrimination to some ethnicities and genders. If technology companies were more diverse, then these issues may not have occurred.
Employers should create a safe and welcoming working environment for all employees and consider taking a bottom up approach when trying to tackle diversity. Many organisations have already formed resource groups to promote diversity and to make everybody feel comfortable within the workplace. Whilst others have taken the approach of changing their hiring process to enable a larger diverse talent pool.