Research by Thoughtworks has found that three in five tech businesses in the UK believe there is still a long way to go to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in their sector.
Among the problems that need the most urgent attention were career development for minority groups, representation in senior posts and at the board level, and “allyship” and understanding.
The findings come as Thoughtworks continues to recruit from a number of backgrounds, as well as establishing a DEI council within the business.According to the British Computer Society (BCS) and The Chartered Institute for IT, there were 300,000 ethnic minority IT specialists in the UK in 2020, who are less likely to be in positions of responsibility than those of white ethnicity (37 percent vs 41 percent), twice as likely to be in non-permanent positions (six per cent versus three per cent and less likely to find employment from contacts in post.
The Thoughtworks research found that a third of those in the tech sector said their organisation either had no plans to address career development issues for minority groups or did not know where to start. Similarly, 22 percent felt the same for representation and 24 percent for “allyship” and understanding.
Work to be done: Areas where technology businesses believe they are behind the industry on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Career development for minority groups – 69 percent
Representation at senior/board level – 64 percent
“Allyship” and understanding – 64 percent
Recruitment – 63 percent
Pay and equitable opportunity – 62 percent
People policy – 58 percent
The proportion of tech companies with plans in place to tackle issues around gender equality (41 percent) and age discrimination (34 percent) was significantly higher than those with plans to address race and ethnicity (29 percent).
Just 27 percent of tech organisations invested in diversity and inclusion training, 25 percent offered mentoring to members of minority groups, 20 percent offered education team days, and only 16 percent had a DEI Council within their business.
The tech sector was less likely than the average among businesses in the UK to have plans in place to address issues around disability (23 peragainst an average of 25 percent), religion (16 percent versus 18 percent), neurodiversity (15 percent versus 18 percent) and social mobility (19 percent versus 21 percent).
The research also found that the vast majority of businesses in the IT sector agreed there were business benefits from championing DEI issues.
