Over 47% of millennials want to work at diverse companies, but a lack of workforce diversity and unconscious bias is becoming a barrier in tech. Global enterprises are trying to tackle the issue of diversity hiring, but very few have actually moved in the right direction. Diversity in tech is lesser than in most industries, and it’s a major concern among talent management teams now.
Traditionally, businesses have always hired for cultural fit. They’ve hired someone who fits with their current team and demonstrates the same interests and work practices. Today, over 77% of companies agree that D&I is essential to their company and want to establish diversity in tech.
Organizations focused on diversity and inclusion are more successful in employee engagement, employee retention, and overall financial performance. According to a recent study, it was found that companies in the highest quartile for racial diversity in leadership were 36% more likely to have above-average financial returns.
Need of D&I in Tech
According to a StackOverflow survey, 91.5% of all developers are men. Only 8.0% are women, and 1.2% are non-binary, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming.
The tech industry suffers from a lack of diverse talent. In fact, 80% of employers report challenges in finding critical talent, including tech talent. Employers can’t afford to lose out on underrepresented groups with technical skills.
Research shows that leaders with diverse backgrounds and experiences help companies innovate more. And diverse teams work more creatively on problems.
And as per a UN report, diversity in tech could generate an additional USD 300-370 Bn in annual revenue for the sector.
With more diverse teams, companies get to access a 360-degree perspective. In tech, this can mean new product ideas and new USPs, among other things.
Let’s look at how D&I can rewrite the talent composition of the tech industry and how to incorporate it into the organization.
Remove Pedigree Bias
Many organizations employ people with a personal connection to the organization or leadership. This results in a poorly made workforce since other capabilities of a person are overlooked, and the relationship takes the first spot.
While using automatic solutions to screen resumes can streamline processes, it can also create complications. For example, restrictive criteria like only reviewing resumes from candidates at the traditional top colleges or requiring experience at a big tech company automatically limit diversity.
To incorporate diversity in tech, organizations need to accept that talent comes in all shapes and sizes, and every talent has a unique contribution to the organization.
Screening Beyond Resumes
A resume tells you what someone has done in the past and not what they’re capable of doing in the future. If the candidate is fortunate, their resume is first read by a human rather than an Applicant Tracking System(ATS). When looking at diversity in tech, resumes cannot do justice to a candidate’s future prospects.
Also, a resume almost always includes details like gender and educational background, creating an unconscious bias among employers.
There are other ways that you can use to shortlist potential talent. Administering a personality test and testing their job competency using a skill-based developer assessment can be good alternatives. Using talent intelligence tools to assess personality characteristics is another way to dive deep into candidate persona and align their goals with yours.
Hiring for Value fit instead of a culture fit
An assessment of culture fit should focus on how well the person’s values align with the organization’s, rather than how well their gender, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation, align with the current workforce.
Recruiters who interview based only on culture could form biased opinions and pick candidates who think or act like them. Instead, hiring for value should be an organizational priority. Hiring candidates who share the company’s vision and goal result in higher productivity and overall performance.
Blind Hiring to eliminate bias
Unconscious bias can negatively impact each stage in the hiring process. Removing demographic information from CVs that can lead to discrimination, such as names, date of birth, pictures, hobbies, interests, school, or university, while keeping essential skills and experience allows for a more unbiased recruitment process. Specific AI-based talent intelligence tools allow for Blind Hiring to help recruiters hire without looking at information that’s not necessary to the company. Such tools can help incorporate diversity in tech by allowing recruiters to hire without bias.
Talent intelligence platforms like Draup for Talent analyze personality traits, tech skills, soft skills, adjacent skills, employee information, engagement guidelines, and a hiring opportunity index to suggest candidates for a profile. Using our proprietary Diversity Navigator, recruiters can access a wide talent pool and pick suitable candidates from any background to suit their diversity needs.
