2020
Gender diversity in technical roles
PEAK SIGNAL
Past, present, future - a 35 year perspective
Paula Mathews is a Partner in Peak Signal. Since starting her career as a broadcast engineer in 1986, she has worked in both technical and product roles, often combining these skill-sets to deliver both high-performing products and technical teams.
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Source: Disruptive Diversity - An External Perspective on Ways to Increase Diversity and Inclusion within the Institution of Civil Engineers and Beyond. Dawn Bonfield CEng, FICE, FIMMM, FWES. October 2015
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A Director of HR, who shall remain nameless, said in response to my question about what was being done to address the damningly low number of women represented in the technology company they worked for, words along the lines of it wasn’t a priority’. What???? I was stunned. This was around 2 years ago. It got me thinking. How can I be in the later part of my career and I am still in the minority, people still don’t see gender diversity in technical roles as important or if they do, despite good intentions and initiatives, have failed to make meaningful in-roads in shifting the dial towards better representation of women in technology? It really feels like not a lot has changed since I became a trainee engineer in 1986. I have my own views on this, built on my career experiences as a woman in engineering and also of being one of those people with good intentions who have tried to address gender inequality in technical roles. To get some broader perspectives and some science, I turned to my long-time colleague and friend Jenny Mitchell, originally a member of the same cohort of trainee engineers as myself and latterly a specialist in Organisational Development. We have spent time discussing this conundrum and looking at what the research is saying. The following is a digest of our conversations and investigations. Broadly, in this opinion piece, we cover three areas: Broadening your pool of potential candidates Recruitment approach Retention of woman in technical employment
the only graph that you will need to remember is the one which shows the change in number of women in engineering over the past 7 years, which could very easily be extended to the past 97 years - things are just not changing fast enough, if at all
Jenny Mitchell is an Organisational Development Consultant. She also started her broadcast engineering career in 1986 and spent many years delivering technical services in the fast-paced environment of News. Since moving into Organisational Development, she has used her first hand experience to provide insightful approaches to build inclusive technical teams.
Nearly 35 years down the road, why is progress on gender diversity in technical roles still so woeful?
Peak Signal
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As well as awareness, we need to increase access to technology careers. Greater awareness of the technology industry and the opportunities available is not enough unless all students feel that a career in technology is within their reach. There needs to be a collective effort from the technology industry to create alternative entry routes into the profession. Approaches might include increasing the availability of apprenticeships in technology, technology companies partnering with universities and offering shadowing and work experience opportunities at younger ages
We’ve lost count of the number of times someone has said that the reason there are so few women in technical roles is because there are so few women choosing sciences or engineering subjects at schools and on into university courses. That of course is true. Many people talk about more outreach, more visible female role models, more support for girls to consider a career in a technical role – and this is all massively important…… for delivering the future. But we don’t have a time machine and we need to do something now if we are going to make a difference and deliver the visibility needed to encourage more girls into technical careers. Time to think differently about who you put into the ‘pool’ of potential candidates. Spoiler alert – the approach we are about to outline will generally improve the overall diversity of the candidates you attract
MULTIPLE ROUTES
Think about what are the core skills that are actually needed for the entry level or junior engineering role you are recruiting for? Seriously think about it. What are you using the Degree in Electronic Engineering and X number of years’ experience as a proxy for? Or do you write it down as a requirement because historically that is what every recruit has had to have to be considered a suitable candidate? We have seen so many job advertisements for entry level roles into technical careers that appear to have over-stated qualification requirements and then, to add insult to injury, have a glowing company Equal Opportunities statement. The two don’t sit well together. If you remove these artificial barriers and write down the actual core skills needed, you will see that many more candidates would be able to fulfill the criteria – and that will also mean many more woman will be eligible to apply. By taking this core skills approach, you immediately widen the pool of potential candidates and move the demographics on from the traditional output of university engineering degrees. Paula took this approach within a Broadcast Engineering context and used the following core skills to diversify the pool of candidates. All the specific knowledge required for the role was then provided through tailored training.
Motivation to learn Interest in engineering Logical problem solving Numeracy
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Have multiple routes through to becoming qualified in the chosen discipline. From traditional Engineering degrees through to apprenticeships, ensure that the support and training through each route delivers a fully-rounded member of the technical team. Some routes may take longer than others but they should all end up at the same place, allowing diverse candidates access to the route that suits their skills, qualifications and experience. So, with a widened pool of candidates how do you ensure that you maintain diversity through the recruitment process?
Source: Women in Tech: Time to close the gender gap. A PwC UK research report 2017
CORE SKILLS
Trainability Team work Communication Decision making under pressure
Despite decades of progress towards workplace equality, women remain woefully under-represented in the UK’s technology workforce. The figures speak for themselves: according to WISE1, just 23% of the people working in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) roles across the UK are female - and only 5% of leadership positions in the technology industry are held by women.
Women in Tech: Time to close the gender gap. A PwC UK research report 2017
Women in STEM roles need meaningful development options, especially if they want to stay close to their technology expertise and achieve progress as a subject matter expert rather than take a leadership role. The significant progress in addressing gender inequality in other spheres of work have not been matched in STEM roles. Take positive action: consider setting up development schemes for women. It’s hard to find women recruits so do all you can to develop and keep them. While many male peers will be allies, there are some that will complain – but tell a powerful story of why this matters and manage the resistance head on. Don’t tolerate leaders and managers who undermine this narrative.
KEEP UNCONSCIOUS BIAS OUT OF YOUR SELECTION PROCESS
Tackling the Technology Gender Gap Together: A Best Practice Guide for Employers” (Digital Technology Skills Group and Equate Scotland, 2018)
As well as attracting more women into tech roles, companies also need to work harder at retaining female tech talent. According to Forbes, once women enter the tech field, they leave at a 45 per cent higher rate than men. A report conducted by Indeed found that the most common reason for this is due to a lack of career growth, followed closely by poor management and slow salary growth. The report also found that only half of the women surveyed believed that they have the same opportunities to enter senior leadership roles as their male counterparts
Unconscious bias can start with the job ad and the job description- use gender-neutral language and bear in mind that women may not apply unless they feel they meet or exceed the whole set of criteria. Be clear that you don’t want people to select themselves out! Recruitment processes can privilege existing knowledge and experience – not relevant when you are seeking potential and readiness to learn. Interviews – even structured ones - favour confident articulate extroverts. All your selection methods must match the skill you are looking for: if you want problem–solving then set a practical task; if you want teamwork set a team exercise. Train your assessors thoroughly if you use team exercises. Interviews should not be the sole test of any key capability. Avoid the risk of unconscious clone-seeking by planning a range of practical ways to test skills, then select on the basis of aggregate scores across all tests. Then everyone – not just the under-represented group you are targeting – will feel they have had a fair experience and will have a positive impression of your organisation. If all this sounds expensive and time consuming, it’s nothing compared to the long term cost of making the wrong hiring decision.
CREATE DEVELOPMENT PATHWAYS
Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Kings College London, 2018
Stemming the tide: Predicting women engineers' intentions to leave. Singh, Fouad, Fitzpatrick, Liu, Cappaert & Figuereido. Journal of Vocational Behavior Volume 83, Issue 3, December 2013, pp 281-294
PROMOTE LEADERS WHO BUILD AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE
Retention is more often about engagement than about pay. People leave unsupportive managers and seek to escape hostile cultures where they don’t feel valued. Engineering and technical areas tend to be male dominated and hierarchical, where individual knowledge is prized over collaborative team work. This may lead to toxic team cultures being tolerated; leaders may be willfully blind to unacceptable behaviour where the technical delivery is good. A 2018 report on tackling the technology gender gap calls out the subtle ‘micro-aggressions’ - expressed through assumptions, behaviours, tone or facial expressions - that can negatively impact a woman’s experience in a male dominated industry. These can include, Toxic cultures thrive on this daily pattern of micro-aggression – dismissive or hostile words and behaviours that silence or demean others. Don’t tolerate this – especially in leaders and managers. Leaders set the culture and create the workplace climate. Start at the top and be clear about accountability: make inclusive culture as important as delivery targets, Make sure you have a rigorous selection process for all leaders in STEM areas - appoint only those who - in addition to meeting all other role requirements - excel in developing others and building teams. Higher levels of EQ will be good for everyone – and especially welcomed by women. Prevent ‘too important to lose’ syndrome - where a subject matter expert has deep niche expertise but is a pain to work with. Choosing to tolerate poor behaviour sends a strong message that inclusivity isn’t really a priority. Cast a critical eye on your tech board – are they model leaders? How many were appointed on narrow selection criteria? Have they created an inclusive climate? Are their engagement survey scores keeping pace with the rest of the organisation? Set challenging goals for them to increase gender diversity – and take a hard look at the way board members are selected. Building an inclusive culture where everyone feels valued, all voices are heard and where there are clear behavioural standards role modeled by leaders will bring benefits for everyone.
Being interrupted, talked across or silenced in meetings Having gender stereotyped presumptions made about their roles (such as being assumed to be the minute-taker) Social activities being male focused Employers taking more points or questions from men than women in a meeting All meetings being chaired by men Making jokes or remarks based on gender, but dismissing them as workplace “banter” Source: Tackling the Technology Gender Gap Together: A Best Practice Guide for Employers” (Digital Technology Skills Group and Equate Scotland, 2018)
Women are disadvantaged by organisations which lack formality and transparency with regards to the criteria for recruitment, promotion or pay negotiation. In the absence of such criteria decisions on pay and promotion are more likely to be made via a process of social cloning, whereby those in a position of power champion those like them
The cost of incivility and undermining behaviors can be seen in terms of reduced satisfaction and commitment, and increased disengagement at work, and increased desire to leave the organization as well as the profession
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FINAL THOUGHTS
if a sustained shift in diversity is to be achieved, the changes these initiatives bring must be embedded into organisations’ processes, behaviours and culture
There are so many positive initiatives taking place at the moment to ensure that gender inequality in the technology workforce is addressed. We both owe our start in engineering to an employer’s innovative initiative aimed at broadening the applicant pool. But over our careers, we have seen similar initiatives fail to deliver the desired results over the long term. Our message is that if a sustained shift in diversity is to be achieved, the changes these initiatives bring must be embedded into organisations’ processes, behaviours and culture. They cannot simply reside with individuals alone, otherwise you run the risk that success or failure depends on an individual champion - and when they move organisations, the gains are not sustained.