Don’t let Covid be a backward step for women in tech - comment

We’ve probably all had enough bad news recently, but at this time of dealing with stark truths about business resilience, it is important to highlight a number of worrying facts about women in the workplace and specifically the attrition rate of women in tech.
Women still only make up 18 per cent of the entire Scottish tech sector, says Hawkins. Picture: Getty Images.Women still only make up 18 per cent of the entire Scottish tech sector, says Hawkins. Picture: Getty Images.
Women still only make up 18 per cent of the entire Scottish tech sector, says Hawkins. Picture: Getty Images.

The first is that as a result of the disruption caused by coronavirus, one in four women is contemplating downshifting her career or leaving the workforce altogether. The second is that despite huge efforts to encourage women into technology jobs, the proportion of women in tech roles is now lower than it was 35 years ago. Moreover, around half of women in tech jobs leave before they are 35, compared to just 20 per cent in other industries.

While these particular stats are drawn from American studies, anecdotal evidence suggests they’re relevant here too. There are huge opportunities for women in Scotland’s tech sector across financial services, energy and life sciences, but with Covid here to stay for some time, we need to be alert to the potential for long-lasting impacts.

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Every company is – or fast becoming – a technology enterprise. From simply having a website to using a digital payment system, deploying an artificial intelligence-enabled chatbot or using data to design and manufacture new drugs, all organisations engage with technology.

Michelle Hawkins is managing director for Accenture in Scotland. Picture: contributed.Michelle Hawkins is managing director for Accenture in Scotland. Picture: contributed.
Michelle Hawkins is managing director for Accenture in Scotland. Picture: contributed.
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Attracting women to tech and retaining them - comment

It is well established that women need to drive development as much as men, because if design teams are not diverse, bias inevitably creeps in. It is equally true that a diverse workforce underpins company success. Diversity in background, ability, race and gender drives greater innovation and those companies that manage innovation well deliver twice the revenue growth of those that don’t.

While much has been achieved through Scottish Women in Technology and others, women still only make up 18 per cent of the entire Scottish tech sector. And while we’ve seen great strides to encourage girls into Stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers, the Logan Report found that early gender stereotyping is still resulting in the loss of almost half of our best future engineers. It calls for more focus on supportive education initiatives to build the pipeline of talent as part of its response to the Covid crisis. In short, we cannot allow the pandemic to be a step backwards.

Our own analysis identifies culture as the vital factor: poor company culture was the number one cause of women leaving tech. During the pandemic, the challenges of keeping a healthy workplace culture have increased. Home working may have brought greater productivity, but for those who have had to juggle childcare with work or for those who have fallen into the trap of “always on,” the situation can also be overwhelming. For some, “working from home” is already becoming “living at work”.

Actions

However, the good news is that there are clear actions that businesses can take to reverse these wider trends. The starting point is to stop expecting women to adapt to existing conditions: refit the culture so that women can thrive because of who they are, not in spite of it.

We identified five key cultural practices adopted by the top inclusive companies that were critical to this: encourage both parents to take parental leave, and have leadership role models demonstrate this behaviour; set targets for diversity in the leadership team and make this an input to compensation decisions; provide targeted support for women’s groups; reward creativity and innovation, and inclusive networking to literally meet people on their terms.

The role of HR is also critical to enabling the necessary culture shift, but first senior HR leaders need to recognise the problem. They are twice as likely as women themselves to say, “it’s easy for women to thrive in tech” (45 per cent vs 21 per cent) and 77 per cent think their workplace empowers women, but only 54 per cent of women agree.

The lesson is that as we move forward, we all need to be in tune with our workforce and ensure women are not discouraged through a lack of flexibility or role models in what will inevitably be a more tech-driven future. Let’s not let Covid become a setback for women in tech, just when their talents are needed most.

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Michelle Hawkins is managing director for Accenture in Scotland

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