Diversity and Inclusion – Women in Tech
Archer IT Recruitment in Malta, recently interviewed 35 companies in the Malta Technology domain about their approach to hiring for a more diverse and inclusive workforce with an emphasis on attracting more women into tech roles. Archer IT Recruitment shares their best practices for firms to attract female talent.
It has become accepted that diverse teams perform better. In a report found in Forbes, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity outperform the competitors by 15%. The interesting challenge for IT teams and Technology firms is how to hire more females into their teams.
With the increased focus on diversity and inclusion in recent years, attracting top tier female talent in IT and tech has become a hot topic. Organisations are discussing their Diversity and Inclusion programs. Some companies are avoiding missing out on attracting female talent due to a failure to deliver a gender-inclusive recruitment process.
How do you make a recruitment process more gender-inclusive?
Archer IT Recruitment asked the IT and tech companies this question. They found that 52% of companies they interviewed actively put an emphasis on tailoring their recruitment process to increase the number of female employees in their IT departments and companies. Interestingly only 13% of companies interviewed, are unaware of gender-inclusive recruitment activities happening in their organisation. In order to create a pipeline of diverse and inclusive candidates, the organisations that are attracting the most female talent have created and are delivering a gender-inclusive recruitment process.
Training and Awareness within an organisation to hire more female tech talent:
In order to attract the best female tech and IT talent are making a point of Diversity and Inclusion in their Workforce planning. It begins with educating and training all of the employees involved in the recruitment and onboarding process on the importance of using universally unbiased language during the interview process with candidates. This being with the attraction of talent.
How to create job descriptions and advertisements to attract more diverse people?
Successful companies with gender diversity in IT and tech, highlight the use of gender-neutral and non-biased language in the development of job descriptions and advertisements. Some are using software applications and tools such as Textio to test Job Descriptions for biased language and phases before posting. Research from the Harvard Business Review found that women are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet close to 100% of the required skills, include a “nice to have section” for any skills that are not a must have. The companies doing the best in Malta hiring female tech talent, also conveyed the organisation’s stance and company culture mindset in relation to Diversity and Inclusion in job advertisements.
Archer IT Recruitment found that companies that were experiencing the most success in hiring talented females into technical roles had people from diverse backgrounds on the interview hiring panel. These companies also often had women in leadership roles.
The key to attracting female talent was marketing and advertising online campaigns to attract additional applicants. Many organisations are creating Blogposts of Diverse & Inclusive employees discussing their growth and progression within the organisation to convey an environment of equal opportunity for female candidates.
Who to improve your Brand through affiliation:
Companies with high success in attracting female tech talent were found to be associating their brand with third party organisations. Some companies have female leaders speak at events, attend conferences and conduct webinars in association with already established initiatives such as Women in Tech Malta, or speaking at careers events in universities.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to becoming a more gender-balanced workplace for companies in IT and tech. The companies that have been most successful on their diversity and inclusion journey have made a point of including these steps in their workforce planning and have made it a clear part of their company culture and identity. It is important along the way to celebrate achieving goals and milestones to keep overall morale high.
Paris Michailos
+356 2034 1511