Established in 2015, the Tech Talent Charter (TTC) is a government-supported group which means to address the UK’s tech talent shortage and lack of diversity. The group currently provides support to over 700 Signatory Organisations including Microsoft, Channel 4 and Nationwide.
TTC recently published its annual Diversity in Tech report which provides up to date figures regarding the state of diversity within the tech sector and offers actionable solutions to strengthen areas where improvement is needed. The findings are a culmination of survey responses from 649 Signatories who, in total, employ over 930,000 individuals with over 210,000 of these being tech employees. Below are some of the key statistics from the report.
When analysing gender diversity within tech, the report found that 28% of tech workers are gender minorities; a figure which indicates a slight increase of 1-2% compared to previous years. However, the current percentage of senior tech roles held by gender minorities stands at 22% which is lower than tech roles overall. It’s also been found that only 35% of companies are making efforts to measure non-binary gender diversity.
In terms of racial diversity, the survey results indicate that 25% of tech workers belong to ethnic minority groups, presenting an improvement of 5% since last year’s report. Average disclosure rates for ethnic identity currently stand in the region of 76-86%. The outlook appears bleaker as the research progresses to senior levels, however, with ethnic diversity almost halving from 25% to 13%.
Despite the lack of progress in some areas, the number of organisations measuring neurodiversity rates has doubled to 53% compared to last year’s findings, marking the topic as a distinct area of interest within the industry. Flexible work options are available to 47% of tech employees, a feature often beneficial to neurodivergent individuals. Mental health, wellbeing and reproductive health issues such as menopause and fertility also appear to be of interest to many organisations, particularly in relation to gender, age and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
The above findings highlight that although Diversity & Inclusion in tech continues to steadily progress, some areas appear to be overlooked. This particularly appears to be the case for ethnic diversity at a senior level which has seen a decline. The full report offers an incredibly detailed insight into the subject and access to it can be requested here.
By Emily Midwinter
