Retention and progression
To bring about meaningful and lasting change in our workplaces, we not only need to attract and recruit more workers from underrepresented groups; we also need to cultivate working practices which encourage them to stay and progress. Women in Tech highlight that 56% of women leave the IT sector between 10 and 20 years into their careers, twice the rate of men.
This section outlines ways in which digital and tech employers can enhance, review and reinvigorate their processes to ensure that staff stay and progress in the organisation. Prioritising retention and progression, particularly for those who have historically faced barriers, will also minimise the risk of losing talented individuals to competitors.
Review your promotions process to eliminate bias
The Color in Tech Report finds that Black tech workers identify being overlooked for promotion as the third most common reason for leaving their organisations, with Black and ethnic minority tech workers also the least likely to see progression as viable within their own companies. An open and transparent approach to promotion, with clear internal recruitment and secondment policies will ensure all staff are aware of internal opportunities for skills enhancement and progression.
Eligibility for promotion should be based only on an individual’s performance against publicised criteria. A promotion should be more than a title change or increase in pay; it should also involve increased responsibility and clear career progression metrics. The process and criteria for promotions should be clearly defined and communicated to foster transparency and minimise confusion.
Organise regular check-ins with employees to discuss Individual Development Plans and wellbeing
An individual development plan (IDP) is a tool to assist employees in career and personal development. Its primary purpose is to help employees reach short and long-term career goals, as well as improve current job performance.
Developing an individual plan empowers those from Underrepresented groups to carve out a bespoke career path for themselves. This helpful resource contains an IDP template which you can adapt for your organisation. Including EDI-focused metrics in line managers’ IDP is a great way of creating accountability for EDI, and ensuring that responsibility for EDI is in place throughout your organisation.
Research by Color in Tech shows that across all ethnic groups, good/high trust relationships with managers is one of the key factors to retention. Regular check-ins are a great way to build psychological safety, meaning employees are likely to report higher levels of trust and feel able to share any concerns or feedback they may have about the organisation’s culture and ways of working, providing an opportunity to raise and resolve concerns at an early stage.
Publish your organisation’s pay scales internally and externally
While there has been an increase in jobs advertised with a clear salary or salary range, salary transparency within organisations remains relatively new.
Benefits to publishing pay include increased equity, as people can query any discrepancy in pay for those that have the same or very similar job descriptions. It is also a motivator if employees know what pay increase is available with a promotion. During your organisation’s regular review meetings, share your organisation’s pay scales with employees to promote transparency and trust.
Connect existing staff from underrepresented groups to new digital and tech job progression opportunities
A great opportunity exists to pursue positive action when looking to fill in-house digital and tech roles. From our engagement with employers, we find that the sector is still heavily perceived as White male-dominated. Organisations also note a number of barriers improving the sector’s diversity, including a lack of skills together with a lack of sector experience from potential candidates.
Employees also note barriers to acquiring such skills themselves, such as the cost of study and lack of advice on training options, as highlighted by the Hackney Digital Tech D&I Commission in their Diversity in Tech: Breaking the Barriers Report. As such, you should consider how to maximise creating opportunities for training, retraining and upskilling staff from underrepresented groups.
For smaller organisations, this can consist of providing staff with dedicated time in their work schedule to study digital and tech skills.
The issue is there are not enough support networks and role models to encourage and spread awareness in the sector. I think the sector can be intimidating for anyone that isn’t familiar with IT alongside all the different roles and opportunities within it.
The FutureDotNow coalition maintains a Digital Skills Directory where you can find out about available training and skills programmes, some of which are free. Joining the coalition is also free. To become members, organisations simply need to make the required commitments. Find more information.
One member of the coalition, Heathrow Airport, offers all of their staff (including those who do not work in digital and tech roles) the opportunity to learn digital skills/tools, including some accreditations. They also launched a Data Academy, again aimed at staff not already working in digital and tech roles.
FutureDotNow also provides a case study of a Heathrow Airport worker who was able to move from a job as a security officer to securing a role in IT through one of these initiatives.
The following resources are also of assistance:
- The Tech Talent Charter (TTC) also has a resource from their October 2021 Hackathon in relation to increasing diversity in tech through reskilling existing staff and a resource from their May 2020 Hackathon which is a Retraining Success Path roadmap.
- Experis offers tips for reskilling employees into tech roles.
Set up mentoring arrangements for employees from underrepresented groups
Mentoring is one of the most effective strategies for fostering diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Our engagement with employers validated mentoring programmes as a desirable intervention. Research sessions indicated these schemes are regarded as a main means of improving the progression of diverse employees.
Reciprocal mentoring schemes help both parties improve and use their soft skills, such as active listening and compassion - traits which are regarded as key for career progression. The University of Sussex provides access to free resources to plan and set up a mentoring scheme, including evaluation tools.
Research by Color in Tech highlights the importance that Black tech workers place on their relationships with managers and other members of senior leadership. The report explains that worker retention is more likely to improve where career sponsors and managers invest in high trust relationships. In addition to mentoring, this could also be through efforts such sponsorship schemes and targeted leadership development programmes for underrepresented groups.
Whilst micro-enterprises may not have the resources and time to set up formal mentoring, sponsorship, or leadership development arrangements, they may benefit from informal mentoring and shadowing of senior roles. This can include assisting with ad hoc tasks, and reviewing processes during learning and development time. This helps to encourage growth and inspires individuals to continue learning.
[...] mentoring, shadowing, that sort of thing, having someone there and I think for me personally I think shadowing helps because you’re working with somebody else doing the job and I think, for me I’m a visual learner as well, so that really helps me.
- Oracle created a Reverse Mentoring Programme, which invites staff from their minority ethnic demographic to mentor senior leaders to help them learn from lived experiences. They note that this also helps shape decisions made at a senior level, including in relation to career progression, recruitment and training.
- Fujitsu has a Perspectives Reverse Mentoring programme for people managers across Europe to learn from the perspectives of their colleagues who have diverse experiences.
- GitLab carry out stay interviews for underrepresented groups and have a sales sponsorship programme to support progression and promotion.
- BT designed specific initiatives to enable them to attract, recruit and retain more women and individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds, including the Accelerate programme for high potential middle managers. This programme provides a fast stream for women and colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds, with an initial participant cohort of 220 women and 156 colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds.