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Engagement and recruitment

Our research highlights the need for greater awareness of the range of opportunities available in the sector, as well as a perception among underrepresented groups that working in the sector requires very specific skill sets, experience and qualifications. This section will help you to recruit more diverse employees, extend opportunities to underrepresented groups, and engage them from an early stage.

Ensure all interns and staff are paid at least the London Living Wage (LLW)

The London Living Wage (LLW) is calculated independently from the National Living Wage (NLW) due to the higher cost of living within London. Paying below this puts workers and their families at risk of falling into poverty. Paying the LLW, or paying above the LLW, allows London workers to afford necessities and potentially save for the future. As a result of better wages, it is more likely that your organisation will be able to retain staff, especially when the LLW is combined with clear progression opportunities.

Build a plan or strategy to attract and recruit diverse talent

Creating a more diverse workforce aids how organisations serve their local community.  There are many ways to recruit locally, such as advertising with the local job centre or researching local community organisations, centres and events to advertise job vacancies. Our research highlights, however, that one of the key issues for employers is their ability to find and reach out to diverse applicants.

One great way to boost engagement with a diverse range of candidates is to consider barriers underrepresented groups might face in applying for a career in the digital and tech sector, such as their perceptions of the sector, and then to build actions into your attraction and recruitment strategy to reduce these barriers.

Many specialist recruiters help organisations find talent from underrepresented groups and communities. They can work to fulfil any EDI targets your organisation may have and find talented people who may previously have struggled to get ahead in the industry due to systemic barriers.

Deloitte has worked with the Institute of Coding to issue a survey for 16-24 year olds, with a view to understanding how digital careers are perceived. These insights will be used to help shape future attraction and recruitment efforts.

''You're looking for a candidate that sometimes might not exist the way that the hiring manager would want them to be. Unfortunately, sometimes you do come across […] managers that are very rigid in terms of their perspective or what they want.''
Employer in the digital and tech sector, Ipsos interview

  • Cisco joined the Black Young Professional (BYP) Network, whose job board focuses on Black talent, advertising roles to more diverse candidate lists.
  • Black in Data connects their partner companies with Black talent through their job board and professional meet-and-greets.
  • Disability Jobsite works with employers to remove barriers for people with a disability to opportunities to work. They offer job listing/posting packages.
  • Inclusive Boards are an EDI-focused executive search organisation specialising in helping to diversify senior leadership teams and boards.
  • Coding Black Females offers job packages to post jobs.

 

Guidance can also be found in the Capita Diversity and Inclusion Best Practice in Recruitment guide.

Ethnic Job Site also provides tools for measuring diversity in an evidence-based capacity.

A lot of recruitment is left to agencies. This means an organisation loses some control of the process, and can lead to bias creeping into your recruitment processes.

Normally, agencies are paid to fill vacancies and are not incentivised to search for promising talent from underrepresented groups, particularly where the agency does not have an EDI focus. It is also worth remembering that the new talent may not be on job boards or LinkedIn - they may be more likely to present themselves and their work through social media channels. This is particularly the case for Gen Z talent. It is therefore worth making social media campaigns part of your accessible and inclusive recruitment methods.

''It’s getting in as a whole and you know, it’s probably one of those things again, where if you don’t know anybody who can drag you in, then you’ve probably got no chance unless you’re the luckiest person to get in.''

Black man working in the sector, Ipsos interview

Depending on your talent requirements, another way to diversify the ways in which you attract talent is to get in touch with specific organisations and advertise through them, or ask if they are able to help you find the right person for your organisation in other ways. For example, if applicable to you, reach out to Code First Girls or One Tech.

AND Digital works alongside a range of charity partners and social enterprises to provide opportunities to underrepresented groups. As part of this, they offer roles, training, and coaching to refugees to help them to become developers.

Follow inclusive recruitment best practices

One of the main ways your organisation can attract a broader range of talented people is to follow inclusive recruitment best practices. Research by BCS and Coding Black Females has shown that ‘long, prescriptive interview processes, the language of job adverts and poor promotion of flexible options impact the diversity of applicants for IT roles’. Our research also highlights the problems of bias in job descriptions, this particularly came out in our employer engagement sessions. De-biasing your job advertisements will help you build your inclusive culture, as people within your organisation will see that your hiring practices are designed to find the best people with the right skills for the job.

Research by Wiley Edge suggests that 61% of businesses do not use deliberately neutral job descriptions.

Inclusive recruitment best practice for job adverts includes:

  • Using inclusive language in your job advert;
  • Focusing on the skills and competencies needed for the job being advertised - avoid making your ‘essentials’ list too long;
  • Considering whether academic achievements are necessary for the role before making them a requirement;
  • Avoiding jargon;
  • Stating salary, or a salary range;
  • Directing candidates to a named contact should they need to discuss any access requirements or request the advert in a different format;
  • Consider if you can offer the job on a flexible basis, part-time, or as part of a job share – if you can, say so;
  • Avoiding asking for several years’ experience in the same role, or asking for continuous employment - this discourages those with CV gaps, and for people looking to change careers and use transferable skills;
  • Promoting your organisation’s EDI policies and commitments;
  • Keeping roles open for the full application period and not closing them early;
  • Ensuring all job adverts adhere to these best practice principles.
''We can only achieve the government’s ambition for the UK to be the ‘next Silicon Valley’ by closing the digital skills gap and making this vital profession attractive to a far broader range of people.''
Rashik Parmar MBE, CEO BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT

What do we mean by use ‘inclusive language’ in a job advert

Gender-neutral language in job adverts can mitigate against bias towards a particular sex or social gender. Gender preferences can be conveyed subtly through words such as ‘competitive’, ‘leader’ and ‘dominate’ which tend to lead to fewer female applicants than using words such as ‘support’, ‘community’ and ‘interpersonal’.

BT carried out research into gender-neutral language in advertising (commissioned by Openreach in 2021) which led them to update job adverts and successfully attract 300% more women into engineering roles with their subsequent campaign.

Vodafone also piloted an approach aiming to reduce the potential for gender bias in their job adverts, finding in their 2018 Sustainable Business Report that a three-month trial adjusting the vocabulary used in their advertisements helped them to increase the number of women they recruited into specific roles by 7%. They continued using this technology to avoid gender bias in their job adverts. At the time, this was used on an average of 840 job adverts a month globally.

This Gender Decoder Tool and this Language and Tone Checklist can help you to ensure your job adverts are inclusive.

Free diverse stock images are also available from UKBlackTech and WOCinTech Chat.

Now your job adverts are inclusive, it’s time to think about the other stages of the recruitment process.

Ensure you have:

  • Diverse and equitable hiring panels;
  • Standardised competency-based interview questions with a focus on asking about skills;
  • Communicated procedures for offering and requesting reasonable adjustments;
  • Anonymous CV reviews, to avoid discrimination and make the hiring process more efficient. Remove irrelevant information (including names of educational institutions) from applications when reviewing candidates;
  • Run inclusive recruitment workshops or training for all hiring managers.

You may wish to consider using positive action in recruitment when a particular demographic is underrepresented in your organisation’s workforce. Positive action is about taking specific steps to improve equality in the workplace that either do, or may, advantage a particular underrepresented group.

There are numerous different ways to take actions that would be ‘positive action’, but it is important to be able to show that those steps are applicable for your organisation in particular. This resource contains some useful information on positive action, including its purpose and when it can be applied, and examples of how to use it. Additionally, you must know the difference between positive action, which is legal, and positive discrimination, which is not legal - read more here.

''[...] if I saw that position today advertised and I saw an Asian, Muslim female, wearing a hijab, doing that job, I would think, ‘Yes, of course, I’ve got a chance to go for it.''
Pakistani woman not currently working in the digital and tech sector, Ipsos interview

The Disability Confident scheme is a free, voluntary, government programme that helps employers make the most of disabled people’s talents in the workplace. This article gives top tips for ensuring your recruitment practices are accessible. It is important to recognise how intersectional characteristics impact on barriers and gaps to employment within the digital and tech sector.

According to the report by NCSC and KPMG, Decrypting Diversity - Diversity and Inclusion in Cyber Security 2021, one in five cyber professionals feel they cannot be themselves in the workplace, including around a third of professionals that have disabilities or are neurodivergent.

This article entitled ‘Helping over 50s into tech jobs can support government’s ‘Silicon Valley’ ambitions’, authored by BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT), highlights that there were around 63,000 IT specialists with disabilities missing from the IT industry. Employers that take actions to demonstrate inclusion of disabled people (such as use of the Disability Confident scheme) are likely to attract a broader range of talent.

Fujitsu’s disability employee network created a Disability and Adjustment Passport scheme. This aims to reduce the impact of any line manager changes in relation to support that had been previously agreed for employees.

Diversity and Ability's Global Inclusion Kitemark offers organisations a step-by-step approach to embedding EDI, from foundational to change-making levels, together with a recognisable ‘stamp’ once each step is embedded.

The Government has published a guide on how to become a Disability Confident employer, including information on organisational and community benefits.

''I think that those with disabilities are very much overlooked within this sector [...] you'll find that most employers will just look at that base minimum, so they're showing including diversity and equal opportunity and then that's it.''
Mixed-ethnicity man working in the sector, Ipsos interview

Work with diverse intern or access partners

Internships, apprenticeships, industrial placements and returner programmes are all examples of schemes that widen access to roles within the sector. Running your own version of these programmes or getting involved in existing schemes can help you find talented individuals, both at the start of their career journey and beyond.

Employers should ensure that any advertisements and communications regarding any schemes and open job roles are clear as to who is eligible to apply. For example, whether graduate level schemes are open to those who may not be recent graduates, and which types of programmes may support individuals looking to transition into digital/tech roles from other sectors. Our engagement with individuals from the Underrepresented groups reveals uncertainty around the opportunities that may be open to them within the digital and tech sector, based upon their current skills, experience, and qualifications.

''[...] maybe my age and because I haven’t had, you know, much experience in this sector as well, so that would be a barrier, yes definitely, and I think they would be looking for graduates which i’m not.''
Bangladeshi woman not currently working in the digital and tech sector, Ipsos interview

Returner programmes may also be an effective way to engage, particularly with those in underrepresented groups with caring responsibilities. These are formal schemes offered by employers to provide training and support to people who have taken time out of the workplace. They provide people who have taken career breaks the opportunity to refresh their skills and build professional networks. According to research by PwC, addressing the career break penalty could provide a £1.7 billion boost to our yearly economic output.

''The value of returners programmes cannot be understated. They offer access to a largely untapped pool of talent that conventional recruitment methods often miss. We all benefit when we offer alternative routes and pathways for people who are looking to get back into the workforce, and break down the barriers to returning to fulfilling tech careers.''
Antony Walker, Deputy CEO, techUK

  • Vodafone has a ReConnect programme involving training, coaching and an induction to help returners refresh and enhance professional skills that they need to return to work and progress their careers. Joiners are also offered options for flexible working and a phased return to work.
  • Capgemini has a Relaunch programme for anyone who has taken a career break of 18 months to 10 years for any reason. It involves an initial six-month fixed-term contract with a view to becoming a permanent employee, four returners coaching sessions, a tailored learning and development plan and a support network of existing returners.
  • Salesforce Supermums is a talent development solution, helping to retrain mums in Salesforce, advancing their digital skills. The programme also supports participants to find flexible roles that fit around family life, having helped over 200 companies to recruit Salesforce talent.
  • Coding Black Females runs a Return to Tech Bootcamp course to refresh skills in development and software architecture to move directly into a mid-level or senior position.
  • Women Returners offers a free Returner Employer Network that employers can sign up to. They also have a Women Returners Professional Network which provides advice, information and support to returners.
  • STEM Returners run programmes that employers can support. They won an award at the Women in Tech Employer Awards 2022 for Best Returnship Programme.

Guidance on returner programmes has also been provided by the Government Equalities Office and the Women’s Business Council here and here.

techUK also has a Returners Hub which spotlights returner programmes by its member companies.

Apprenticeship schemes allow individuals to carry out training and study related to their role whilst earning and learning skills. These programmes can also place your employees on a path to management positions, helping to create a sense of commitment and longevity in the sector. Often when thinking of apprenticeships, career starter apprenticeships, which are undertaken following school, come to mind. However, research carried out by Hackney Digital Tech D&I Commission highlights that a much wider variety of residents want access to apprenticeships, including people wanting to switch careers, disabled people, and older residents. Employers may therefore wish to explore a variety of different options for apprenticeship schemes.

In addition to schemes targeted at recruitment, employers may also find value in running placement and work experience schemes to engage with underrepresented groups in a way that gives them an insight into the digital and tech sector. Such schemes may be run to encourage participants to enter into future roles with the employer or, more generally, to encourage participants to consider a role in the sector in the future.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions are highlighted in the TTC Open Playbook. They introduced a 12-month industrial placement scheme and focused on the personal development and progression of newly-hired junior engineers. Since these interventions were introduced in 2019, LexisNexis has seen greater levels of diversity in the organisation, and in particular, increased representation of women in their technology team. A case study detailing the actions taken is available to access here.

For five years starting in FY21, EY, a member of techUK, is offering at least 30% of their work experience places on their Smart Futures and Our Futures programmes to Black young people. They also set a target to offer entry into EY school leaver pathways to at least 30% of Black young alumni of the Smart Futures and Our Futures programmes.

 

Other helpful resources: