What the UK tech sector is doing to attract and retain female talent

According to the Office of National Statistics, in the UK, women account for just 17% of workers in the tech sector.

This drops even more when you look at specific roles e.g. the proportion of women working as system designers and IT business analysts is 14% and only women make up only 13% of programmers and software developers.

During the Brexit debate, many argued that the UK’s growing reputation as a viable technology leader would help to safeguard the nation’s economy in the event of a no-deal exit from the EU.

Last year the UK tech sector experienced a record-breaking 12 months from the perspective of investment.

And the government announced that around 1.2 million new technical and digitally skilled workers will need to be hired by 2022 to support the huge growth of this sector.

Yet … the percentage of women in tech roles remains low, for a whole range of reasons.

And that’s before we even get started on discussing the gender pay gap.

What are you doing in your organisation to attract and retain women in technology roles?

Here are some ideas that other organisations include in their strategy:

  • Offering coaching with either an external or internal coach
  • Running a women in tech network
  • Gender neutral recruitment
  • Launching a women’s returner programme
  • Blind hiring
  • Creation of policies designed to appeal to women and/or mothers
  • Promoting an inclusive work culture
  • Setting quotas when working with external recruitment agencies
  • Hosting graduate careers events aimed at female STEM students

I’d love to hear from you as to what’s worked successfully in your organisation. And also what hasn’t.

Get in touch by email today for an exploratory call to discuss how your organisation can:

  • Support your female talent with strategies to drive motivation, improve engagement and increase retention so that more women put themselves forward for promotion.
  • Educate your leaders and managers to help keep your female talent motivated and engaged so you reduce the loss of valuable talent.
  • Introduce strategies to better attract and retain female talent, promote an inclusive environment and improve gender equality which means you reduce the gender pay gap.