Diversity in Tech 2021 Report > TTC Methodology Notes

    TTC Methodology Notes

    We issued a data collection annual survey and received responses from 580 organizations (Signatories). The Senior Signatory, Principal or Data contact for our organisations were asked to respond to the survey, which requested qualitative and quantitative information relevant to D&I on behalf of their organisation. Questions and guidance notes were provided a month in advance of the submission window alongside support via webinars. To become and remain a TTC Signatory, organisations must provide answers to at least the mandatory section of the survey. Any organisations who did not submit the mandatory data were removed from the TTC. The data was collected by TTC between August and October 2021 and was required to be a snapshot of any point between March 2021 and October 2021.

    Overall organisations have reported on 196,179 tech roles which, based on a Tech Nation analysis of 2019 ONS data, allows to estimate a representation of between 15% and 16% of the UK tech workforce. The methodology of the ONS data against which we measure uses a sample from which estimations and extrapolations are made to determine their figures. TTC similarly uses the sample of data available to make estimations about the Signatory base, and whilst there is direct data for a large proportion of the entire TTC sample upon which to base this figure, there may be some variance in the true figures due to variances in estimation and weighting of data for parts of the sample where information was not available.

    Oreonous and outlying data has been included on a case by case basis to maintain the integrity of any group in which it sits.

    Benchmarking data

    For the purposes of effective benchmarking, we have omitted data where a Signatory has not asked their employees to disclose diversity data (pertaining to ethnicity) from the overall sample number.

    Industry

    All Signatories provided an industry which best describes the nature of their business. These responses were then grouped into higher level categories for the sake of anonymity and data analysis. For example, Financial Services, Banking, and Insurance are all grouped into Finance.

    Location

    All Signatories provided the region in which the majority of their UK tech roles are based. These responses were standardised into the broadly recognised regions of the UK, as well as those whose roles were mainly location-agnostic/ remote, and those who have an even division across the UK.

    Company size

    All Signatories provided two employee counts: one for their entire organisation, and one for the number of UK-based tech jobs.

    Both of these are split into the following groups:

    • 1-10: micro
    • 11-50: small
    • 51-200: medium
    • 201-1,000: large
    • 1,001+: super large

    Depending on the type of analysis, either UK-tech-based or overall company size could be used. We believe the overall size of a company is largely indicative of company-wide hiring practices, which will be standardised across all roles, not just tech. This should be made clear in each particular analysis.

    Gender

    Signatories were asked to report on the number of roles/ tech roles held by men; women; those who prefer not to disclose their gender; those who are non-binary or other gender identities; and those who have not been asked about their gender and therefore their gender (or preference not to disclose it) is unknown. We are pleased that we have been able to report non-binary and other gender identities as a separate category as an improvement on last year’s data collection.

    Where not stated explicitly, those whose gender is unknown have been excluded from the total count(s) of people as this would be to assume which gender group they belong to.

    When the term ‘minority gender’ is used the we are totalling the number of employees identified as a women or as a non-binary individual or another gender that was not any of the above or man/male.

    Ethnicity

    Signatories were asked to report on the number of UK-based tech jobs held by people who are: Asian or Asian British; Black, African, Caribbean or Black British; mixed or multiple ethnic groups; White; any other ethnicity; prefer not to disclose their ethnicity; were not asked to disclose their ethnicity and therefore their ethnicity (or their preference not to disclose it) is unknown.

    Where not stated explicitly, those whose ethnicity is unknown have been excluded from the total count(s) of people as this would be to assume which ethnic group they belong to.

    When the term ‘minority ethic’ is used we are totalling the number of employees reported to be Asian or Asian British; Black, African, Caribbean, or Black British; and mixed or multiple ethnic groups.

    Other lens

    The survey asked Signatories to share if they measure other employee characteristics, we asked for a declaration of if the following are collected, Gender, Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, Neurodiversity, Disability/ Long term health condition, Soco economic, Age, Religion, do not track any employee characteristics and Another characteristic not listed.

    Research questions

    The survey asked five free text response questions around D&I focusing on data collection practice, impactful interventions, most significant issues, tech training and careers. For comparison responses were categorised.

    Percentages and Averages

    Percentages have been rounded up to the nearest whole unless otherwise noted.

    To ensure a consistent and representative position, Signatories without tech employees who made a submission have been omitted from the average industry calculations.

    If you have any further queries relating to our annual report, data or methodology, please contact the TTC on hello@techtalentcharter.co.uk