Diversity in Tech

29% of tech employees are women or non-binary

Creeping up to 29%, this is the highest proportion of women and gender minorities in tech recorded since Tech Talent Charter started collating tech diversity data. Employers reported only a tiny proportion of non-binary tech employees so the 29% figure essentially reflects the number of women in tech. This figure is higher than the UK tech industry average and suggests that amongst our Signatories - companies that are working to improve diversity - better tech workforce diversity is achievable, irrespective of company size, sector or location. This progress bucks an overall trend in the UK where the number of women in tech is decreasing, according to ONS data. 

Only one third of companies recognise non-binary genders in their employee data

Only 0.09% of tech employees are reported to be non-binary, based on a sample of 89,000 tech employees at 235 organisations that recognise non-binary genders. Failure to recognise more than two genders in your company infrastructure is becoming an increasingly exposing way of signalling that non-binary folks in your organisation are, quite literally, not to be counted.

Whilst  companies can struggle to operationalize LGBTQ+ data collection due to differences in regional legislation and software system inflexibility, we still need to find ways to support these colleagues at work. It’s easy to think that discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community is something that happens in other parts of the world, but the past year has seen a significant increase in the reported number of hate crimes against these groups compared to previous years. It’s therefore important to adapt organisational policies and processes where possible to include a fuller spectrum of gender identities. Beyond simply asking the question, employers must make workplaces feel safe, or colleagues will not want to disclose this information when it’s requested. 

One quarter of tech employees are ethnic minorities

Based on ethnicity data shared by over 140,000 tech employees, there is a relatively high proportion of ethnic minority representation in tech compared to the UK workforce overall. However, this doesn’t tell the whole story because the tech ecosystem is skewed towards London, which has higher ethnic diversity, meaning that the benchmark for ethnic diversity in tech should be higher than the national average.

Efforts to improve racial and ethnic diversity feature prominently in Signatory D&I efforts. Ethnic diversity is the second most-focused on area of D&I after gender. 73% of companies are collecting ethnicity data from their workforce and 63% of companies are taking some sort of action to improve ethnic diversity.

Gender diversity in senior tech positions backslides to 21% as companies focus on shoring up progression and retention for women in tech

Based on a sample of nearly 9,000 senior tech role holders, 21% are gender minorities - an eight percentage point gap to gender diversity in tech overall (29%). Since last year the gap has grown by one point, reflecting an increase in the number of gender minorities in tech overall but also a fall in the proportion who hold senior roles. The fall comes amidst continuing reports of the barriers women face to access top positions.

80% of women say dissatisfaction with career progression was a factor in them leaving their tech role

Understanding retention and progression drivers are critical to improving diversity in tech and some organisations are doubling down on their efforts to progress diverse talent. 245 Signatories are implementing some sort of skill or progression programme for their employees. However, just 15% of them are targeted specifically at women. This is important because four out of five women in tech report that dissatisfaction with their career progression was a factor in their decision to leave their tech role. If we’re not creating transparent and equitable opportunities for advancement, employers must expect women will leave.

Only one in five software engineers are women or non-binary

From a sample of nearly 32,000 software engineers, 80% were reported to be men. The proportion of women in software engineering compared to tech roles overall (for example roles in data, product, IT, design, testing etc) drops by about a third, from 29% across all tech roles, to 20% in software engineering. As tech advancements accelerate, we need to ensure that diverse groups are involved in the creation of AI tools and other technologies that run our society, or we risk codifying inequities into our digital infrastructure.

Only 9% of tech employees are reported to be from lower socio-economic backgrounds compared to 29% in finance and 23% in law

Gathering data on over 30,000 tech employees from 85 different employers, we found that tech does indeed appear to have some serious problems with socio-economic exclusion, faring far worse than sectors that have long been chastised for elitism. This data reflects those who disclosed to their employer about their socio-economic background so the true number may be higher. The point is though, we need to be better at measuring and understanding the role tech employers play in the social mobility of the country, and it needs to start with far more organisations educating themselves about how to measure and understand social mobility and why it’s important.

Some employers express reluctance to ask about socio-economic background because the questions used to measure it can feel awkward or not relevant to some employees, for example those educated in other countries or those in certain age groups for whom some questions may not feel relevant. However, there are robust frameworks in place to help.

Just 6% of tech employees are disabled despite making up 23% of the UK workforce

We asked organisations to tell us about disability in their tech workforce. Based on a sample of over 113,000 tech employees, just 6% of tech employees are disabled. The majority of people will at some point be directly or indirectly affected by disability, whether persistent, transient or caring-related. It is a commercial and moral imperative for companies to remove disabling barriers in work environment and culture so that disabled people can access engaging and meaningful careers in tech.

Inclusive hiring practices are vital for the fair treatment of disabled people. A persistent but all too common example is that it could take a disabled person longer to obtain a certain type of qualification. If a company has age expectations - whether implied or explicit - on employment programmes or jobs, disabled people are unfairly blocked from vital economic opportunities as a result.

More than half of UK tech workers identify as being neurodivergent

The research we carried out among a representative sample of 500 UK tech workers found that 53% of respondents identify as having a neurodivergent condition (whether officially diagnosed or not). 

The most prevalent conditions are autism/autism spectrum disorder (15%), ADHD/ADD (15%), and dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia (9%). Other conditions include cognitive functioning difficulties (6%), Tourettes (4%), and learning differences (3%).

Neurodiversity is not always regarded as a disability by employees

Employers might expect employees and prospective employees to include details of neurodivergence when asked about disabilities, but this is not reliable. Although the law includes neurodivergence as a protected disability, just over 16% of respondents told us that they would not mention neurodivergence when asked to report disabilities, while a further 17% weren’t sure if they would.

This shows the need for employers to carefully word questions when attempting to collect data around neurodivergence. Only 63% of people in tech roles say their employer has explicitly asked if they have a neurodivergent condition, despite the fact that neurodivergence is protected under disability legislation. 

If they have been asked, it’s most likely to have been as part of the job application (19%) or as part of a diversity & inclusion survey (16%). A further 15% have been asked about neurodiversity when onboarding, and 13% through the workplace HR system.

Working environments are not optimised for neurodivergent employees

While employers are making improvements in measuring neurodiversity they’re not necessarily taking action to make their workplace more inclusive. Only 22% of respondents say their offices have sensory relaxation spaces, while 29% have been offered training to support neurodiverse colleagues. And just 25% believe their company has a culture that celebrates neurodiversity.

A quarter of respondents say their employer offers a neurodiversity-inclusive approach to career development initiatives and training, but fewer (23%) say their employer has neurodiversity-friendly hiring practices.

In terms of benefits, a quarter of respondents say their employer provides health insurance that includes private diagnosis of neurodiversity conditions. Flexible/remote working is more widespread, available to 43% of respondents.

Despite relatively low adoption of initiatives to support neurodivergent workers, perception of employers’ inclusion efforts is fairly high. Nearly 69% of all respondents agree their employers do enough to support neurodiversity. However, this data shows that it wouldn’t take huge investment to make improvements that exceed employees’ expectations and boost employer branding.