IT industry needs to step up to the diversity agenda

The computer industry isn't doing enough to promote diversity, argues Lisa Heneghan, global head of technology at KPMG

A lot has changed in the past year.

Fuelled by social media, we have seen powerful movements to drive a greater equality agenda, especially around the rights of women. There has been a palpable sense that the tide has turned, with a widening appreciation of the importance of giving everyone an equal chance, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or other personal markers.

That is why I found the results in this year's Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey very disappointing.

The survey, of nearly 4,000 IT leaders across 84 countries, asked participants the extent to which they believe inclusion and diversity in their technology team is important to achieving business and technology objectives.

I would have hoped to see a clear majority saying it is important. But the results were very divided: 30 per cent said it matters to a great extent, 47 per cent to some extent, and nearly a quarter (24 per cent) to little or no extent.

Research has shown that diverse teams create better business outcomes. For example, according to the Harvard Business Review, organisations where at least 30 per cent of an organisation's executives are female, enjoy 15 per cent gains in profitability and this can be an advantage to recruiting and retention, too.

The giants of the tech industry are also very clear that diversity in the workforce creates diversity of thinking, which means they can work more creatively to meet customers' needs.

For example, here is Amazon on its jobs landing page: "Amazon has hundreds of millions of customers who benefit from diversity of thought. We are a company of builders who bring varying backgrounds, ideas, and points of view to decisions and inventing on behalf of our customers… We believe that diversity and inclusion are good for our business."

It could hardly be more categorical than that.

At KPMG, we have… managed to increase our female technology graduate intake from 30 per cent to more than 50 per cent

Clearly, though, the message is not getting through persuasively enough to many IT leaders dealing with the cut and thrust of everyday business. I fully appreciate that the pace and demands of the role mean the primary objective is simply to meet the requirements placed on the technology team by a business hungry for results. The workplace is a meritocracy and teams are judged on results.

But no one is asking for special treatment. Everyone just wants a fair chance based on the talents and skills they can bring to a role.

One source of encouragement in this year's survey is that when we look at the ‘digital leaders' that we identified (the organisations that are furthest ahead in their digital strategies) and also those organisations that are most customer centric (who are also on average more profitable than their peers), the percentages rating diversity and inclusion as important to business outcomes were higher - 36 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.

This is still not as high as I personally would have hoped to see, but it does show that the leading IT organisations take diversity more seriously. This is no accident. After all, IT is not just about technical skills.

An effective IT team needs an ability to collaborate with the rest of the business, to communicate and build relationships, and be open to learning and improvement. These are all attributes that are encouraged by diverse teams where a range of different perspectives brings what I like to term ‘whole mind thinking'.

On the gender front, there is still a long way to go. The percentage of female IT leaders is rising - but very slowly. It now stands at 12 per cent where last year it was 10 per cent. Meanwhile, only one-in-five of the average technology team is female.

There is no doubt that we all need to do more to encourage more women into IT. There is still the perception that IT is a career for men. At KPMG, we have been running a very successful campaign, IT's Her Future, in which we have managed to increase our female technology graduate intake from 30 per cent to more than 50 per cent.

Now, we have moved the focus to inspiring girls at school to think about careers in IT. They need to know that many women have the right skills and that the ever changing world of technology can provide an amazing career for women. We have to build the pipeline for the future.

This year's survey results should come as a wake up call the industry. Collectively, we have to get fully behind the diversity agenda. It's not an exercise in political correctness. It's an exercise in commercial good sense that delivers a commercial pay-off.