Diversity and Inclusion
Discover the impact of diversity and inclusion in the technology sector and understand why building diverse teams and fostering inclusive cultures matter. Learn the challenges caused by representation gaps and explore strategies that managers can use to encourage psychological safety and equal opportunity in their organizations.
We'll cover the following...
What is diversity and inclusion?
Diversity is about the individuals that make up your workforce. Inclusion is about how you encourage and enable a work environment that allows all employees to be psychologically safe and able to contribute. To start, let’s look at diversity.
If you didn’t already know, our technology industry has a diversity problem. Published diversity statistics show that despite the U.S. population being 51% female in 2017, at the time Nvidia only employed 17% female staff, Intel and Microsoft 26%, Dell 28%, and Google, Salesforce, and YouTube 31%. This reporting also didn’t account for those that identify as nonbinary or transgender. Furthermore, the diversity gap widens at the most senior levels of companies. For example, a 2018 report found that only 10% of tech executives are female.
However, the diversity problem goes beyond just gender. Racial diversity in technology is poor, and even less is being done about it. Consider colorless diversity: a phenomenon where the industry is not investing equally in addressing the imbalance of people of color. Due to innate human bias and lack of awareness, predominantly white males with the power to make hiring and promotion decisions subsequently tackle the gender ...