If the number of recent organisational closures is anything to go by, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the UK technology sector is struggling.
Women Who Code, a charity that supported women in tech, shut its doors in April, citing “factors that have materially impacted our funding sources – funds that were critical to continuing our programming and delivering on our mission”.
This was followed in June by an announcement from the Tech Talent Charter (TTC) that it intends to cease operations at the end of the August. The industry membership body, which was set up in 2015, provided resources and networking opportunities to support the DEI activities of more than 800 signatory organisations.
A month later, meanwhile, global non-profit organisation Girls in Tech became the next casualty after similarly experiencing a funding squeeze. So, what is going on here?
Waseem Ali, chief executive of data and AI consultancy Rockborne, believes the DEI sector is currently labouring under a mix of economic, financial and political pressure.
“Only a few years ago, it seemed like most companies were vocally committing to DEI and posting action plans,” he says. “But all the work they put in then now seems to be at risk – if I talk to organisations in my network, many activities are being quietly shelved or parked.”
Toby Mildon, diversity and inclusion architect at Mildon Ltd, is also seeing a “general slowdown”.
“Companies aren’t committing to doing projects and they’re not spending as much,” he says. “Some of it could be related to the economic climate and companies tightening their belts because DEI isn’t seen by most as critical, but as more of a nice-to-have, especially when they’re focusing on business fundamentals, such as cutting costs and increasing sales.”
This is despite widespread evidence showing that “inclusive companies outperform those that aren’t”, he adds.
A mixed picture for DEI in tech
Jo Stansfield is founder and director of DEI consultancy Inclusioneering and a visiting fellow at Cranfield University. She agrees that “things are hard”, but points out that those organisations taking the lead in the DEI space are “still investing”.
Stansfield is seeing a change in tack here, though. Leading companies are now “shifting language and talking less about DEI and more about the specific changes that are needed. So, they’re being more considered about the language they use”, she says.
In some instances, Stansfield believes, the shift may have come about due to an increased maturity of approach. The idea in this context is that employers try to ensure everyone in the business takes responsibility for delivering DEI outcomes rather than just dedicated teams.
But the situation is also partly being driven by the vocal DEI backlash in the US. This has influenced attitudes in the UK too, creating a more hostile environment in the process. Examples include former government ministers announcing plans to eradicate diversity training, ban diversity jobs in the Civil Service and require local councils to cut expenditure on diversity schemes.
In other words, the picture is mixed. While things may have “certainly improved over the past 10 years”, Stansfield says, there is still “much more to be done”. For instance, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, indicates that the number of women in tech now stands at 20% of the total compared with 16% six years ago. But at current rates, this means it will take another 283 years before women account for half of the workforce.
Moreover, she adds, although there has been “a lot of talk about gender and a bit on ethnicity, there’s been very little focus on LGBTQIA+ and disabled people in tech. Socio-economic background needs a lot more attention too, particularly as technology becomes more prevalent and more decisions are made using AI.”
One problem here is a “certain amount of complacency” among some employers following high levels of DEI focus in the wake of social movements, such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, Stansfield says. Among others, it is more of an issue of DEI “fatigue”, where organisations adopt a stance of “it must be done by now and it’s time to focus elsewhere”.
But overall, she points out, there are still an “awful lot of performative DEI initiatives” that tend to “look good rather than providing good evidence of positive change”. Such issues are a key reason behind why the TTC decided to close its doors.
The next phase of the journey
Debbie Forster, the not-for-profit’s joint chief executive, explains: “DEI is at risk. If you look at things in terms of a hype curve, we’re not quite at the peak but we’re reaching it, and we’re already seeing signs of plateauing. And as soon as you talk about that, the next thing that follows is decline, so we had to draw attention to it.”
A key issue here is that DEI initiatives take time, effort and investment to make their mark. “But too many companies have not put it at the heart of what they’re doing – they’ve put it at the side of the table. But DEI can’t just be about marketing – it has to be linked to the P&L,” Forster points out.
This scenario was evidenced in the body’s 2023 annual benchmarking report. It indicated that the sector had seen a shift over the past three years. Budgets were being cut and many DEI initiatives were being “shelved” so organisations could focus on business priorities. Full-time DEI professionals were also being made redundant and part-time practitioners were being asked to concentrate on core tasks.
“The research was showing a reduction in DEI funding, a reduction in focus and a reduction in buy-in,” Forster points out. “There was more of tendency towards organisations openly stepping back and using us as a fig leaf to cover their lack of action.”
In other words, DEI in tech has reached an “inflection point” and TTC could “see what was coming”, she says.
“We could have got through a couple of more years of having a bit less impact and a bit less credibility while DEI started to wither,” Forster says. “But we’re letting go and closing this chapter as we don’t want to be part of the hype curve.”
As a result, rather than rebrand or switch focus, the TTC decided the time was now right to disband entirely. To help move DEI in tech into its next phase though, Forster and her co-CEO Karen Blake have already started an informal “listening exercise”.
Once the TTC is no more, they will create an independent, dedicated LinkedIn group to continue gathering insights from committed individuals and tech businesses. The aim is to use these views on the state of the current DEI landscape as a foundation to create a roadmap addressing the needs of the industry moving forward – whether the future involves Forster and Blake or not.
“We’re returning to first principles, so we’re shutting the formal organisation and instead will be an informal group of people who care enough to plan the next phase of the journey – and everyone’s invited,” Forster explains. “We’ll no longer be the TTC. We’ll be a planning group, and Karen and I will undertake road-mapping after that.”
Light at the end of the tunnel
All of the resources the TTC has created and accumulated over the past nine years, which include its D&I Directory and Open Playbook, will remain available to interested parties for free.
As Forster says: “When we first started, there was no way to benchmark DEI and we didn’t understand what ‘good’ looked like. But there are tools to help people do that now, which means there are no longer any excuses.”
A key challenge today though, says Mildon, is that too many senior leaders “still don’t get it”.
“Heads of HR and the people on the ground get it, but many senior leaders and company directors don’t,” he explains. “They know it’s important and they’ve read the McKinsey reports so they’ve had a cerebral, cognitive response to it all, but they still don’t have 100% clarity on why it’s important to their own business.”
The issue is that understanding the “why” is vital to create a sustainable business case, Mildon adds.
Stansfield agrees. “You need to understand the business aims and how DEI will help – otherwise it’s just magical thinking,” she says. “It’s more powerful if it’s targeted. So, for example, if you’re trying to improve talent attraction, see how DEI can help you achieve particular goal.”
But despite the current struggles of DEI in tech, Stansfield does not believe the end is nigh for the industry any time soon.
“This is a dip rather than a complete crash and as the economy picks up again, we’ll start to see the DEI sector come back,” she says. “The current situation is largely linked to everything being a bit tight in terms of money, but the new government is planning a lot of new DEI policies to make things fairer across the board, which will help.”
This means that “while the pressure won’t necessarily decrease”, the sector will revive and we will start to “see it coming back into action” as the next cycle of development comes around, Stansfield concludes.