Shareholder Lawsuit: An ‘Oracle’ of Tech’s Racial Reckoning to Come?

… its own, arguably overdue, racial reckoning.

According to 2018 figures from Gartner, high-tech has a Black composition of 7% compared to 14% in all private industries; a Hispanic composition of 8% versus 14%; an Asian-American composition of 14% contrasted with 6%; and a white composition of 69% against 63%.

In a July 1 blog, Barika Pace, senior director and analyst at Gartner, noted that many tech companies “persistently fail to recruit women and minorities, and more struggle to retain them.”

Not only does this impact leadership, innovation and adoption, Pace said, a lack of diversity also affects the bottom line.

Gartner’s Barika Pace

“For example, one particular investigation found that gender-balanced teams were more likely to identify gaps in the ideation phase and proved to be more profitable,” Pace wrote.

Pace’s advice for technology firms, which include those in the channel? For starters, evaluate existing recruitment practices and shift to mindsets that reward diversity in thinking. Second, review “diversity debt,” recruitment sources, job posting and hiring processes. When it came to job titles, Pace cites one technology company that discovered changing a role from “Hacker” to “Security Engineer” doubled the number of female applicants.

“Altering recruitment standards will reshape the type of candidate you hire and ultimately increase the diversity of the corporate perspective to create a culture that encourages digital imagination and yields product innovation,” she said.

Additional guidance from Pace includes:

• Developing actions to overcome biases. The idea is to improve trust, eliminate deeply rooted stereotypes in communication, and promote positive behavioral change and training.
• Diversifying hiring teams. If your company faces large diversity debt, ask for outside help.
• Talking to current employees. Circulate surveys about perceived inclusion of unrepresented groups to identify areas of improvement. Track progress regularly.
• Reducing reliance on employee referrals. A University of Georgia study showed employees tend to refer candidates of the same race, gender and ethnicity.
• Polling job candidates. At the end of a hiring cycle, look for trends related to diversity and inclusions to pinpoint ways to improve.