Diversity at Made Tech in 2021

We want to foster a diverse, happy and well-supported team. Last September, we asked everyone in Made Tech to complete a diversity and inclusion survey. It was a chance to see how well we’re actually doing in achieving that goal.

I want to share results from the survey, and the steps we’re taking next – including things to address as top priority. 

A word about benchmarking

You’ll see that we benchmark against national statistics. Unfortunately, the 2011 census is the latest with published data. We’ll start benchmarking against 2021 census data once it’s published – hopefully in March 2022.

One question raised is why we benchmark against the whole UK population: “Wouldn’t it make more sense to benchmark regionally, as we have offices around the country?” 

It’s a good question! We chose to benchmark nationally as it sets a higher bar for diversity and diversity is a top priority for us. 

Another reason is that, often, the services we help build will be used by people around the country. So it’s important to us that the teams that build them reflect this diversity too. 

Positive points

There’s good news about how Made Tech represents diversity compared to the UK population:

• 17% of team members identified as LGBTQ+ (compared to 6% nationwide)
• 4% were from Black, African, Caribbean or Black British (compared to 3% nationwide)
• 5% were from mixed or multiple ethnic groups (compared to 2% nationwide)

Where we under-represent

But there are areas where we fall short:

• 33% of Made Tech staff identified as female (compared to 50% nationwide)
• 4.9% identified as Asian (compared to 7% nationwide)
• 25% were aged 40 or over (compared to 56% nationwide)
• 12% identified as having a disability (compared to 18% nationwide)

We must do better. We aim to make every team at Made Tech representative of UK society. To achieve this, Made Tech has to over-represent minority groups. National figures must be seen as a benchmark, not an end goal. So even among our positive trends, there’s still more we can do.

Addressing our pay gaps

It’s very clear that we must address our gender and ethnic pay gaps.

Gender pay gap

• Mean: 13.26%
• Median: 30.65%

Ethnic pay gap

• Mean: 13.36%
• Median: 21.75%
  

The figures show the percentage difference between average salaries in these groups compared to the company as a whole. We’ve used both mean and median averages. Both are often used when measuring pay gaps. This FT article has some good context on why.

These aren’t due to disparity of pay within roles and seniority levels. They’re because there are fewer women and people from ethnic minority groups at senior and leadership levels. We have transparent salary bands for our billable roles and we’re working towards doing the same for our internal teams.

The biggest factor is the high proportion of men in senior billable roles, and white men in leadership. So the best way for us to address these pay gaps is to improve diversity at senior and leadership levels.

Questions to ask ourselves

We must keep talking about diversity and inclusion to make sure everyone at Made Tech is – and feels – included. And that we meet their needs in working here. The results of our survey highlights where we can do better.

Some questions about identity received the responses “prefer not say” and “no suitable option”. These were about trans-cis identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and religion and belief. So we must explore what we can do to better engage with, understand and represent these team members. 

2.44% of staff chose “prefer not to say” when asked about disabilities. We need to better support this group to make sure they feel able to discuss their needs so that we can support them.

We also need to ask how we can better support people who identify as non-binary. Gender identity was first included in the UK 2021 census, and that data is not yet published. At the moment, 0.97% of Made Tech staff identify as non-binary, and 0.97% chose “prefer not to say.” 

We want to make sure Made Tech is a safe, welcoming place for non-binary people. Our goal is to represent this group by whole percentage points ahead of the UK population. We’ll begin tracking progress towards this goal once 2021 census data is available.

Our priorities

We have two priorities to improve diversity and inclusion at Made Tech:

1. Increase the number of people from all ethnic groups other than white at SFIA level 6 and above
2. Increase the number of women in billable roles at level SFIA level 4 and above – particularly software engineering

This will improve representation of these groups in senior and leadership levels. And it will help close the pay gaps created by underrepresentation at these levels.

Meaningful steps

We want to take action quickly, but experience shows we can’t fix representation by hiring alone. The reality is that there aren’t enough applicants to senior roles from these groups. 

This is because there aren’t enough pathways into our industry and because people have chosen to leave it – perhaps in the face of adversity. This is especially true of applicants from ethnic minority groups. We need to make sure Made Tech is a force for good as we play our part in this industry. We want to encourage everyone who feels ready to work at senior and leadership levels to apply for these roles, regardless of background. We’re also taking steps to report on diversity at every stage of hiring, and use blind CVs for all roles.

But we must also take long-term steps to promote staff from under-represented groups to senior and leadership levels. The Made Tech Academy is a great way to start this process. We can hire future leaders as they enter the industry with us. We must also make sure we foster equal opportunities for progression as well, which we can support by establishing mentoring and sponsorship programmes

There are also things we can do after hiring, like establishing mentoring and sponsorship programmes. And we can recruit into these programmes from the current Made Tech team.

How you can help

There’s a simple way you can help us to improve diversity and inclusion at Made Tech: join our team. Help us take the next steps in making Made Tech as welcoming, vibrant and inclusive a place to work as possible. 

Right now we’re hiring in a huge variety of roles. Applications for our September 2022 academy will open later this year. Please do share these links with people and groups you know – especially those who may not use social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Wherever you are on your career path. Whatever your background and experience. If you’re passionate about using technology to make life better for everyone, we absolutely want to hear from you.

About the Author