Although many bemoan the lack of female candidates for tech companies, here at Clarity, we’ve actually been seeing a groundswell of these applicants, and we’re actively working to capitalize on that.
We’ve taken some keys steps that have helped improve the gender balance at our company – when I first started, we only had five or six women here, and now we have 20 – and although we began this journey with a mission to attract more female candidates, we’ve noticed something interesting: the culture and policies that women appreciate aren’t necessarily gender specific.
This means companies can actually improve their gender diversity – and other types of diversity – while attracting the best and brightest of all kinds of people.
The culture and policies that women appreciate aren’t necessarily gender specific
Diversity should be especially important to technology companies. It’s an integral component of success – not just to make sure talented people from all walks of life are welcome in the workplace, but also to make the company stronger and improve client deliverables, because a more diverse team will bring unique ideas and insights to projects.
Here are five areas where we’ve taken action:
1) Equal opportunity: Committing to equal pay should be a foregone conclusion. But committing to equal opportunity for advancement may take a more expansive organizational change that includes a program of workshops and training for career development.
Mentorship programs are another important part of the puzzle to help junior employees navigate the workplace by getting feedback and advice from senior team members. At Clarity, these types of programs aren’t just for female employees – we believe any person with the drive to advance to leadership positions will benefit from having room to grow.
2) A firm anti-bullying, anti-harassment policy. Many women have encountered harassment and bullying – especially in the tech industry. While unfortunate, it also presents an opportunity for a tech company to differentiate itself by being the antithesis of the “look-the-other-way,” domineering environment.
We’ve never had a bullying problem per se – and many companies haven’t – but even so, it’s important to create strong policies to show bullying and harassment of any kind are not and never have been tolerated. Encourage employees to report issues they see, protect whistleblowers, and follow up on any issues. This creates a workplace where all employees feel safe because their personal rights are respected.
3) A flexible work schedule. This helps employees with a family – not just women – navigate childcare/school pickups and drop-offs without compromising work projects. Allow parents to come in later and leave earlier with the expectation that the work will still get done, even though it might not be until after the kids go to bed or before they wake up in the morning.
Flexible work hours aren’t just for parents – other employees may be caring for a parent or other family member, and younger employees without these responsibilities still appreciate the freedom this policy gives them. This kind of policy shows that a company knows and cares that life happens, and will be flexible when needed – no matter who that employee is.
4) A women’s tech community with the company. This fosters a sense of camaraderie, gets women excited about working for the company, and creates a built-in welcoming committee for new female hires.
Clarity has a women’s group that allows our female colleagues to socialize, mentor each other and network internally. We organize informal events like watching “CodeGirl” over lunch breaks or going to see a speaker together, giving us opportunities to bond and build solidarity.
We’ve also done “coding and cupcakes”-type events, where our female technologists bring their children to the office learn the basics of coding, show them what Mom does for a living, and teach them about jobs in the tech industry.
Creating a women’s community with the company has an added bonus: It is a very tangible way to demonstrate a welcoming environment to potential hires and makes it easier to attract other talented women to the company.
5) Refined recruiting strategies. Creating an inclusionary company culture opens the door to female candidates, but recruiting practices gets your company in front of talented women.
Don’t wait until they graduate to start educating them about your company. Get involved with colleges – the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) exists at many schools and can be a great partner.
You can sponsor your own events or dinners in conjunction with SWE, or bring your female technologists to their events to talk with the undergrads about your company – we’ve had a lot of success with our own employees representing our company at events. When your culture is open and caring, and your company is an enjoyable place to work, employees will be eager to share their experiences with other superstars. Your female technologists are walking success stories – so don’t be afraid to ask them to come to events and help out their HR and recruiter colleagues.
Go to high school as well as college job fairs – this helps you contribute to the greater goal of making young women aware of the opportunities in tech for them, but it also helps spreads awareness about your own company, too.
Stay away from aggressive phrases like 'code ninja' and 'work hard, play hard'
Social media can have a big impact. Show via social media posts and photos that the company is a nice place to work – consider using “guest posts” from diverse teams and groups within the organization to let them talk about what they’re working on (without naming the client) or what they like about working at your company.
Even the job post wording can affect who applies for the job. Stay away from aggressive phrases like “code ninja” and “work hard, play hard” and replace with more realistic descriptions of requirements, while also communicating that you want candidates with soft skills as well. Doing both these things has been shown to increase the number of female applicants a company receives, and improve the number and quality of applicants overall.
Good People Make a Good Company
We’re actively striving to always make our company a better place to work, and part of that is creating a place where women technologists and engineers can thrive – and we’re also learning that it’s helping the whole company thrive, too, by improving the diversity of our employee personality types and enhancing the exchange of ideas. This is creating a “virtuous cycle” in which our culture and employees make the company a good place to work, thus attracting more star employees with the same positive values – of all demographics and genders.
Kristen Byrne is director of recruiting at Clarity Consulting, a craft technology company that creates custom solutions to solve complex business problems. Byrne can be reached at kbyrne@claritycon.com.
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