Why DE&I Should Be Part of Your Engineering Culture – And How to Do It

Despite ongoing efforts to hire more people of color and women in tech roles, companies are struggling to retain this talent. This is in large part because organizations don’t have an inclusive culture at all.

A Diversity in Tech 2021 US report by Wiley found that half of the respondents surveyed said they had left or plan to leave a tech or IT job because the culture at the company made them unwelcome or uncomfortable. Of these respondents, a majority were from underrepresented groups (53% of female respondents, 53% of Asian respondents, 56% of Black and African American respondents, 58% of Hispanic or Hispanic respondents).

DE&I initiatives should not only be an HR goal. At a time when the Talent and skilled labor shortages impacts the ability of all organizations to drive digital transformation projects and meet business needs and To remain competitive, building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace culture — which has a proven track record of attracting and retaining talent — should also be a priority for CIOs and technical leaders.

Diverse engineering teams encourage creativity and more innovative ways to solve problems. This, in turn, leads to higher quality products that are more accessible to more customers – and all of that good for business and for people. An inclusive culture also encourages continuous feedback, which is critical to the software development and engineering process and can lead to better software and service delivery.

So what can CIOs and leaders do to create and foster an inclusive culture within the engineering organization and reap the benefits of a high-performing, diverse engineering team?

Results-based hiring approach

Hiring people isn’t the be-all and end-all of building diverse teams, but it’s one of the first steps. How you write a job description has a huge impact on the type of talent that applies. The wording or requirements in the description may discourage some individuals from applying because a bias is implied by the listing or the applicant’s own perceived skills and qualifications. For example, a job description with phrases such as “Looking for a young and energetic candidate” or “Graduate from a top university” may indicate prejudice against older workers or applicants from a certain socio-economic background. In addition, research has shown that women do not apply for a job unless they meet 100% of the requirements qualifications.

In addition to writing more comprehensive job descriptions, another way to break down prejudice and attract more diverse talent is to take a results-based approach to hiring. Rather than just listing the job requirements and attributes of the perfect candidate, a job description should emphasize the challenge of the position. This can help you attract and evaluate talent based on performance results rather than individual qualifications. For example, a skills-based hiring approach would look for candidates who are experienced bridge builders to cross the river. While the results-based approach would state the challenge or problem (we need to cross a river) and candidates would demonstrate their skills and reflect on the best way forward.

This hiring philosophy can help you get a holistic picture of the skills, accomplishments, and motivations a candidate brings to your team. The main objective of the interviews is then to provide each candidate with an opportunity to demonstrate how they would use their mix of skills, knowledge and abilities to achieve the performance outcomes required for the role.

An inclusive team culture needs space for feedback and psychological security

Taking a page from the Agile Engineering Playbook, one of the most important tenets of an inclusive culture is having a safe space for feedback. You can do this by setting aside time each month or quarter to create space for team members to share their perspective. Ask questions like: Do you feel comfortable sharing your opinion? The feedback from these check-ins can help uncover trends where actionable changes are needed.

It’s also important that employees feel safe sharing their feedback, ideas, and opinions outside of these surveys and check-ins. That’s what Google researchers found out psychological security is the most important characteristic of high-performing teams. This means a state of well-being in which team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable to one another. A workplace culture that is psychologically safe encourages people to ask questions, share their ideas, and admit a mistake or not knowing without fear of judgment or punishment. Psychological security enables a team to be open, to give and receive new ideas and feedback, which can encourage creativity and new perspectives in approaching a problem or developing a solution.

Representation and mentoring at the top

Retaining team members from underrepresented backgrounds can be difficult when your leadership team still looks like the status quo, as it can seem like there is no path for career growth if men continue to dominate leadership roles. An inclusive culture requires top-down commitment, and part of that responsibility is having leaders and managers who champion women, non-gender and BIPOC employees on their teams.

For team members coming from underrepresented groups, it can be challenging for them to stand up for themselves or find the best way forward when they have fewer examples of leaders from similar backgrounds to look to. Business and tech leaders need to be involved in their team members’ career planning, covering areas such as: what path do they want to take in their career, what are the next steps that will help them move forward, and what do they need? feel supported? Just as there should be safe spaces for feedback, leadership should seek to create opportunities and increase the visibility of their team members who might not otherwise be heard or recognized for their strengths.

Business and technology leaders should have an interest in ensuring they build teams that are diverse and equitable and maintain an inclusive work culture. When you have a diverse team and an inclusive culture to support that team, you will see greater performance and better products that meet the needs of the community and your users.

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