Industry Insights: How to Recruit and Retain Women in IT

The Industry Insights series delves into industry and workplace best practices, in the hopes of providing new perspectives in an easily digestible way, backed with research and industry data.

Although Women’s History Month just ended and we’re in our first week of April, the long-term work on empowering and uplifting women as integral to our IT companies and departments continues. Women in the workplace not only are one of the main indicators to improving a country and region’s economic and social well-being, but they’re also imperative to companies who are looking to grow and increase their revenue. No matter how you slice it, research conducted by leading research and consulting institutions have identified that increasing gender diversity allows companies to outperform less diverse companies over time, along with improving innovation. At this point, keeping to our comfort zones of a larger ratio of men in IT work and leadership roles is really not a risk we can take anymore if we want our companies to be successful. So, what do we do?

What does integration beyond the first step of recruiting women look like? Recruiting women is not just about adding women to the workplace; if your company doesn’t have a culture and structure that fosters women in the workplace, then retaining women will be challenging and women’s employee experience and satisfaction will be negatively impacted. Using a three hierarchical level framework (image below), I’ve structured nine active steps you can take to help your company retain and integrate women in your workplace.

Framework for Improving the Recruitment and Retention of Women in IT

All levels have the ability to affect one another, but a foundational base in company structure is pivotal. With strong company structure, processes, and culture, the company facilitates and encourages an improved workplace experience, team collaboration, and shifts in individual mindsets.

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Organizational Level

This foundation of the pyramid is focused on the company’s strategy to foster the recruitment and retention of women in its workplace, and sets the stage to facilitating team and individual level transformations. Although individuals and teams may be able to make changes at the company level if they have negotiation power and buy-in, the path of least resistance is to first address recruitment and retention opportunities at the company level first.

1. Create objective measures for salary calculations

Money talks and salary and compensation packages signify the value an organization places on someone. If we are serious about recruitment and retention, then salary and promotions should be on the forefront of our minds even though it isn’t the only factor. This is particularly where getting serious about HR in your organization is important, as HR is trained in creating more objective salary measurements. Although this rule of thumb is crucial for any business, it’s even more important when we want to recruit and retain women. Currently, there is a large gender pay gap in the IT world, even when individuals are in the same role, and this is further exacerbated for women who are also Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. On a similar note, just because someone asks for less of a salary than the company would have given them, that doesn’t mean the company should agree to that low salary, particularly because women tend to find out they are getting paid less for doing the same work and because this makes the employee a flight risk. There are a multitude of reasons why a person may be requesting a lower salary than what you would have originally calculated, part of which is related to historically inequitable pay - and this is what you are trying to tackle. Salaries are becoming more transparent, and if employees find out they are getting paid less than someone who is doing the same job as them, this would lead to consequences such as employee dissatisfaction, disengagement, high turnover rates, reduced company reputation and ranking, and legal ramifications. One final note about pay, it’s mostly fallen out of common practice, but if your company asks someone what their current salary is on their application, please consider removing it for potentially legal ramifications but because it also signals a red flag to potential candidates. It has been proven that this question perpetuates the gender pay gap. Instead, the best alternative would be to ask for an applicants’ expected salary.

2. Add women in leadership positions

Take a look at your organizational chart; what is the percentage of men to women both throughout the organization and in leadership positions? Across most industries, even in industries with more women employees, leadership positions are seated mostly by men. In IT specifically, only 25% of senior leaders are women. This creates a clear power dynamic because although women may be sitting in implementation and project teams, they report to men and have no or severely limited representation at leadership level. A leadership structure of only men makes it challenging for women in other positions to speak up because they are concerned their men colleagues will not understand. Right now you may be thinking “well, they should just speak up anyway”. The truth is that most women in IT have experienced voicing their opinions or concerns and having their concerns invalidated; we are hyper aware of when something is wrong or if there are strong power dynamics in play because we have lived as women our whole lives. We experience what it’s like to be treated fairly versus when the opposite occurs. For this reason, women leaders make great mentors to other women and pave the way to bring more women into leadership positions. If you are sitting here and wondering, “it’s just so challenging to find good women candidates though”. I am here to encourage you to entertain the notion that you may be experiencing a self fulling and validating prophecy; I have seen both sides of the coin and I’ve seen that those that recruit for positions may be more willing to share men candidates to men employers with the guise that those candidates would be a better cultural fit and profile to the organization. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to be in a leadership position and are the hiring manager (e.g. Project Manager, Program Manager, senior leadership), I would encourage you to get excited about how new perspectives can improve your team and create a more well-rounded environment that not only fosters a better workplace experience, but allows you to tap into business opportunities and possibilities you would not have previously thought of.

3. Implement flexible hours

Due to the differing roles many women currently play in society above and beyond work, by creating a flexible work hour program women can better cater to their schedules. This has been a highly successful strategy in enabling women in leadership positions, and is beneficial to both men and women alike. Methods to creating flexible work hours are presented with this Society for Human Resource Management article and Randstad Risesmart’s 6 guidelines.

4. Connect with organizations that foster women in IT

There are a variety of different organizations that aim at accomplishing just this and are good resources to begin your journey in exploring what sorts of organizations, educational institutions, or NGOs you would like to partner or connect with. This is not only a great opportunity to meet new talent, but also to potentially receive advising on creating a more inclusive environment.

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Team Level

They say teamwork makes the dream work, right? Although the company strategy and processes set the stage for team cohesion, the figurative baton is passed to the team lead and team-mates. The dynamic that is crafted and embodied throughout the team creates the daily lived experience of its employees. Therefore, seeing as you would like to recruit and retain women, below are three simple shifts we can all take if we are part of a team. This section particularly focuses on communicating within a team setting.

5. Replace gender-related jokes with more inclusive options

For example, it is not okay to make the punchline of a joke that you will “put your high heels on” or that you “saw someone with their red dress and makeup on last night”; neither is it okay to talk about your dating/sex life in the workplace. It is completely fine if you in fact wear high heels, makeup, and red dresses. However, these jokes are often used by individuals who do not choose to wear these items of clothing and the jokes are meant to cast themselves in a humorous light to poke fun at themselves or others. But why is the clothing one gender may choose to wear funny? It may be challenging at first to change up go-to jokes and phrases, but I promise you it is more uncomfortable and alienating to the women on the team then perhaps you currently realize. It is also exhausting for the woman to be the one to correct and educate about these jokes every time, and she may feel like she is jeopardizing her career by not going along with it if she does. Therefore, if you are not a woman and hear one of your colleagues make gender-related jokes or remarks, I am asking you to speak up. The best option is to learn to speak up on the spot; however, there are some times when these jokes may be said in front of others (such as with leaders, a wider team setting, or clients). If you have the opportunity to speak up on the spot, a simple way is to ask “What do you mean by that?”. It gets the person to stop and think about what it means and why they said it. It also provides an opening to have a fruitful conversation and provide feedback.

6. Give credit where credit is due

What an incredible opportunity to build trust with any of your relationships in life - from personal to professional! I love this action, because it’s as simple as giving someone a shout out for a job well done. Often, many of us feel like we have to compete with one another in the workplace, but you know what’s even better? If you give genuine credit/kudos about your colleague in front of their boss and leadership, not just to them in private, I promise it will come back to you tenfold and make you look like a great team player, while also building trust with your colleagues. A disclaimer is that the kudos do have to be genuine; leaders and colleagues can often tell if something is not and that will make them trust you less. You may be wondering at this point, “What does this have to do with retaining women in IT”? If you are a man reading this, you may have experienced a knee jerk reaction in the past to appearing to have gotten help from a woman, especially if she was younger than you. I won’t ask you to confess this to me, but I will ask you to remember that giving credit where credit is due will only help both you and her in the long term, make for a better working relationship, and encourage her to help you again in the future.

7. Advocate for and support your women teammates

Sometimes, women within a man-dominant industry may feel reluctant in speaking up about things that are not right. The reason is because historically their perspective and concerns have been minimized for the sake of “mitigating conflict” or concerns. I put mitigating conflict in quotes because historically these tactics do not actually mitigate but rather sweep the conflict or concern under a rug. Conflict resolution is a lot more than this tactic; conflict resolution is about accepting a problem and working towards a solution. Unfortunately, not being heard or seen has caused many women to quietly search for their next career move and leave the company after a short period of time. Therefore, if a woman colleague confides in you - whether that be about harassment, salary, promotion, inclusivity, or other concerns - please believe her. Ask her if she wants to talk through it to see what options she has moving forward and encourage her to take the best action for her, and be okay with whatever her answer is. I would even take this one step further and say a company and managers should want its employees to come to them, especially if that employee has already taken some action and/or mapped out opportunities for the team, company, or themselves moving forward. This is because they are showing you they are invested and willing to stick it out rather than jump ship. Acknowledging the loyalty that takes is important.

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Individual Level

Now, we’ve reached the individual mindset level. These actions can be taken in parallel with the actions described in previous sections above. Ideally, with the support of the previous two levels, the organization and the team, we should by now have set the stage for individual transformations. This stage is all about our perception and expectations of women employees.

8. Start shifting your attention to more IT women leaders

This is a great way to begin exploring your own assumptions about women. You can achieve this by reading, listening, and watching content from more women leaders. I encourage you to delve into the stories and content of multiple women, to start understanding the various perceptions and ideas women hold, rather than tokenizing or basing perceptions on 0-2 women leaders. If you’re looking for more entrepreneurial women leaders in IT, Big Think has this great list. However, if you’re looking for inspiration from Fortune 500 and 100 companies, the IT Services Report also has a helpful list.

9. Consider ways to address the expectation of exceptionality

This construct comes from not expecting women to be exceptional, so they have to prove themselves more and be more exceptional than their man counterparts to get recognition and promotions. Just because women are an exception in IT, especially at the leadership level, this does not mean a woman has to be exceptional to prove herself. Begin considering instances where you saw or may have subconsciously participated in holding women at a higher standard than their men counterparts by requiring them to prove their worth above and beyond other colleagues. Practice giving women the same grace, understanding, and respect as you would to men counterparts. The next time you find yourself or someone else that is scapegoating an average-performing employee or colleague that is a woman, stop and consider if this concern or issue is actually rooted at the organizational or team level as opposed to the individual’s level and her abilities.

Women are not an exception; we make up approximately 50% of the population. Seeing our experiences as integral and valuable to the success of your company will only help your company become more innovative and productive.

One last note: This article sets you and your organization up for success with actionable goals and a workable framework. However, it is not a one-stop-shop. Change requires a comprehensive strategy for successful implementation. That’s when you’d work with change practitioners to enable project success, reduce project time and costs, and get your ROI faster.

Although Women’s History Month and Women’s Day already took place in March, what will you do in the rest of the year to empower women?