New research has found that three in five tech businesses in the UK believe there is still a long way to go to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in their sector.
Among the issues that need most urgent attention were career development for minority groups, representation in senior posts and at board level, and allyship and understanding.
The Thoughtworks research found that 33% of those in the tech sector said their organisation either had no plans to address career development issues for minority groups or did not know where to start. Similarly, 22% felt the same for representation and 24% for allyship and understanding.
The proportion of tech companies with plans in place to tackle issues around gender equality (41%) and age discrimination (34%) was significantly higher than those with plans to address race and ethnicity (29%).
Just 27% of tech organisations invested in diversity and inclusion training, 25% offered mentoring to members of minority groups, one in five (20%) offered education team days, while one in six (16%) had a DEI Council within their business.
Similarly, the tech sector was less likely than the average among businesses in the UK to have plans in place to address issues around disability (23% vs average of 25%), religion (16% vs 18%), neurodiversity (15% vs 18%) and social mobility (19% vs 21%).
image: shutterstock/Rawpixel.com