Digital leaders were surprised and saddened to hear that the UK Tech Talent Charter was being scrapped. Founded in 2015, the organisation aimed to increase diversity across the tech sector and was backed by the current UK government and a petition from over 700 industries.
In a scathing critique of the industry, the Tech Talent Charter said improving diversity was being neglected.
Just three years ago, companies were vocal about improving equality, posting black squares on social media and investing in action plans to improve D&I, but today the path forward has changed.
The Tech Talent Charter agrees with findings from a World Economic Forum study last year that diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts in the US are under threat, and said a report by the same organisation which surveyed 700 UK tech companies found a similar shift in the tides in describing the situation.
The organisation was founded at a time of great economic change and is now closed. In 2015, the UK was recovering from the banking crisis and boasted the fastest growing economy in Europe. But since 2016, the UK economy has been one of the continent's weakest.
Launched to show how to increase diversity and explain why the issue matters, the Tech Talent Charter aimed to ensure the fastest growing sector of the economy represents society as a whole. In its closing message it said:
We believed the best way to drive real progress was to engage with the entire industry at scale, foster collaboration rather than competition, and build a community of industry leaders to disseminate industry-wide issues, insights, and trends. Focus not only on the why of inclusion, but also on the how.
Rather than improving, diversity is declining or even declining, says the Tech Talent Charter.
The problem isn’t going away, but fueled by economic, political and social pressures, too many organizations are “quietly abandoning” their D&I strategies, putting all the gains they’ve made at risk.
Many people in our network report that their organizations' D&I strategies are becoming increasingly insular, with efforts being shelved to prioritize other business goals. We're hearing more and more stories from D&I specialists and advocates struggling for support as teams are dismantled, processes are eliminated or absorbed, or they're forced to step back from self-directed efforts due to changing business attitudes or overloaded desks.
Tech Talent Charter hopes the organization's closure will serve as a wake-up call.
We intend for this closure to be a call for solidarity and a catalyst for reflection, to spur greater new industry efforts and to energise deeper activism in this field.
Our decision to close comes as we anticipate a growing need for a new focus, and we believe this inflection point is essential to refocus our efforts, refine our methods, and catalyze greater commitment and investment at the organizational, industry and regional levels.
Industry body techUK will ensure that research and resource material produced by the Tech Talent Charter remains available.
Digital Leadership Concerns
CIOs across the UK were alarmed by the news that the Tech Talent Charter was closing. Conor Whelan, group CIO at UK tech company The Access Group, said:
This is very sad to read and very frustrating as this remains a priority in both organisations I have worked for.
Mary O. Callaghan, technical director at the charity the British Heart Foundation, said:
This is very important, so I sincerely hope that new collaborative efforts emerge.
“We're excited to be working with NVIDIA to bring the power of NVIDIA AR to the next level,” said David Henderson, chief technology and product officer at media company Global.
We need to increase efforts within our own teams wherever possible and share good practices with other networks. The Tech Talent Charter was extremely helpful at the time and the team was keen to improve D&I.
Global has signed up to the charter, becoming a major partner, alongside other media companies Sky, Lloyds Bank, PWC and HP. Whelan agreed with Henderson about the need to keep up momentum despite the shutdown.
This is a complex issue that is difficult to solve and needs to be discussed across society because we cannot solve it alone, but we can lead the discussion.
The CTO of a large nonprofit healthcare organization highlights the challenges facing digital leaders.
I spent over 12 months recruiting a new leadership team and all but one role were non-female. At every stage, female candidates were offering £20-30k more than me for each role. They were becoming too much for our budget to handle. I turned the tables and committed to training every step of the way. The gap was too big. There were still deliverables to achieve and only so many hours in the day. It was incredibly hard.
I have tried every recruiting angle, approach, style, and targeted effort, and it is not for lack of willingness or desire. Right now, our statistics are skewed because I have hired senior men. I truly believe that with time, things will get better. If we move forward together, we will find a way.
Whelan replies:
Diverse candidates are sometimes shut out of the market. So who's to blame? I don't mean to pin the blame on anyone. Candidates are winning (assuming they have the right skills and aren't overly promoted) with better pay! That being said, companies and budgets are struggling to keep up, and I don't see this trend getting any easier in the short to medium term.
This is a classic supply and demand issue. There's not enough supply in our industry. So to solve the supply side, we need to recruit people at all levels into these types of roles and career paths and make the industry more attractive to a broader demographic. This is just one aspect of a broader discussion.
Despite the huge challenges facing the UK economy, former CIO and chair of the Charity IT Leaders forum Laura Dawson said: “The UK economy is continuing to grow.
Let's not undermine the great work that Debbie (Co-founder Debbie Forster) and her team have done. Diversity in the workforce, especially in tech, is essential.
When Tech Talent Charter was founded in 2015, less than 15% of tech roles in the UK were held by women. The founders were concerned, and remain concerned, that a lack of diversity would have a negative impact on the success of the UK tech sector and its ability to attract, retain and develop talent. While its closure is disappointing, Tech Talent Charter has had some notable successes.
The number of women in tech roles has doubled, the community approach has connected many women in tech and created a wealth of information on D&I that digital leaders can leverage.
June role changes
Trade show company IMEX Group has appointed CIO Gary Coombes as chief operations officer, a new role for the UK-based company. Coombes will join IMEX as CIO in 2021 and will continue to oversee IT and transformation. As COO, Coombes will also be responsible for operations and marketing.
In the cruise holiday industry, Tracey Aldhouse-Gold has been appointed director of technical engineering at Carnival UK, running the Cunard and P&O Cruises brands. Aldhouse-Gold joins from business publishing company Informa, where she was head of technology for two years.
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has hired veteran media CIO Paul Dale as Chief Technology and Product Officer, a role that will include leading the BBFC's response to artificial intelligence. Dale will lead the AI product development team and has worked at the BBFC as a consultant since September 2023.
In the United States, Texas Woman's University has hired Henry G. Torres as CIO. Torres joins from the Arkansas State University System.
Automaker Mazda has hired Neil Arora as CIO for Mazda North America, a business unit that serves a critical market for the automaker. Arora will join the company on July 8, 2024 and will be tasked with providing governance and cyber protection analysis.
