TECH INDUSTRY NOT DIVERSE? NOT ACCORDING TO WORKERS

In survey, a whopping 94% say their industry tries hard enough

Tech not diverse SAN FRANCISCO enough? That’s news to its workers. The vast majority — 94% — say they would give their industry a passing grade on diversity, a surprising result from a new survey that counters the tech industry’s own findings of a shortage of women, African Americans and Hispanics on their payrolls. A new report that surveyed more than 1,400 tech workers across the nation offers a rare glimpse into how the rankand- file views the tech industry’s growing focus on diversity. The disconnect: The majority of tech workers don’t think their companies need to make more progress on diversity. Eighty- three percent of respondents said their company is already diverse, and 79% said the average team at their company is diverse, according to the survey from enterprise software company Atlassian.

Yet the actual numbers in the industry, whose ranks are dominated by white and Asian men, tell a different story. Women, Hispanics and African Americans make up 30%, 6% and 3% of employees in the top 75 Silicon Valley tech companies, respectively, according to a report from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

That’s worse than other industries. In non- tech firms in the area, women hold 49% of the jobs, Hispanics 22% and African Americans 24%. Asian Americans, who hold 41% of jobs in Silicon Valley’s top tech firms, make up 24% of the non- tech workforce. The demographic make- up of the tech industry’s workforce puts it out of step with its increasingly diverse consumer base.

Why are perceptions of diversity so far removed from reality?

The tech industry has sounded the alarm that there’s a problem but hasn’t helped tech workers understand how extensive the problem is, particularly when it comes to the chronic exclusion of underrepresented minorities and women, Aubrey Blanche, global head of diversity and inclusion at Atlassian, told USA TODAY.

Among the top reasons tech workers gave for handing out passing grades on diversity:

Sixty percent said their company was making an effort, even though they gave no indication of concrete action that company had taken, commenting, “I feel they can do more, but they are trying. So, can’t knock them for it.” Forty- eight percent said their company already has good diversity: “Multiple ethnicities ( are) represented at my company.”

Another challenge for diversity advocates: The perception in some quarters that the lack of diversity in tech can be chalked up to a “pipeline” problem, in other words, too few women and minorities becoming software engineers or entering the industry.

Twenty percent of those surveyed said they believe their company is a meritocracy. That deeply- rooted sense of an industry that treats everyone equally is a significant barrier to rooting out the causes of underrepresentation in tech and solving them, Blanche says.

“The tech industry has developed this myth about its own meritocracy to justify homogeneity and pattern- matching when funding deals and making hiring decisions,” Blanche said. “But the more you believe your system is a meritocracy, the more likely the system is to be biased and discriminatory.”

For Blanche, the survey has given diversity advocates a road map to follow. Her reasoning: Making progress in creating more- inclusive work environments has to start with the people who already work there. That’s why she says she conducted months of research to get a baseline of the opinions held by tech workers and middle managers and figure out how to better engage them.

The survey showed a shift in attitude tied to the industry’s growing social activism since the election of Donald Trump. Tech workers say they are more interested in diversity and are more willing to work to promote inclusion in their workplace, the survey found.

Nearly half of tech workers say the election has made them care more about promoting diversity. More than a third say they fear their company will shrink from diversity efforts in the changing political climate. And a quarter of respondents say they’ve taken action since November, reaching out to colleagues from diverse backgrounds.

In a poll of more than 1,400 tech workers across the nation, 83% of respondents said their company is already diverse.

ATLASSIAN “The more you believe your system is a meritocracy, the more likely the system is to be biased and discriminatory,” says Aubrey Blanche, above, global head of diversity and inclusion at Atlassian, which conducted the survey.