Tech workers more aware of diversity
Since the 2016 presidential election, tech companies and their workers have been on high alert, anxiously looking out for ways the Trump administration’s policies and preferences might affect them.
One change tech leaders may not have expected is how the rank and file feel about diversity.
A January survey of more than 1,400 tech workers and middle managers in the Bay Area and across the U.S. found that the election has heightened awareness and anxiety around the issue. Tech workers feel a sense of urgency and want to push for more diverse workplaces, but worry their efforts may be thwarted or undermined in the current political climate, according to the survey conducted by Atlassian, the Australian team-collab-
oration software maker with an office in San Francisco.
Tech workers also seem to believe in the concept of diversity without actually understanding what that looks like — or how their own company stacks up.
“The tech industry’s diversity challenge has long been a conversation for the C-suite and heads of diversity and inclusion,” wrote Aubrey Blanche, Atlassian’s diversity and inclusion head, in a blog post that went with the company’s findings. “While commitment from the top is important, diversity is ultimately about employees and creating a fairer and more equitable workplace for everyone. To truly understand how the industry measures up we need to broaden the lens and hear from frontline tech workers. Are their experiences and conversations the same? Has the presidential election changed their outlook on diversity?”
The 2016 presidential election was fraught with controversy over how various minority groups were perceived, treated and spoken about. Muslims, Latinos and others felt they were a target of then-Republican candidate Donald Trump’s rhetoric, while others derided what they described as Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s identity politics and political correctness.
Academics have found that increased diversity in the workplace and the awareness that the United States could become majority-minority by midcentury may have helped stoke xenophobic attitudes among voters.
But tech workers seem to have had the opposite reaction.
Nearly half, about 48 percent, of tech employees surveyed by Atlassian said the election pushed them to care more about diversity. Half reported engaging managers about how best to improve office diversity and 56 percent said that since Trump was elected, they have learned more about the experiences of colleagues unlike themselves.
Yet 35 percent of workers fear the election and the Trump administration may hurt their company’s diversity efforts, the survey found.
One way this could manifest is in tech firms’ ability to bring in international workers. Beginning next month, immigrants eligible for H-1B visas, which are given to highly skilled workers like those at tech companies, will no longer have the option of a 15-day expedited processing service, which may impact tech companies’ ability to bring in employees from other countries.
But survey respondents didn’t seem to offer many solutions to the lack of diversity and the election’s potential impact — a reality that resonates across the tech sector as a whole: Though companies acknowledge diversity is a problem, few have taken significant steps to address it.
About half of those who responded to Atlassian’s survey said their company was doing “just fine” and did not need to make any improvements to how they address diversity.
The survey group was two-thirds white and nearly a quarter Asian American, a reflection of the tech industry as a whole. Black and Latino workers make up about 4 to 5 percent of the tech workforce, on average, according to a 2015 data analysis of tech diversity reports.
The margin of error, Atlassian said, was about 2.6 percent.
Atlassian, which last year became the first tech firm to track age diversity as well as that of gender and race, will release its own updated diversity numbers later this year.