Striving for diversity and inclusivity

Believing in better

A couple of years ago, sometime between just prior to the pandemic starting and the start of 2021, I had seen a discussion surface on social media about how poor the tech industry was at hiring women and a potential reason why that was.

The discussion focused around a quote from Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In, which posited that 'men apply for positions if they meet just 60% of the requirements, while women only apply if they meet 100% of them.' 

Whilst this claim has been suggested as likely having been based on a speculative comment from a senior exec rather than quantitative data (which has now received considerably more research), it's accuracy wasn't important - it was what it represented.

I remember in my early days at MAJOR, we'd always have a long list of job requirements for new roles; required experience in this, ability to do that, experienced in..., even 'must have a degree' - all listed under "essential knowledge/experience". 

Though our job ads have changed over the years, in 2021 we made the decision to change how we frame all job ads.

Gone are "essential knowledge/experience", replaced with "you and this role".

Gone are reams and reams of "essentials", replaced with a handful of must-haves and other "beneficial", "experience preferred" or similar.

It doesn't matter if the earlier claim is true or not, we want the best candidates to apply. People who believe in better, who want to produce excellent work, who want to work in a supportive and conscientious team. Reducing a reason, any reason, for someone to not apply to join our team is something worthwhile.

Over my 13 years at MAJOR, we've been a male dominated team. Largely due to the leadership team (all men) being present that entire time and the small nature of our team, often due to the profile of applicants we had received and the limited amount of employee turnover. However, it's something we've wanted to improve for a long time.

We believe a more diverse team is critical for optimal creativity and innovation, enhanced problem-solving, and positive team morale. It's important to have different viewpoints, beliefs, culture and backgrounds in a team - especially a highly creative team like ours.

I'm delighted then that our team is now more diverse than it has ever been and that the proportion of strong applicants for recent roles from non-white men is now the majority - including our last two hires attracting nearly 90% female candidates.

We've implemented a lot of processes, actions and even worked on a change in mindset over the past few years to ensure we're as accommodating, supportive and empowering for our team as we can be. There's no doubt more we can do to ensure we're both an inclusive and attractive place to work, but it's important to recognise the improvements made to date.

After all, the belief of better is what we're all about.

– Davs Howard, Technical Director.

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