The 'better mousetrap' won't increase diversity in IT

Instead of changing how you recruit, change how your company works, says BMC's Monika Fahlbusch

The technology industry is suffering from a lack of diversity. Largely dominated by white men, especially in the ‘bro culture' of Silicon Valley, women and ethnic minorities often find that the barriers to entry are too high to bother - wasting masses of untapped talent.

The issue isn't limited to the USA. According to the British Computer Society, only 17 per cent of employees in the UK's IT industry are women, and the same proportion are from an ethnic minority.

As the Chief Employee Experience Officer (CEEO) for BMC Software, Monika Fahlbusch is well aware of technology's diversity problem. Her background is in HR, but she deals with multiple business departments including finance, IT and security: all of the areas that touch employees.

"My title is a little unique, but I don't think it will be in a year or so. We're starting to see it trending more and getting more interest from the press about ‘What is this idea of employee experience?'

"Every company...has focussed on the customer - we all build our ecosystems around the customer, we're maniacally customer-focussed, we worry about the customer, we shield the customer from a lot of internal workings and focus on a clean interface with them. Why do we not have that same approach with regards to our employees?

"We hear this all the time from our customers. This is a prevalent issue even amongst what could be conceived as ‘high-tech' branded employers."

She added that BMC has had a lot of success with recruiting "highly educated, highly skilled" women from Eastern Europe - and not moving them:

"The problem is, I think a lot of companies would say, ‘Perfect - we'll relocate them to the corporate headquarters.' That could be Houston, or Santa Clara. They're not going anywhere! These are all women with families and young children; they are not leaving Eastern Europe.

"For us, because we've enabled the idea of work wherever, whenever, they don't need to come to Houston; they can stay and work in Ukraine or wherever they need to be. For us it was a mindset shift, enabled by this idea that we can work around the globe as a community. Not all software companies have that approach… It opens up a lot of opportunities for us, whether it's people of colour, whether it's young talent… For us, we don't have to break leases, we don't have to make the huge shift to get there - we can just fire it up."

What you need to do is go where they are

The same applies to people of different ethnic backgrounds and other minorities. The key, Fahlbusch insists, is not better recruitment but a willingness to adapt:

"Some companies are saying, ‘We need to recruit better', or ‘We need to offer different benefits'. I would say absolutely not; what you need to do is go where they are. They are in downtown Detroit - so why aren't these software companies opening offices there?

"We are uniquely able to do that; we haven't yet, but we're trying to figure out where we should be. Should it be Ukraine, or Detroit, or somewhere else?

"If you're not having success by doing what you've always done - and the competitive landscape is worse than ever - if you think you can just build a better mousetrap and they'll come, that's not going to work. We need to think differently."

We at Computing want to celebrate the amazing work being done by women in the industry, and inspire the next generation by presenting them with positive role models like Monika. This month we will be taking nominations for our second annual Women in IT Awards, which will be held later this year. Watch this space!