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MISSING OUR WORKFORCE? Disabled ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY EANDTMAGAZINE.COM VOLUME 14 ISSUE 6 JULY 2019 Engineering & Technology | volume 14 issue 6 | July 2019 6 | July issue Engineering & Technology | volume 14 WHERE ISMISSING OUR WORKFORCE? Disabled Young Autistic Women Old LGBT+ BME Meet the companies with a diverse approach to recruitment C2201_R29523_Cover1_001.BK.indd 1 6/12/2019 11:59:24 AM 4 OPINION EDITORIAL International Women in Engineering Day falls on 23 June, and this month marks 50 years of the Pride movement, so it’s a good time to discuss the importance of diversity in business and how to support it. Editor’sLetterby Dickon Ross HONOURS BSME Awards 2018 AT THIS TIME of year, for several years now, For example, the interview process is fair on Shortlisted: Dickon Ross, Editor of the Year (science and technology); we have been running a women in the face of it. But what if the way a John Rooney, Art Director of the Year (B2B), Cover of the Year (B2B); Justin Pollard, Columnist of the Year (B2B) engineering special issue. We get mixed candidate thinks isn’t conducive to bringing BTJA Awards 2018 reactions. Most responses are supportive but out the best in them in a formal interview Shortlisted: Vitali Vitaliev, Features Journalist of the Year (technology) we also hear the question: “What’s all this situation because they are, for example, TABBIE Awards 2018 got to do with engineering?” Gold Award. Front Cover Digital Imagery: ‘Data in Danger’, April 2017; Gold autistic? That’s unfortunate for the Award. Special Edition: Censorship special report, November 2017; Silver Discrimination is rarely overt these days candidate, you may think, but isn’t it what Award. Best Single Issue: ‘Women in Engineering – We Have an Image Problem’, July 2017; Silver Award. Regular Column: Vitali Vitaliev’s ‘After All’ (although we have encountered that too) but everyone goes through? PPA Awards 2018 more common and more persistent is What if the candidate has the technical Shortlisted: Clem Chambers, Columnist of the Year, Business Media; Vitali subconscious bias. With that skills and abilities you need for Vitaliev, Columnist of the Year, Business Media; John Rooney, Designer of the Year, Business Media; Tim Fryer, Writer of the Year, Business Media comes a systematic bias that’s the role in spades, but performs For a full list go to www.eandtmagazine.com/about-us built into processes, procedures poorly in a formal interview and just the way of doing things that’s more a test of social skills that everyone in an organisation that they may never actually need editor-in-chief Dickon Ross managing editor Dominic Lenton [email protected] has got used to and thinks is the in the job? It’s one reason that web managing editor Jonathan Wilson [email protected] thing to do because, well, we’ve only 16 per cent of autistic people features editor, general Vitali Vitaliev [email protected] assistant features editor Rebecca Northfield always done it that way and in the UK are in full-time technology editor Tim Fryer [email protected] what’s wrong with it? employment. That’s a lot of assistant technology editor Siobhan Doyle “I don’t care what gender, race The IET marked LGBT wasted talent, and it’s just one associate editor Ben Heubl or sexuality the candidates are,” Pride Month in June by group. Women too tend not to technology reporter Hilary Lamb fl ying rainbow fl ags news reporter Jack Loughran is one argument we occasionally interview as well as men, who are sub-editors Leanne Farnell, Lorna Sharpe chief designer John Rooney hear from managers in engineering, basically better at talking themselves up. designers David McCullough, Nadia Ahdout “because they have nothing to do with There are many things that businesses picture editor Gillian Abbott engineering. We treat everyone the same and take for granted that could be done senior production controller Nikki Tarplett display advertising manager Louise Hall [email protected] what’s unfair about that?” differently and would improve diversity. +44(0)1438 767351 These are the very people who need to Most aren’t even very difficult. In this issue, display advertising sales execs Danielle Thomasson [email protected] +44(0)1438 767224 listen more carefully to the experiences of we talk to the organisations who are leading Alex Macleod [email protected] +44(0)1438 765655 women, LGBT+, disabled and other under- in various aspects of diversity, find out how Niki Lancaster [email protected] +44(0)1438 767233 represented groups in engineering. The bias Dan Lorimer [email protected] +44(0)1438 767313 they do it and what benefits it brings. display sales representative isn’t usually personal – it’s systematic. Since regularly covering women in Dave Harvett [email protected] +44(0)121 7052120 There’s prejudice in the process – pretty engineering, I have noticed a change in the recruitment solutions manager Andy Dingley [email protected] +44(0)1438 765558 much any process really. preferred messaging. Conferences on recruitment solutions execs Fairness is more subtle than it first diversity in engineering are moving beyond Emma Houlihan [email protected] +44(0)1438 767228 Mandy Mercer [email protected] +44(0)1438 765571 appears; treating everyone the same isn’t talking about what is the right thing for Clare Cardy [email protected] +44(0)1438 765518 fair. It won’t result in fair outcomes. business to do, to talking about what is the advertising operations executive Doing the company diversity course advantageous thing to do, for the company’s Cameron Collins [email protected] digital content editor might keep you out of legal trouble but it is performance and the bottom line. Diversity Charlotte Rogers [email protected] not enough to radically change a business. is not just good. It’s good for business. marketing campaign manager Alex Glennie [email protected] +44 (0)1438 765567 publishing director Amanda Weaver director, knowledge services & solutions Giles Grant chief executive and secretary Nigel Fine IET Knowledge Services & Solutions Did you know?... Michael Faraday House, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, Herts SG1 2AY, ...The average share of women on boards is lower United Kingdom +44(0)1438 313311 E&T, its iPad edition and back issues available via the IET Digital among engineering fi rms (FTSE 250) Library are provided free of charge to members of the Institution of Deviation from the average share (25%) of women on boards and in Engineering and Technology membership and subscription enquiries +44 (0)1438 765678 leadership for sectors in FTSE 250 firms (top five and bottom five sectors, %) www.theiet.org/contactmembership non-member subscriptions Food & Drug Retailers paper edition only (annual) full institutional rate £962 personal rate £118 single issue Media & Entertainment full institutional rate £80 personal rate £14 Top fi ve tablet edition only Household Goods & Home Construction annual rate £95 single issue £13 sectors Engineering & Technology is produced 10 times a year by IET Services Limited, a Leisure Goods subsidiary of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), for the IET. The IET is not as a body responsible for the opinions expressed in Engineering & Technology. The Institution of Engineering and Technology is registered as a Chemicals Charity in England & Wales (no 211014) and Scotland (no SC038698). © 2019: The Institution of Engineering & Technology. All rights reserved. No part of this Technology publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the permission in writing of the publisher. Copying of articles is not permitted except for personal and internal use. Multiple copying of Industrial Transportation the content of this publication is always illegal. Bottom fi ve Printed by WIlliam Gibbons & Sons Ltd sectors Electricity Industrial Metals & Mining UKISSN1750-9637 2007 Total average qualified circulation Automobiles & Parts July-December 2018 144,400 The IET endeavours to ensure its magazines are printed on paper -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 sourced from mills operating to recognised environmental standards, that all paper stocks are produced from well-managed forests and are free of elemental chlorine. This magazine can be recycled. WOMEN ON BOARDS DATA AS AT OCTOBER 2018, HAMPTON-ALEXANDER REVIEW Engineering & Technology July 2019 www.EandTmagazine.com C2201_R29514_EditorsLetter_004.BK.indd 4 6/14/2019 4:56:04 PM PULLING DIVERSITY TOGETHER ByTim Fryer Society does not change quickly. Entrenched views can take decades to overturn, sometimes requiring the changing of the guard to a more enlightened generation before true impartiality can be embedded – and even then it is clear that bias has a long and durable tail. But we are heading in the right direction. Half a century ago ingrained discrimination on gender and ethnic grounds was common. Sadly elements still exist, but progress is undeniable. What is more is the recognition of prejudices that in the past ran so deep they were not even recognised – for example ageism, bias against those with disabilities and against those who can’t simply be classified as heterosexual. Now the awareness and the language around such issues means minorities are no longer being ignored or repressed. Tackling such issues is undeniably ‘the right thing to do’, but now there is a different imperative driving change. The technology sector is suffering from a skills shortage – often quoted as the most important factor limiting a company’s growth. So far from being a discarded or ignored chunk of a potential workforce, this huge swathe of diverse people represents a real opportunity for smart companies to develop the pool of talent they so badly need. Some companies have realised this, developing programmes to create inclusive workforces and discovering that their businesses have become happier, more unified and more successful as a result.
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