There is a huge skills shortage in IT. Tech companies and others are scrabbling to find staff with the right skills, and this is only expected to get worse. The real question is can we close this gap—and if so, how?
Recent work by the Intelligence Group suggests that one answer may lie in the gender imbalance in the IT sector. Of the 12 million people working in IT, some 5% of the European workforce, only 19% are women. That’s right: less than one-fifth. McKinsey suggests that if this percentage doubled to 40% by 2027, it could improve the European economy by 260 to 600 billion euros. What else can we learn from the data about women in IT in Europe?
There is no clear picture of a ‘European’ tech sector in labour terms
There is a perception that Western Europe is very similar in terms of its employment patterns, including job security, job seeking and job market participation. The work from the Intelligence Group paints a very different picture. For example, women in the IT sector are more likely than men to be actively looking for a new job in every country except the Netherlands. People are in the Netherlands are far more likely than those elsewhere to be ‘keeping an eye out’ for a new job, even if they are not actively looking. Mobility within and between employers also varies significantly across European countries. It is highest in the UK, and lowest in the Netherlands—but invariably higher for men than women.
Figures on employment and job-seeking may mask alternative labour markets
Over half of Belgian men (and 40% of women) working in IT said that they were definitely not looking for a new job. Belgian men were also least likely to say that they were keeping an eye out for a new job. Liesbeth Ruoff-van Welzen, a consultant working in the area of digital skills development in the Netherlands, suggests that this may be related to the level of self-employment. Where self-employment is higher, this creates more of a community. This means there is less incentive to move back into employment, and therefore to be ‘looking for a new job’. Perhaps when we talk about jobs and employment, we are asking the wrong questions. The real question is not about employment or self-employment, but how we can deliver both flexibility and other benefits to make the IT sector more attractive.
There are some interesting imbalances in ‘headhunting’
Headhunting—being approached about a job—is far more common in the Netherlands than anywhere else in the study. Nearly two-thirds of IT professionals there, both men and women, had been approached at least once a quarter about another job. The most interesting aspect for me, however, was the gender picture. In France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, the picture was similar for both men and women. In the UK, however, men were much more likely than women (about 60% vs. 45%) to be approached. This may reflect perceptions about the ideal IT professional in the UK—and if so, this is something that should be addressed urgently.
The biggest gender difference is in what attracts men and women into the IT sector
The ‘pull factors’ discussed in the Intelligence Group report show some fascinating insights. The top five factors for women were ability to work from home, health insurance, facilities for working from home, study budget and flexible hours. The top five factors for men were company car, bonus, pension, 13th month, and advantages of employer’s products. There is, in other words, no overlap. Men and women value very different things from their employment relationship. Perhaps the answer to attracting more women is as simple as marketing jobs in different ways, and offering a wider range of perks?
How important are technical skills?
One very interesting question emerging from the report is the importance of technical skills. Liesbeth Ruoff-van Welzen suggests that employers may overestimate the requirement for technical skills on starting a job. Instead, she suggests that they should consider upskilling and reskilling, because this would widen the pool of potential employees—many of whom would probably be women. She also suggests changing attitudes so that the working climate becomes more female- and family-friendly, citing an example of moving scrum sessions to the middle of the day. After all, as Liesbeth notes, and I can confirm, an ability to handle data does not depend on gender.
Links
https://intelligence-group.nl/
‘https://cepis.org/diversit-charter/