Nash Squared CEO, Bev White, shares her thoughts on the importance of the senior leadership team of an organisation having an impact on the diversity of the workforce. This article first appeared on ComputerWeekly.com.

Awareness is not enough - building a diverse and inclusive organisation requires leadership

There is no shortage of agreement that diverse and inclusive teams create better business outcomes. And yet, in technology the needle has hardly moved. Nash Squared’s 2023 Digital Leadership Report shows that 14% of technology leadership teams are female. In 2016, that figure was 11%. The difference is almost negligible.

So, what’s the blocker? It’s not that there isn’t an appreciation of why diversity matters. The ‘why’ is well understood. Most businesses have provided training and education for leaders and managers on the D&I agenda, they’ve raised awareness of the increased creativity and problem-solving capacity of diverse teams, they’ve underlined that the skills gaps affecting the industry could be filled (at least partially) by widening the talent pool. There has also been awareness raising around the importance of the language we use, the behaviours we project, and the need to guard against prejudice and unconscious bias.

But despite all these efforts, not enough has changed. I believe we need to move past the awareness phase and take an increased focus on the ‘how’ of the agenda. In other words: we’ve set our goals, we’re committed to the task – how are we actually going to make it happen?

Read the full blog here

Crimson is part of Nash Squared, the leading global provider of talent and technology solutions.