Dive Brief:
- Black tech workers are likely to spend more time job searching than their peers in the industry, Info-Tech Research Group data published this week shows.
- Nearly one-third of Black tech professionals said it took seven months or longer to find a job in their field compared to 19% of all other professionals. One-quarter of Black tech workers found jobs quickly, compared to one-third of all other tech workers.
- When Black tech workers land jobs, they are less likely to be awarded promotions or career advancement opportunities compared to their peers, even with similar experience levels. Black tech pros were 55% more likely to report they had no career advancements or promotion opportunities than all other professionals, according to the survey of 633 professionals in the U.S., Canada, India, Nigeria and the UK.
Dive Insight:
When asked to identify possible solutions to improve job satisfaction, Black respondents ranked mentorship and sponsorship programs, training and employee resource groups as the top three strategies.
There is no silver bullet for creating an inclusive culture, but a layered strategy will set companies up for success, according to Ugbad Farah, senior product manager at Info-Tech Research Group and one of the lead researchers of the report.
Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives can appear hollow when employees do not see themselves in higher positions. Simply implementing a mentorship program or training won’t have the desired effect.
“Often these solutions are symbiotic and feed into each other,” Farah said in an email. “For example, if you focus on diversity in leadership, you will have an easier time with mentorship.”
Creating an employee resource group can give workers a safe space to connect and discuss. These conversations can act as sounding boards for upcoming training so enterprise leaders don’t miss the mark on topics and delivery, according to Farah.
Employee resource groups "must be set up for success by having adequate resources to do the work, which includes adequate budgets, executive sponsorship, training, support and capacity to do the work,” Cinnamon Clark, practice lead of diversity, equity and inclusion services at McLean and Company, said in the report.
Workers have shown their desire for community through online groups like “Baddies in Tech” and “Hack.Diversity” that foster connection and career development through discords, Slack channels, happy hours and mentorship opportunities.
"Just like no one group is a monolith, no one solution is going to improve job satisfaction for Black professionals in tech," Farah said.
