Whose responsibility is it to make sure our workplaces are diverse?

To make this discussion meaningful, and assuming it applies to the UK, we also need to know what fraction of the initial UK population (i.e. Engineers and non-Engineers combined as that is your choice of division) are in each of these these categories. Women we can  guess should be about 50%, if the representation was the same as the general working age population but the others I suspect most of us do not know.

I also suspect, but cannot prove, that engineering also over represents  those with some variations of Asberger's syndrome and some obsessive type behaviours. That may be the opposite of discrimination, - engineering jobs will take anti-social folk that act in a way that would be quite unacceptable in some other roles, so long as they can do the problem solving part. In some more research establishment places it looks like the neurotypicals are  the odd ones out. This affects how things like working hours, and even office space and decor should be organized to get best productivity.

Mike.

mapj1 said:

This affects how things like working hours, and even office space and decor should be organized to get best productivity.

That's a very interesting point there Mike.  I wonder how many engineering organisations look at the decor and layout of their offices etc in order to get the best out of their staff.

I know at the IET our newly refurbished offices are designed with exactly that in mind. How people work best and in what environment. So we have a multitude of different work spaces now with full on 'desk' spaces but other areas with comfy chairs and low tables, high tables with stools, small booths to sit undisturbed (and not disturb others too ). I myself have already used a number of different spaces around the office in order to do my 'best work'. 

But that's only scratching the surface of what is a really interesting subject when it comes to designing work spaces especially if you take into consideration the needs of neurodiverse employees too!  

Hi Mike, 

We don't yet have access to the 2021 UK census data but older data tell us:

• In 2019 (ONS) 51% of the UK population were female 
• In 2011 projected figures from the UK census suggested 87.2% of the UK population were White, 6.9% Asian, 3.0% Black, 2.0% Mixed and 0.9% Other 
• In 2020 ENEI estimated that 22% of the working age population have a disability

We don't have a good estimate of numbers of Neurodiverse engineers, lots of anecdotal evidence but numbers are hard to get to due to diagnosis, awareness and self reporting.  

We'll have more accurate UK benchmarks as the 2021 data becomes available. 

For minoritsed ethnicities we know that 9.9% of those working in engineering occupations across all industries were from minority ethnic backgrounds, compared to 12.2% of those in non-engineering occupations and this is despite 27% of engineering degree qualifiers being from minority ethnic backgrounds in 2018/19 (Engineering UK, 2020). According to the IET’s 2021 Skills and Demand in Industry report, only 30% of organisations take action to attract racial minority groups into their workforce. So this is something that we're keen to understand more about - what is happening to all of those graduates, why are they not making it into the engineering workforce, and what can we do about it?  The event in August is aimed at unpicking some of this and showcasing talent in the sector.  

My main thought is that it's a shame this is just one event, I can see the strong benefits of it being "in person" rather than online, but given that it would be good if there could be a number of these distributed around the country. Laura Norton Are there any plans for that? 

Thanks,

Andy

Thanks Andy.

You're right, this is just one annual event, focused on race, ethnicity and socio-economic status, as part of delivering our EDI strategy You can see some of our other EDI activities that happened in 2021 in our Year in review. 

You make a very good point about location, it's important that we think about locations accessible to other parts of the UK and beyond with our EDI events.

There is an option to register for this particular event as an online attendee within the registration process which I hope helps some people to access the event who aren't or can't be in London. It would be great to welcome you and colleagues if you're able to attend online. 

Thanks, 

Laura 

Thanks Laura,

Ah yes, I see the "Online Delegate" now, which I had missed, but yes more events elsewhere would be good, and to allow for those of us who will be on holiday on the 1st August

Also, 

Laura Norton said:

to engineer a better world for all

Laura Norton said:

other EDI activities that happened in 2021 in our Year in review. 

There's lots of great work in the review on improving EDI in engineering employment, which I absolutely agree is important, but not so much about encouraging engineers to consider EDI in their end users? I do notice the work with the Digital Poverty Alliance, which is one hugely important area of this. But, for example, an area that is becoming critical is the elderly being similarly excluded from society through the "digital only" world - most of us who are trying to support elderly parents or other relatives will have come across this issue. However diverse the engineering workforce is they will still have one aspect in common - they will be engineers, and they somehow need to consider the needs of those who are not comfortable with technology. I do feel this is an important part of EDI, not just considering the diverse needs of your colleagues, but also considering the diverse needs of your end users. 

Apologies that's rather off topic, but if there are any plans for more work in this area it would be great to hear about it. But of course not to detract at all from the huge amount of EDI improvements needed inside the profession. 

Thanks,

Andy

Not off topic at all Andy, we need diverse engineers so that we get outputs for diverse end users - so important for us to think about inclusive design and outputs. 

Andy Millar said:

an area that is becoming critical is the elderly being similarly excluded from society through the "digital only" world

To be fair though Andy, I think there's an assumption that the young understand modern technology too. I'm no spring chicken myself but am constantly surprised at the lack of tech skills I witness in the generations younger than me!  I'm also happy to see it when older generations fully embrace tech as well. I know quite a few silver surfers nowadays who regularly immerse themselves in the digital world. 

I believe that we should confine any promotion exclusively to ability, merit and competence. Gender and skin colour should not be markers for judgment or eligibility, otherwise we end up with the mediocre but the check boxes are ticked to show compliance in other areas which should not be up for judgement.

Things like this tend to become very divisive and end up making things worse for everyone.

Absolutely agree, it's time we stopped promoting people on the basis that "he's a nice white chap wo acts like like me and went to the same sort of school I did * "!

(* The "same school as I did" works in several ways...)