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

Laura Norton

It’s well known that a diverse workforce leads to better outcomes for an organisation, not to mention fulfilling the basic principle of opportunity and inclusion for all.

So why do we not see greater diversity in engineering and technology?

Diversity should be at the very heart of action in engineering and technology to help us to engineer a better world for all – from the latest in how we use data and insight to account for everyone, through to the end-product that works across the globe to improve lives for all.

The current state of diversity in our industry, in the UK specifically, shows that: 

  1. Women make up 16.5% of all engineers1
  2. 9.9% are from minoritised ethnic backgrounds2
  3. 21% come from lower socio-economic backgrounds3
  4. Disabled engineers make up 11.1% of the workforce2
  5. Over a quarter of LGBTQ+ individuals would never consider a career in the engineering profession for fear of discrimination4

Is it our responsibility to act, or that of ‘the business’?

The IET are working with RS Grass Roots (the Youth Empowerment team from RS Components) and AFBE (the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers) to provide an exciting event to open up discussions. Reflect 2022 is for those making first steps to change in their business, all the way through to active ambassadors of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Join us to hear first-hand the experience from ethnically diverse people as they share their stories, along with top tips from experts on practical ways that you can create a more inclusive business.

If you want to find out more, please join us in person on Monday, 1 August 2022 in London. Register for free: https://Reflect2022.eventbrite.com

1Engineering UK, 2022, 2Engineering UK, 2020, 3Bridging the Gap, Sutton Trust 2022, 4IET, 2019

#Equality Diversity and Inclusion #Race and Culture 

Parents

  • 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.

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  • 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.

Children
  • in reply to mapj1
    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. Thinking 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 Blush). 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!  

  • in reply to mapj1

    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.  

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