Why we should all worry about discriminatory HR practices in tech
Over the last few weeks, I’ve joined an increasing number of tech-related facebook groups — especially those that promote diversity and inclusion. What’s surprised me most, perhaps naively, is the number of posts regarding black male developers who face direct discimination in hiring.
I know that the posts may not be entirely representatiative, and i also know that i do not and cannot have full experience or understanding of experience but I am concerned about how these practices put the development of technology for all at risk.
As an example, i’ve seen a post from someone who was offered a place to study as part of an IT course at university. The person decided to switch to another university as the only other black male studying in the same academic year had been kicked out of his placement at a local company and replaced with another white person. This just seems wrong and goes against the idea that we should all be able to learn and develop our skills and practice them in any environment we choose, without discrimination.
This isn’t just happening in the UK. I’ve seen other posts regarding similar situations in the US, Canada and Australia. There’s also a worrying pattern that this isn’t always happening because of conscious decisions by HR and hiring managers: Some companies simply don’t think about diversity and inclusion when they post adverts and offer places on programmes. Tech companies, for example, who advertise for people who “have a passion for Java” rather than “people who can write Java code”.
I know that these are just individual examples, but there are so many. I’ve seen posts about someone being interviewed for a development job at a local company, who was told after asking how they’d be spending the day “we have someone else in mind for this role” — even though nobody had “in mind” anything, it’s just an assumption about what’s expected of them.
I think that can be pretty harmful too. There’s a balancing act around trying to make sure that we don’t discriminate against people based on their background, including our own. We need to ensure we’re not discriminating against people because of their appearance — ie. race or gender, and it can be difficult to know what that looks like (or sounds like: There’s often a lot of the latter). So the best thing is always to ask.
I think we can contextually differentiate someone’s dress against their background. We also know that the term “diversity and inclusion” is important, and we know it means many things: Asking people to be more aware of these isn’t unreasonable or harmful, as long as they’re not asking that people behave in a way that’s unfair or discriminatory.
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I wonder if this is part of the problem. We can’t always see what’s in people’s heads, but we don’t know how to make our intentions clear. I think asking someone to be aware of what diversity and inclusion means in terms of their job role, even if it doesn’t match their own experience, is a good thing. We need to be able to explain how our decisions are made in the hope that these don’t lead to discrimination or harm towards people who are less represented in tech.
I do think it’s incredibly important for us to make sure that we can see, hear and understand each other in general, but I also think the world of technology is made more complicated when there are different backgrounds involved. We need to ensure that people are treated fairly, regardless of who they are or where they’re from.
We all have the potential to make a positive impact — even if it’s just getting something done which makes an already complex day more manageable. It’s an incredible privilege to be able to work on something that affects so many other people. I think there’s something groundbreaking about helping people develop their skills, to learn about different ways of working, and to take ownership of things — whatever they are.
I hope that we can take steps towards making technology even better than it is right now, and if we can all learn not to discriminate against each other — all of us can make sure that the world benefits from it.
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Title:Racial prejudice in IT recruitment [CONTINUED]
I’ve made a few edits to this post, trying to ensure that i don’t come across as aggressive. It’s not my intention. I’m trying to show just how important it is for us to think about the world we’re creating and how we can communicate and work with each other and with those around us. This is just a starting point for that conversation.
