Appointing a diversity manager or even a chief diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) officer, is emerging in Australian business as organisations work to improve diversity in their workforces.

Numerous studies have pointed to the benefits of diverse teams, such as a McKinsey report which found that diverse teams outperform those that lack diversity by as much as 36 percent in terms of profitability.

The task of championing diversity within the Australian technology sector has been embraced by the social enterprise TechDiversity and its executive director Luli Adeyemo.

According to Adeyemo, one of the defining characteristics of organisations that are improving their diversity is that change is driven from the top.

"There is someone in a leadership position and a position of influence that makes it a priority," Adeyemo said.

"The other common thing is lived experience. They see the world differently and recognise the challenges for their kids as they grow up.

"But it shouldn’t have to be that way – we can't wait for everyone to have enough lived experience to make it a priority."

Adeyemo believes driving diversity is not a problem of corporate social responsibility – it is a problem that is everyone's responsibility.

While Adeyemo and her team continue to spearhead diversity at TechDiversity, she noted that not every organisation knows where or how to start in embracing diversity. 

"Companies know they need to be talking about this stuff and doing something, but they don’t know what they need to be doing, or how," Adeyemo said.

Diversity by design

The importance of culture and leadership in creating a diverse workforce is well demonstrated at the Melbourne-based not-for-profit technology services company Infoxchange. Founded 30 years ago with a mission to deliver technology for social justice, today Infoxchange has a 46 percent female workforce and a high representation of neurodiverse workers.

"Whether it is culture, whether it is neurodiversity, whether it is gender identity, whether it is something else - we have diversity across the board," said Kate Hickman, chief people officer at Infoxchange.

"People just bring their authentic selves to work. We haven't created a big, massive program to deliver a bunch of initiatives to do that. It is the type of organisation we have become, and it is engrained in our culture."

According to Hickman, this culture did not come about by accident - it has been built by giving consideration to the needs of different cohorts, such as family-friendly policies and careful design of the company's open-plan workspace – the latter of which has been critical for some neurodiverse employees.

"There are smaller rooms that individuals or teams are able to use, so they are still part of the bigger picture, but there is the ability to close the doors and reduce distractions," Hickman said.

"It is a good space for people to avoid sensory overload and not feel overwhelmed by the amount of noise and people around."

Another factor that has contributed to Infoxchange's diverse workforce is its recruitment processes.

"It is about adding in elements that help reduce the potential of bias of a single person making a decision," she said.

"When you have multiple people being part of a process and giving different perspectives, that helps give a more rounded view. The more diverse the recruitment panel, the better."

As an organisation that helps people from disadvantaged backgrounds, Hickman believes Infoxchange's policies and programs have resulted in some of its workforce reflecting the people it services.

"We have team members from all walks of life, people who have lived on the street, experienced severe mental health challenges, faced ridicule for their identity, and much more – we have employees from all those different backgrounds and life experiences," she said.

"For some of them we know their journey, and it helps us in supporting them as individuals."

While Hickman says much of Infoxchange's success has been organic, the company now has a desire to be more purposeful regarding its diversity and inclusion initiatives, to ensure it maintains or exceeds its high standards.

"For any organisation to innovate you need diverse thinking, you need to be able to challenge the norm, and to be able to think about the outcome that's needed, so I would challenge organisations to get to that point of diversity, where it’s not only celebrated, but also built into the culture.

"And – why not?"

Diversity with pride

The technology sector has also proven highly attractive to people with diverse sexual orientation, with the ACS finding of 11 percent representation – almost double the 6 percent recorded for the broader professional services sector.

However, the tech industry still has some ground to cover before it can be truly rated as inclusive, with the ACS also finding that 71 percent of sexually diverse people had experienced some form of discrimination.

Despite this, the national not-for-profit employer support program for LGBTQ workplace inclusion Pride in Diversity suggested the technology sector is one where people are most likely to feel comfortable in their sexuality.

According to deputy director Chris Keely, 42.5 percent of respondents to Pride in Diversity's annual survey indicated they are 'out to all' in the workplace, compared to 37.4 percent for the national average.

This positive outcome is also carried through in findings that show sexually diverse people in technology are more likely to have visible role models and are actually less likely to have experienced discrimination due to sexuality or gender than in other sectors, and are more likely to have participated in awareness training (alongside their non-diverse colleagues).

"When we went and looked at what organisations did to support inclusivity, it was clear that the response from the cohort was that there was visibility, there were allies, and they were accepted," Keely said.

But as with other forms of diversity, Pride in Diversity's associate director Christopher Nelson said creating an inclusive environment doesn't happen without the right inputs.

According to Nelson, Pride in Diversity has identified six specific actions that foster inclusivity - structure, policies and practices, visibility, education and learning, activities, and measurement.

"One of the measures is does your executive talk about this, and talk credibly about inclusion? What do your policies look like?" Nelson said.

"Can you see yourself in parental leave policies or domestic and family violence policies? Most LGBTQ people often read themselves out of HR policies because they are written by white straight people who have a heteronormative view of life."

According to Keely, having leadership visibly on board with these initiatives is critical, as this provides a foundation for grassroots support within employee groups.

"The tech sector is a textbook case," Keely said.

"If you do the foundational things, the people within the community see they are safe and welcome in the workplace, and they will come out.

"If you can be yourself in your workplace, you just do a better job, because you enjoy being there. If you don't feel safe, how can you love doing your job?"