Trending in the technology industry is the Atlassian 2017 State of Diversity Report released publicly on the Atlassian website. The report highlights key outcomes of a survey that reached 1,400 technology workers across the United States without a restriction on industry. A majority of participants said that diversity and inclusion initiatives are important to their company; however, a controversial outcome of the study is that at least half of the participants said no improvements were needed for gender, race, age, ethnicity, or sexual orientation in their company. As positive as it is that employees perceive that diversity has reached an optimum level in their company, could participant demographics and industry in which the employee is in potentially skew answers to this question?
As mentioned in a previous blog, there are challenges to recognize and overcome before we truly understand diversity progress in the workforce. This report is a great stride in advancing knowledge around diversity gaps and opportunities in technology jobs, but more benchmarks and source tracking (e.g., understanding the pipeline of recent graduates and other cross-industry opportunities) are needed to fully assess the scope of diversity.
Keli Wilson, Senior Manager of EEO Compliance, Diversity, and Inclusion