The tech sector doesn't have a handle on diversity among their suppliers and partner organisations, the authors of the Tech Talent Charter's (TTC) inaugural report on gender diversity have claimed.
Despite offering a much better understanding of what diversity actually looks like, within the industry, TTC's first report of its kind has not managed to gather data from its signatories on the state of diversity within their supply chains.
Speaking at the report's launch event in London today, techUK's policy manager for skills, talent and diversity India Lucas, who helped compile it, admitted TTC learned companies "don't have any idea" what their supply chains look like.
"We need to be looking further down our supply chains as well," she said, speaking on a panel before a room of firms signed up to the TTC.
"A lot of signatories here outsource at least some of their technical roles to a third organisation," she added, but conceded "we don't know what they look like, and we don't have any idea what our supply chains look like."
The report gives a snapshot of gender balance across a range of companies of varying sizes including firms such as Lloyds Bank and Domino's Pizza among the 280 signatories. In all, the TTC represents 8% of the sector.
Medium-sized companies of 50 to 249 employees marginally outperform small and large firms, comprising on average 75% men, 23% women and 2% who identify as non-binary or other. Small and large companies meanwhile are roughly divided 79% men, 20% women and 1% non-binary or other.
The vast majority of technical roles held by women across TTC's signatories, meanwhile, are categorised as user-centred design, 48%, followed by production and development, 33%, and data roles, 31%.
Just 2% of TTC's signatories have no diversity and inclusion policies and also have no plans to change this, versus 27% who currently have policies in place. 71% of signatories said they don't have such plans but want to introduce them in 2019.
But the picture still remains murky when it comes to firms' supply chains despite the clarity this report has provided on the composition of TTC signatories.
The charity's CEO Debbie Forster suggested that getting tough on third-party recruitment agencies, who often provide candidates for new roles, was a strong way to begin addressing diversity beyond just the confines of an organisation.
It's a position reflected by BAE Systems' global head of diversity and inclusion in the applied intelligence division Theresa Palmer, who told Channel Pro it's one of the key aspects of its strategy moving into 2019.
"We've gone back to a number of our suppliers, particularly recruitment agencies, to talk through about some of the initiatives we have going on internally, and how we want them to reflect that in the candidates they send us.
"We've actually gone out and gotten new types of recruitment agency to work with us, lots of different job posting boards and recruitment agencies that deal with those specific types of diversity that we're looking for.
"It's so that we're bringing in diversity from different areas, and we're not just looking at the standard old-school recruitment agencies that we've used."
On the wider and deeper supply chain, Palmer said they were considering implementing targets for suppliers with diversity certifications in future.
HP, meanwhile, has built up a head of steam on this front, according to its commercial channel director Neil Sawyer, who told Channel Pro his company bucks the norm that techUK's India Lucas outlined.
"Absolutely we have a handle on it; in fact, HP were the pioneers of the industry to make sure we set diversity metrics on our supply chain.
"So if you're in an advertising agency working on behalf of HP, we have our diversity metrics passed on to those suppliers, and further back in our manufacturing supply chain as well.
"We recognise that we're a big business in our own right," he added, "but we also have a giant supply chain that we expect to see the same measurements and objectives carried on behalf of HP, regardless of whether you work directly for us, or whether you're a partner of HP within the wider industry."
Beyond the publishing its first benchmarking report, the charity reaffirmed that among its key aims for 2019 was to launch a successful marketing campaign, and reach 500 signatories.
