• Why diversity and inclusion is crucial for IT solutions providers
• Why your business needs diversity champions
• How to take positive action to increase workforce diversity

Workplace diversity and inclusion is something which most IT solutions providers are striving to improve and achieve.

Diversity across your cloud & IT infrastructure teams has numerous tangible benefits for your employee satisfaction, retention, company culture and ultimately your revenue and business growth.

Want to know more about the motivations and intentions of your customer and client bases? Hire diversely!

Creating a culture which promotes diversity & inclusion will pay dividends for your company reputation, workforce and your bottom line.

Top cloud & IT infrastructure talent has a raft of cloud job opportunities from which to choose, so showing your dedication to improving and celebrating diversity will help you to stand out from the crowd.

But it takes more than simply saying it.

You need to improve your inclusivity across the day-to-day running of your business.

Here at InfraView we know all about not only how IT solutions providers work, but also what candidates are looking for in today’s cloud jobs market.

If you’re in need of quick, personalised advice you can give us a call on 020 3617 1040 and one of our team can give their insight.

But for now, let’s learn more about what you need to know about your diversity and inclusion practices.

Why diversity & inclusion is crucial for IT solutions providers

Diversity and inclusion is an enormous topic with huge ramifications for all industries.

Creating a culture inclusive of diverse employee backgrounds is crucial for IT solution providers wanting to maximise the potential of their cloud & IT infrastructure talent.

Our Co-Founder Tim Davey has some great insights into why you should be looking at your diversity and inclusion practices right now:

“This is a really important topic, whether you’re inside or outside of the IT solutions provider space.

By recruiting cloud & IT infrastructure professionals from a range of backgrounds at all levels of seniority, businesses are gaining access to a wide variety of viewpoints and perspectives.

Companies with staff from a broad range of backgrounds have been found to outperform businesses with a less diverse workforce.

Research has shown many benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce including higher revenue growth, greater ability to innovate, increased ability to recruit a diverse talent pool and 5.4 times higher employee retention.

Inclusion in the workforce is also one of the most important keys to retention.

When employees don’t feel like they’re valued or their ideas and contributions are not taken seriously by their organisation they will often and eventually leave.

Research shows that when employees trust that they and their colleagues will be treated fairly regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or age they are:

• 9.8 times more likely to look forward to going to work
• 6.3 times more likely to have pride in their work
• 5.4 times more likely to want to stay in their company for a long time

So having an inclusive workforce culture will not only help you to attract a diverse set of cloud & IT infrastructure talent, but will also help you to retain that top employee talent you attracted in the first place.”

Why your business needs diversity champions

In order to create a culture which celebrates diversity and inclusion, you need advocates to instil it across your cloud & IT infrastructure workforce.

Designating diversity champions will help you to achieve this.

Our Co-Founder Tim Cazemage explains why your business needs diversity champions:

“I understand lots of IT solutions providers right now are looking to build and grow teams that actively promote diversity and inclusion.

What better way to be able to do this than to have a diversity champion in place.

But what will this person be able to do?

Firstly, start open discussions about diversity in the workplace. They will be able to gather important information from employees around how safe or secure they feel in their current position in your business.

They will be able to arrange events which celebrate diversity, for example fun runs or bake sales which donate to and highlight the work of fantastic inclusion charities.

Diversity champions educate employees on diversity and the effects of discrimination, help to review policies and procedures in the workplace, identify areas in which the business can improve in efforts to be more inclusive.

These responsibilities offer a fantastic opportunity for IT solution providers to create a culture which celebrates diversity and makes their employees feel safe and secure at work.

There are many reasons why this role is important.

Creating an accepting, inclusive and educated culture is not only crucial to reduce the chances of discrimination, but it also allows staff to feel welcome, safe and valued.

Research shows that if someone feels happy and secure at work they are more likely to want to stay at your company for longer, have higher job satisfaction and ultimately perform better in their job.

If your business is openly diverse and welcoming, you will attract more of the best cloud & IT infrastructure talent and secure more top hires.”

How IT solution providers can take positive action to increase workforce diversity

By thinking around the topic of diversity & inclusion and designating a diversity champion within your business, you’re on the path to creating a better workforce culture.

Taking positive action to increase workforce diversity can seem daunting, but there are plenty of fantastic opportunities to improve your company culture and employee satisfaction and retentions.

Will Martin shares his ideas on how IT solution providers can take positive action to increase workforce diversity:

“From a recruitment context, there is a difference between positive action and positive discrimination.

Positive discrimination in recruitment, of course being unlawful, is where an employer recruits an individual because they have a relevant, protected characteristic rather than being the best candidate for the job. This also includes setting quotas to recruit or promote specific numbers of individuals with certain characteristics, which is also unlawful.

However, there are certain forms of positive action by an employer which are permitted under the Equality Act of 2010.

Positive action in recruitment is where an employer takes positive, proportionate steps to help remove the hurdles faced by sections of the community that are under-represented in their workforce.

General provision on positive action

General provision on positive action includes an employer taking steps to encourage people from under-represented groups within their workforce to take advantage of opportunities for employment.

This could take the form of setting certain conditions including having the objective to reduce this under-representation, introducing measures to encourage or train people from that under-represented group to apply for jobs. 

Specific provisions on positive action

There are also specific provisions on positive action.

This allows employers to select an applicant for recruitment from an under-represented group in favour of another applicant if both applicants are as qualified as each other.

In other words, if you get to the end of the recruitment process and two candidates are equal in terms of employment history, personality and culture fit and technical cloud & IT infrastructure skills, you can use positive action provisions to appoint the candidate from an under-represented group.

There are government guidelines referring to how candidates can be compared in terms of being of equal merit to each other.

Some of these criteria undoubtedly involve subjective judgements which could be open to challenge from an unhappy and unsuccessful candidate. So it’s very important to remember when implementing positive action plans to make sure they can hold up to specific scrutiny.

Conclusion

Diversity and inclusion is a huge topic for discussion, not only in the IT solutions provider space but across all industries.

In this guide we’ve explained why it’s crucial for IT solutions and managed services providers think about their diversity and inclusion practices.

We discussed the role of diversity champions, and how they can help you to create a more inclusive and welcoming company culture.

We then discussed how positive action plans can be implemented within your recruitment process to build cloud & IT infrastructure teams with diverse characteristics.

Need help today?

Get in touch by email at hello@infraview.co.uk or give us a call on 020 3617 1040.