Capgemini Research Institute has released a report: The key to designing inclusive tech: creating diverse and inclusive tech teams that explores whether organizations understand the interplay between inclusion and diversity of tech workforce and the inclusive design of technologies.

The report indicates that firms with advanced inclusive practices are four times more likely to create inclusive products. Two out of five (40%) organizations with advanced inclusive practices involve the end consumer in every step of the design process, as opposed to only 6% organizations who don’t have advanced inclusive practices. Only 16% of women and ethnic-minority tech employees believe that they are well represented in tech teams

Digital technologies are increasingly embedded in all aspects of human life. With the integration of these technologies into products and services, exclusionary and biased outputs are also increasingly common, including biases and discrimination from AI-enabled systems. Against this backdrop, there has been a rising demand for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workforce, especially in technology teams that develop and deploy the technologies with which end users interact. But, do organizations understand the interplay between inclusion and diversity of tech workforce and the inclusive design of technologies? 

Diverse tech teams lead to more inclusive tech design

For the report, Capgemini spoke with 500 tech employees, largely women and persons from ethnic minority communities and 500 leadership executives from large organizations across nine countries in key consumer-facing industries. Capgemini also spoke to 5,000 consumers, predominantly women and persons from ethnic minority communities.

The report found that diverse and inclusive tech teams lead to more inclusive tech design, but the current inclusion and diversity practices don’t work. Leadership executives in organizations perceive processes and practices to be inclusive, whereas diverse employees in tech teams disagree to a large extent.

However, this disagreement is lower in organizations who have advanced inclusive practices and culture. In addition, consumers have also experienced discriminatory tech and have expectations from organizations to do better.

Putting in place the right processes, practices, and value systems

According to the Capgemini report, inclusive tech teams foster innovation, creativity, and inclusive design of technologies enable greater scalability of digital products and services, bringing organizations huge potential.

But they need to have the right processes, practices, and value systems; they must drive fairness in AI systems and reduce algorithmic bias while also using data, tools, and technologies for better inclusion outcomes. In addition, organizations must keep users at the centre of all tech design practices to build more inclusive tech products and services.

The report concludes that organizations can gain a lot from building a more inclusive digital future for their people and their customers. 

Read the full report from Capgemini Research Institute.

How are the terms diversity, equity, and inclusion (D,E&I) defined?

The report is very clear about how it defines diversity, equity, and inclusion.  While the terms are often used interchangeably, it is worth pointing out the differences.

Diversity refers to the presence of differences in a given environment/setting. In the context of a tech team or the workplace, it would generally refer to the presence of persons from diverse backgrounds, including (but not limited to) gender identity, ethnicity (race, religion, nationality, etc.), socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, and learning style.

Equity refers to the commitment to promoting fair treatment, access, and opportunity within processes, procedures, and systems. The principle of equity acknowledges that there are historically under-served and under-represented groups and that there is a need to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented their full participation. In the workplace, this translates to reducing wage gaps between different groups, providing equal work opportunities among other similar actions.

Inclusion is about creating a sense of belonging, feeling valued and respected in the workplace, especially for underserved and under-represented groups.

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