Diversity
& Inclusion
in Tech
2018
A Practical Guide
for Entrepreneurs
2 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
FOREWORD
3
INTRODUCTION
8
THE GUIDE
15
Understanding bias
and building consensus
16
Planning your D&I strategy
26
Building and implementing
36
Diverse and inclusive hiring
37
Creating an inclusive workplace
43
Creating inclusive products and services 47
Case studies
54
Tools and resources
66
METHODOLOGY & GLOSSARY
71
CONTRIBUTORS
72
Contents
3 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Foreword
Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
2018 has been an enormous year for
the global technology ecosystem,
with new initiatives, companies and
technologies emerging that truly
have the potential to change the
world. Karma raised its Series A to
continue its fight against food waste;
Zinc, the company builder solving
the developed world's toughest
social issues, launched its second
mission to help people hit hardest
by automation and globalisation;
Zola, The RealReal, 23andMe and
ClassPass raised some of the largest
funding rounds of 2018; Stitch Fix
stock is currently up 80% since
its IPO last November; the first
CRISPR clinical trial began in Europe
for people with blood disorders;
Entrepreneur First expanded into
Berlin and Paris There is so much to
be excited by.
The common thread connecting each
of the companies above is that they
all have female founders. This was not
intended to shock or amaze. Such a
range of achievements - from running
public companies, to developing life-
changing biotechnology, to hyper-
scaling tech businesses - can be
expected of any high achievers. Yet
the reality today is that these women
are an exception to the rule. Other
underrepresented groups - minorities
across race, class, education, sexual
orientation, self-identification, and
physical and cognitive ability - are still
not even a small part of the overall
narrative, sadly.
The environment is not changing fast
enough. 93% of capital invested in
European companies this year went to
all-male founding teams. We cannot
measure the imbalance in funding
allocated to other underrepresented
communities, but those figures would
certainly be tough reading also. Venture
investment has the privilege of granting
companies runway with which to
build the future. It is a scary thought,
particularly as technology's impact on
humanity accelerates, that this future
is in the hands of an undiverse minority.
At the root of this culture are
long-standing, deeply entrenched
stereotypes and misconceptions sewn
into the fibres of tech over 40 years
ago. We cannot shy away from how
difficult it will be to turn this tide, but
with initiatives like this guide we can
become increasingly conscious of
the forces that hinder us, and equip
ourselves with the practical skills and
mindfulness needed to allay them.
It is difficult to quantify how much talent
and value has evaporated away from our
industry because of diversity inertia.
Only once people of all backgrounds,
abilities, and perspectives feel safe and
confident to participate will we truly
realise the potential we are collectively
capable of. I am confident that there are
a majority of good souls out there who
are aligned to win and engaged to make a
difference. Together, we can cultivate an
environment that equalises opportunity
and accelerates outcomes for all.
Niklas Zennstrm
FOUNDING PARTNER AND CEO AT ATOMICO
4 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The uncomfortable truth is that
the technology industry today is
not a place in which everyone,
of any gender, race, disability,
religion, sexuality, socio-economic
background, can thrive and succeed.
This is one of the most significant
challenges we face, and the
damaging impact of excluding so
much talent compounds with each
year that passes.
At the current rate of progress, it
will take hundreds of years to reach
a point where women get an equal
share of funding to men. Less than
0.2% of funding is raised by women
of colour in the US, and we have no
idea how many LGBTQ+ or founders
with disabilities there are in the
tech industry, as this has yet to be
measured at scale.
Technology, and the architects of
that technology, have tackled some
of the world's biggest problems:
they've helped eliminate diseases,
and even landed robots on Mars.
By connecting people all over
the world, technology has helped
to disseminate education and
increased our understanding of
one another as human beings. I'm
convinced that together, and in
spite of the challenge facing us, we
can tackle the lack of diversity and
inclusion in our companies.
This practical guide2 is intended
to help anyone leading, working or
investing in technology companies
promote diversity and inclusion in their
businesses. It's not a silver bullet and
there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution.
Instead, this guide is intended to
increase understanding of the complex
and nuanced subject of diversity and
inclusion in business more fully. It's
also intended to be a living resource
for founders to continue to add to as
they create and discover new answers
(at www.inclusionintech.com). As an
investor in very early stage companies
and running a small organisation myself,
I understand that implementing best
practice isn't always straightforward.
However, this resource should make
it easier to make a start. I hope it
prompts thinking and initiates progress
in advancing diversity and inclusion in
tech, which will further our collective
understanding as an industry as to how
to enact continuous positive change.
Creating this toolkit has been a
collective effort. It draws on the work of
the VC Toolkit created by 10 Diversity VC
volunteers and contributors published
earlier this year. I'd like to thank all the
people who have volunteered their
time and expertise; we are extremely
grateful for the contributions from
everyone who took part.
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO AT DIVERSITY VC
Francesca Warner
1 British Business Bank, Diversity VC & BVCA Study, 2018
2 This guide is part of the wider body of work at Diversity VC, a non-profit group co-founded by a group of individuals in 2017
who work in the VC industry. Our mission is to promote diversity and inclusion in the tech and venture capital industries.
5 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
1 British Business Bank, Diversity VC & BVCA Study, 2018
2 This guide is part of the wider body of work at Diversity VC, a non-profit group co-founded by a group of individuals in 2017
who work in the VC industry. Our mission is to promote diversity and inclusion in the tech and venture capital industries.
There are clear business benefits to
a diverse and inclusive workplace.
It promotes staff loyalty, efficiency,
creative output, and attractiveness
to new talent to name but a few
examples. When you combine these
factors together, we frequently see
that diversity and inclusion leads to
enhanced performance. Indeed, recent
research shows us that companies in
the top quartile for gender and racial
diversity perform better financially,1
and inclusive workplaces are proven to
attract and retain the brightest talent,2
as well as demonstrate improved
channels of communication and
improved social capital.3
When successful, Diversity & Inclusion
strategies are proven to bring real
bottom-line benefits to business;
whether by improving efficiency,
increasing productivity, driving
employee engagement, or shaping an
outstanding employee experience in
an age of fast-growth and continuous
innovation.
Creating a D&I strategy that will
meet your business requirements
and successfully achieve your
objectives can be a challenge.
However, by clearly managing and
communicating expectations,
obtaining buy-in and resource, or
simply getting your colleagues and
employees excited and on board can
all impact the long-term success of
your D&I strategy. Get it right, and a
D&I policy could transform how your
business collaborates or works.
Whether you already have a fully-
formed strategy, or you're thinking
about D&I for the first time, this
simple guide will help you to plan,
deploy, monitor and improve your
strategy for tech companies big and
small.
Creating a fair and inclusive
workplace in the tech industry
1 Hunt, V et al. Why Diversity Matters. McKinsey and Company: Our Insights (January 2015),
accessed on October 01, 2018.
2 Keller, S et al. Attracting and retaining the right talent. McKinsey and Company: Our
Insights (November 2017), accessed on October 01, 2018.
3 Heffernan, M. The secret ingredient that makes some teams better than others. Ideas.
Ted.Com (May 05, 2015), accessed on October 01, 2018.
Dr Victoria Bernath
Editor-in-Chief,
Diversity VC
6 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Summary
Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
UNDERSTANDING BIAS AND BUILDING CONSENSUS
PLANNING YOUR D&I STRATEGY
Start by learning about bias
Educate yourself and actively engage
with the topic of bias. As a start,
try watching Facebook and Google
Ventures' videos on bias.
Educate others about bias
Share this guide, or run bias training
within your firm. For small companies,
you may involve you entire office
from the start; for larger companies
this might be a small, core team of
stakeholders. Do note that not all bias
training is created equal - read this
guide and choose carefully.
Evaluate all aspects of your
workplace (including any
existing D&I strategies)
You can evaluate your workplace
through discussion groups,
surveys and perhaps independent
consultants.
Write a Diversity & Inclusion
document
Use the document to write down
company values, expected outcomes
of a D&I strategy and projected
timeline.
Map out communities within
your company
Your communities might be groups
with the same social situation (e.g.
employees with kids) or specific
work teams (e.g. the HR team, the
engineering team and so on).

Give each community 'ownership' in
contributing to their own D&I strategy
Ownership could be obtained through
surveys, or setting up voluntary
'task forces'.
Build a timeline, and agree a budget,
for implementing D&I initiatives
Some D&I strategies might require
minimal (maybe no) cost to implement
(e.g. scanning job applications for
gendered terms). Others might
require funding (e.g. a bias training
programme for the whole company).
Allow for failure
Let everyone know that not every
new idea will work. Build a culture
of constructive feedback.
An overview to understanding,
planning and implementing
new D&I strategies.
Overview
7 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
BUILDING AND IMPLEMENTING
HIRING
Source candidates from
a diverse talent pool
Build an approachable
company profile
Demonstrate an inclusive work
environment (e.g. through offering
flexible working)
Remove biased wording from job
descriptions (e.g. gendered words like
'competitive' and 'determined')
Set targets for your 'candidate
shortlist' to ensure a diverse
candidate pool is fairly represented
Experiment with new ways of
finding candidates, such as Twitter
or Instagram (sometimes the best
candidates come from unconventional
backgrounds and won't be on standard
job boards)
Remove bias when
assessing candidates
Focus on a candidate's competency,
rather than their credentials
Remove photos, ages, educations and
company names
Score candidates on the same
objective criteria
Don't rush the decision
Early stages at the company
Check whether your new recruit has
any specific requirements (e.g. flexible
working requirements, specific office
equipment) so the company is ready
when they arrive on their first day
Educate new recruits about your
workplace (give them a guide to any
workplace jargon and let them know
about different interest / support
groups) and share the company strategy
Create a buddy system (making sure
the system is inclusive, e.g. crossing
different ages, ethnicities etc.)
WORKPLACE
Balance your teams
Use Belbin or Myers-Briggs
techniques to check your teams have
a balance of roles, and they each know
each others' strengths
Development plans and feedback
Pair new hires with one or more team
members (Buddy System) to make
sure the new candidate feels welcome
in their team and understand the
company as a whole
Working environment
Check the physical environment
matches the needs of employees and
customers (e.g. gender neutral toilets,
wheelchair accessible entrances,
flexible furniture solutions and
induction loop for hearing impaired
colleagues and guests)
Human resources
Check both the legal standards and
best practice for your workplace.
This may vary between sectors. Try
developing inclusion, parental and
adoption policies; and consider
training programmes for equality,
human rights and bias.
Social
Consider whether an employee
resource groups (ERGs) is appropriate
for your firm - they may be a helpful
forum for discussing community-
specific needs and opportunities.
Consider the time, location and
nature of employee commitments and
socials, to make sure
PRODUCT DESIGN
Look at guidelines for accessible design
These could be legal requirements
(such CVAA's requirements on video
broadcaster) or helpful guidance
(such as WCAG2.0, for websites and
software). There may also be 'native'
settings available in the operating
system in which your building.
Start early
It is cheapest and easiest if you build
inclusion into your product from
the start. Think about / review your
target audience: does it include
underrepresented groups? Think about
your mock-ups - do they represent a
diverse pool of potential users?
Think about tech specs
Check your product will still work
on basic operating systems.
Think about language
Translate your product into widely
spoken languages such as English,
Chinese and Spanish. Also think
about reading ability and dyslexia -
keep language simple, and try using
dyslexia-friendly fonts.
Think about visual impairments
Use simulators to see how your app
will look for those with partial sight
or colourblindness. Also think about
embedding audio controls, and
options to scale font sizes.
Think about physical disabilities
Understand what assistive
technologies are used by your
community. Large buttons and clear
fonts could be a useful starting point
for inclusive design.
FEEDBACK
Seek feedback
Whether they are your internal team, or your external users, make sure to get
feedback (through customer surveys, forums, customer support and focus groups)
to understand how your hiring, workplace, products and designs could be improved.
This publication is intended as a living
resource, we strongly encourage
your feedback.
Please don't hesitate to get in touch
via our website,
www.inclusionintech.com
Introduction
8 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
9 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Women are still under-represented in senior positions across the tech
industry and female founders also receive a smaller share of investment:
ck of diversity could not be more stark when it comes to how funding is allocated in
that all-male founding teams receive 93% of the capital invested and account for
rk to see that these shares have not changed in the last years.
g
Source:
92%
95%
94%
93%
93%
93%
2%
1%
2%
3%
2%
2%
6%
4%
4%
4%
5%
5%
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
0
25
50
75
100
Male
Female
Mixed
Capital raised (%) / # of deals (%)Capital raised and # of deals by founding team gender (%)
Male
Female
Mixed
Introduction
Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The current state
of diversity and
inclusion in tech
Where does the tech industry currently stand on the issue of diversity and inclusion?
A growing body of research in Europe and North America informs us that minority
groups are still widely unrepresented in the tech industry. The 2018 State of
European Tech is one report which offers a critical view on this issue.
CONTEXT
Baroness Martha Lane Fox
Founder and Chair of Doteveryone
We need to take the chance to shape
the digital world before it shapes us.
10 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
However, the 2018 State of European Tech report made it clear that there is
great opportunity and momentum to improve diversity and inclusion in tech
companies across the continent. 45% of women and 36% of men agree that
they've made changes to their behaviour in the last 12 months.
Gender composition by job title for Executive-level positions of selected European Series A and B
venture-backed companies
t of 175 CTOs that work at VC-backed European tech companies that raised a Series
ked
Source:
270
Series A or
2018.
% of Executives
6%
1%
11%
20%
21%
9%
9%
19%
94%
99%
89%
80%
79%
91%
91%
81%
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Technology Officer
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Marketing Officer
Chief Revenue Officer (or similar)
Chief Product Officer
CxO Other
0
20
40
60
80
100
Male
Female
Mixed
ories of discrimination in the tech industry, the issue of diversity and inclusion has
cording to many respondents, this changed how many now behave. 45% of women and
e made changes to their behaviour in the last 12 months.
esult of
clusion
Source:
Female
Male
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
% of respondents
I have changed my behaviour as a result of increased focus on diversity and inclusion
Agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Disagree
Note: Based on a sample of executives in CxO positions at 270 European VC-backed tech companies that raised a Series A or B round between 1 October 2017 and 30 September 2018.
Male
Female
Introduction
Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Niklas Zennstrm
CEO and Founding Partner at Atomico
Diversity
means difference.
Whether founder or employee, each
one of us is different. Typically, our
differences can be grouped into
three broad categories:
Demographic
age, race, gender identity, sexual
orientation, physical resources
Experiential
economic or social position,
education, occupation, faith, abilities,
dependents, caring responsibilities
Cognitive
how we approach problems
and think about things.
Diversity describes the range of human differences within a group of people.
Diversity is being invited to the party;
inclusion is being asked to dance.
Vern Myers
Lawyer, entrepreneur and author
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY DIVERSITY?
11 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
12 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Inclusion is the act of making
someone feel part of a group.

Everyday business practices
For example: poor quality
decision-making, which is the
result of homogeneous 'groupthink'
(the practice of making decisions
within a group of people that all
conform to a certain demographic
norm, i.e. team members are all of
one gender or ethnicity).

Business objectives
For example: slower rates
of innovation affecting
competitive edge. In Spain,
research involving more than
4,277 companies discovered that
companies with more women were
more likely to introduce radical
new innovations into the market
over a two-year period.1

Company performance
For example: the quality
and quantity of products/
services provided. In England, the
London Annual Business Survey
analysed data from 7,615 firms to
conclude that 'culturally diverse
leadership teams were more
likely to develop new products
than those with homogenous
leadership'.2

Employee engagement
For example: a lack of inclusive
policies in the workplace
regarding physical and mental
wellbeing for working people incur
enormous costs to businesses
and economies. In the UK, 'lower
work productivity due to common
mental health problems costs in
(approximate) excess of 15bn a
year, and over 170 million working
days are lost to sickness absence'.3
The risks of overlooking diversity and inclusion in tech companies are manifold
and affect all aspects of business at great cost. Risks can affect:
WHY DO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION MATTER?
In terms of the workplace, inclusion involves people's well-being at work,
safeguarding people's mental and physical resources, and championing rights
and cultural differences all of which collectively help people to suceed at
work. By its nature, inclusion is difficult to measure in the workplace. Indeed,
whether someone feels included may vary on a day-to-day basis. However, an
inclusive environment allows individual contribution to matter and employees
are able to perform to their full potential, no matter their background, identity
or circumstances.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY INCLUSION?
1 Rock, D and Grant, H. Why Diverse Teams are Smarter. HBR online, November 04, 2016.
2 Ibid.
3 Carew, D et al. Employment, Policy and social inclusion. The British Psychology Society. Online, January 2010, Vol. 23 (pg. 28-31).
13 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
THE OPPORTUNITY
Defining a great leader
As Doris Kearns Goodwin said: "Good
leadership requires you to surround
yourself with people of diverse
perspectives who can disagree
with you without fear of retaliation."
Whether a founder, investor or
employee you should find that by using
an inclusive approach, your team is
more motivated, engaged and efficient
in their roles. Ultimately, they'll be
delivering better results to you.
Building a stronger business
There are clear business benefits to
a diverse and inclusive workplace.4
Indeed, McKinsey's 2018 study
showed that companies in the top
quartile for gender diversity were
21% more likely to generate more
profit than their competitors, and
companies in the top quartile for
racial and ethnic diversity were 33%
more likely to generate more profit
their competitors.5
In any fast-growing technology
company there are always competing
priorities for time, attention and
capital. However by taking just a few
small steps towards a more diverse
and inclusive workplace, these
actions could have a significant and
positive impact on the culture and
financial performance of your firm.
Introduction
Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
4 Kruse, What is employee engagement Forbes (June 2012), accessed on October 01, 2018.
5 Hunt V et al. Delivering Through Diversity, McKinsey and Company, (January 2018), accessed on October 01, 2018.
We need to be far more ambitious and develop an agenda that
ties diversity and inclusion to a fundamental commitment
to social mobility, and where everyone, no matter their
background, can reach their full potential working in our
industry. In many ways, tech has and always will be a great
enabler, but currently we are failing spectacularly in enabling
social mobility. We can and must do more.
Steve O'Hear
Tech Journalist
14 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
THE ROLE OF THIS PUBLICATION
Our mission
This publication is meant to serve
as a pragmatic and actionable guide
for founders and employees for
companies of all sizes within the
tech industry.
We hope to promote diversity and
inclusion across the industry so that
everyone, regardless of background,
has a fair chance to succeed in tech.
Who should read this publication?
We have written this report to
specifically target founders within
the tech industries.
However, founders can't do it all on
their own. We want to give employees
especially HR professionals and
Diversity and Inclusion leads ways
to convince others who have not yet
made diversity or inclusion a priority.
We want every tech employee to
understand diversity and inclusion
and its benefits. We also encourage
investors, customers, politicians
and national leaders to use their
considerable influence to accelerate
understanding and change.
How to use this guide
This document is made up of five parts, and describes the process of changing
behaviours and attitudes towards diversity and inclusion. For those serious about
making lasting changes to their business, we recommend reading this publication
in its entirety.
There's more work to be done. And we need your help!
There is more work to do. The dialogue on diversity and inclusion is still relatively
young; each company is different and many practices and tools are early in their
development. This guide is therefore intended to prompt the type of questions
companies should be asking: it is not a prescriptive set of rules to follow. It is up
to the companies themselves to continually debate, innovate around and attend
to D&I, to respond to the needs of employees, customers, investors and the
wider world.
This publication is intended as a living resource, hosted online at
www.inclusionintech.com. We strongly encourage your feedback, along with
any suggestions or additions you may have. Please do not hesitate to get in
touch via our website.
The Guide
15 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
PART ONE
Understanding bias
and building consensus
In this section we aim to identify and
articulate the need for a Diversity &
Inclusion strategy and suggest ways
to get buy-in from stakeholders.
Building a D&I strategy
is an ongoing journey,
not a side agenda.
Jacob De Geer
Co-founder and CEO of iZettle
TOP TIPS
Define the opportunity for your D&I strategy. Include the
precise value and benefits it will bring about for your company.
Engage in training to understand the root causes of bias
and the structural disadvantages of certain communities.
Have internal discussions to understand your company culture around D&I so
that you may custom build a strategy that reflects the needs of your company.
16 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
17 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Crafting this document will also guide you in
the process of planning and implementing
your strategy. It will help you select the
appropriate solutions to meet your firm's
needs, ultimately creating a strategy or
policy that will deliver tangible results for
your team.
Building a diverse and inclusive
structure is a long-term commitment
and requires time, energy, and in some
cases, funding. It is important to ensure
that the whole team is supportive
in building these before you embark
on particular initiatives. Technology
companies are constantly having to
make rapid decisions about where
to allocate resources. It is important
to ensure that board members of
the company, any investors and the
management and day-to-day teams
are bought into the need for a cohesive
and comprehensive Diversity &
Inclusion strategy.
A key step to ensuring company-
wide support is to highlight the
fundamental need for a D&I strategy.
Ultimately, this means building
awareness of the complex and
nuanced nature of social justice,
inclusion and bias. Where does bias
come from? Generally speaking, bias
stems from:
1. Excessive reliance on intuition and/or
2.Flawed reasoning.1
Bias is a term that is often
misunderstood or misused. This guide
is concerned with bias in reference
to businesses. For the purpose of
this guide, bias refers to preferences,
associations and assumptions that align
with the historical, social, economic
and political disadvantage of specific
communities. Later in this chapter, we
outline different approaches to, and
opportunities for, bias training.
In order to get buy-in to a D&I strategy
amongst stakeholders, it is worth
preparing a short document, setting
out reasons why management and
employees alike should support the
initiative, and the concrete benefits
it will deliver.
Who owns this document, where will
it live, and will it be featured in a staff
handbook? If you are a founder, those
responsibilities need to be discussed
with your fellow founder(s), and/or
the leadership team. If you are a HR
manager, set up a meeting to discuss
these responsibilities with
the leadership team.
The guide
Understanding bias and building consensus
1 Soll, J et al. Outsmart your own biases, Harvard Business Review (May 2015), accessed on October 01, 2018.
THE DOCUMENT ON D&I WILL:

State the reason for beginning (or revising) a D&I strategy

DefineopportunityforyourD&Istrategy

Secure senior level backing (i.e. budget,
and commitment)

Secure internal support necessary to deliver on the project
Understand and evaluate the company's culture,
(relate to sources of data to justify the business need)
Acknowledge bias, and provide initial training

Set out general objectives

Conclude with a D&I statement which
summarises this work
INTRODUCTION
18 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Understanding bias and building consensus
WHY BEGIN A D&I STRATEGY?
DEFINE OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR D&I STRATEGY
At the start of your document, clearly state why you believe there is a need
for a D&I strategy at your company. Where did the idea come from? Are you
revising a pre-existing policy? Is this plan reactive (in response to an event) or
proactive (a pre-emptive step to ensure your team starts off on a strong foot)?
Or is this plan based on a data collection exercise, either of the diversity in the
company, or the pay gap between groups?
D&I strategies are multilevel action
plans that have the capability to
deliver a host of benefits across
departments, business priorities and
objectives. However, a list of every
potential positive outcome will not
create a compelling opportunity
on its own. Use this step to outline
specific 'unmet needs' or deficiencies
within your business that your D&I
plan will address and support your
firm in achieving.
Identify limitations or opportunities
across all departments (for small
companies, within your current
team) that could benefit from a
D&I strategy. For example, does HR
need help with increased employee
engagement? Does the product
team need a greater understanding
of the underlying users of the
product? Does the customer success
department need to reach more
diverse groups of customers?
From this list, select the key priorities
which you can use to demonstrate
potential value and benefits. These
priorities will serve as the foundation
for your D&I strategy.
To ensure your D&I strategy stays
relevant as an ongoing initiative,
once the strategy is developed, make
sure it is reviewed on a regular basis
(i.e via employee surveys and/or as
an agenda item at regular board
meetings).
19 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
GETTING STAKEHOLDERS ON BOARD
Why do stakeholders need
to be onboard?
Getting a 'yes' from those controlling
the company budgets isn't the only
reason to invest time in winning
over your stakeholders. These
stakeholders also have a significant
role to play in safeguarding against
common project risks, such as
overrun on time or budget, low user
adoption, or resistance from senior
representatives in the firm. Given
the potential impact a D&I strategy
can have on your business and its
employees, your leaders are also
those who can champion the change
from the top, down. This means
motivating, exciting and engaging
your team to ensure you get the
most important outcome of all:
colleagues championing your new
D&I strategy.
Map out the stakeholders
For larger companies (this step is
less relevant to small companies with
fewer than 30 people), identify and
map out who the stakeholders are.
This covers anyone with a stake in the
project from sign-off and budgetary
approval to roll out, implementation,
and adoption. Consider their level of
interest in the D&I strategy and their
power to influence it. This will help
you define where to focus efforts
during your planning and deployment
process. For mid- to large-sized
companies, you might want to
consider your clients or customers,
senior managers, talent managers,
department managers, and the
finance team. For small companies,
identify how each team member can
contribute their expertise to your
strategy.
Securing acceptance from stakeholders (for example investors, board
members, employees) can be one of the most significant challenges for
anyone looking to roll out a new company-wide strategy in the workplace.
D&I often calls for better communication, education and cultural adjustment
and careful change management: it's not a quick discussion followed by
pressing the 'on' switch for take-off. Your stakeholders at every level need
to commit to ensure its efficacy.
When it comes to pitching a new (or improved) diversity and inclusion
strategy, you also face the added difficulty of appealing for significant
investment whether financially or in terms of time and resource
for often hard-to-measure (yet no less real) returns.
20 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
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Understanding bias and building consensus
GETTING INTERNAL SUPPORT
Understanding your company's culture
For larger companies, you will also need to ensure that you obtain internal
support from your organisation, and that your document reflects the
company's current culture.
Identify a core team (consisting of at least one representative from each
department) to discuss the company's culture. Allow people across the
organisation to contribute (either anonymously or not) to the D&I strategy.
The individuals involved should, if possible, represent as wide a group as possible.
In large companies, you could have one departmental representative as a
Lead Diversity Representative (LDR) for each team. The LDR should ensure
that they inform their team of the discussion and listen to any concerns team
members may have. This will ensure a channel of communication between
you and relevant departments.

To better understand the organisation's culture, ask the following questions:
1. What does it mean to work at your firm? And, in your department?
2. How would you describe the company's culture?
3. What is and isn't working for you?
4. Do you feel you can bring your whole self to work?
If not, what would make you more comfortable at work?


This is a crucial step. Get a clear understanding of where your company is now
and take the time to explore successes and concerns across departments.
For example, a possible concern might be that your company is homogeneous:
ask yourself how missing perspectives will affect the insight you gather.
Discussions will highlight any further areas you will need to address and will
be of invaluable use when you plan your strategy.
Additionally, discussions will help you to benchmark your strategy. You want
to track the progress of your strategy going forward. To do so, evaluate and
measure current performance against the objectives of your D&I strategy.
This will give you a starting point to ensure that you can track progress each
step of the way.
21 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
UNDERSTANDING BIAS
Cognitive biases affect decision-making at all levels and unfortunately these
biases may go unnoticed and unidentified. Bias training programs are designed
to help organisations tackle the issue. But, before rolling out a bias training
programme firm-wide, ensure that you yourself learn about bias and how to
identify different examples. To do so, take the following steps:

a. Read Outsmart Your
Own Biases from the
Harvard Business Review2
b. Watch Facebook and Google
Ventures' videos on bias as
an overview3

a. Take the Harvard Implicit
Association Test to
understand how bias
is deeply ingrained4
Failing to engage employees
as participants in debiasing
organisational processes can
limit the impact of those efforts.5
Joelle Emerson
Founder and CEO of Paradigm
1. Learn
2. Identify
2 Soll, J et al. Outsmart your own biases, Harvard Business Review (May 2015), accessed on October 01, 2018.
3 Facebook, Managing Bias, https://managingbias.fb.com/;
4 Harvard, Implicit Association Test, https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
5 Emerson, J. Don't Give Up on Unconscious Bias Training Make It Better. HBR: April 28th, 2017, online.
22 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Understanding bias and building consensus
Training programmes
Social justice or bias training can help tech entrepreneurs and employees to
understand how their background and experiences help enrich the position they
are in and how it impacts those they interact with.
It is important to tackle bias at an organisational level. However, not all training
programmes are created equal. Luckily, there is a growing body of research
to help us identify effective bias training programmes and how to motivate
employees to adopt behaviours which mitigate bias.
At this stage, be mindful that teams may not have the insight or information
with which to commit to ambitious or effective targets before training. In these
scenarios, objectives may need to be revisited and revised after training.
Before training
1.Identify priorities and objectives
Your organisation must be serious
about what they want to change.
Training is effective when designed
intentionally to achieve discrete
results.6 Ask each departmental
Lead Diversity Rep. to write a short
list of simple, action-specific targets
for their team. If you work at a small
company, write one list on behalf of
your team. Bring and discuss these
targets at the training programme.
Make sure that each target may
be acted upon after your training.
Examples of team targets could
include:
a. Have a team that reflects the
society it makes products for.
b. Think more broadly about team
dynamics to ensure everyone feels
comfortable and supported.
c. Reduce bias during hiring.
2. Encourage training participation
on a volunteer basis
Firms that made bias training
mandatory discovered that this
enforced approach activated and
stimulated bias creating a less
open-minded work environment.7
3. Concentrate on positive messaging
Some managers rely on negative
messaging to encourage employees
to sign up for training. For example,
focusing on 'negative incentives do
not generate converts (for example,
"discriminate, and the company will pay
the price")'.8 Instead, share a positive
message that bias training helps to
build an inclusive workplace. Build on
that idea by preceding or following
training courses with a team meal to
encourage discussion about learnings.
4. Don't single out certain groups of
employees for training (i.e. managers)
Research has found that when
selected groups of employees
underwent special training, they
disliked the implication of needing
more work to manage bias and
opposed the training.9
6 Emerson, J. Don't Give Up on Unconscious Bias Training Make It Better. HBR: April 28th, 2017, online.
7 Dobbin, F and Kalev, A. Why Diversity Programs Fail. 2016, HBR, online.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
23 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
10 Dobbin, F and Kalev, A. Why Diversity Programs Fail. 2016, HBR, online.
11 Ibid.
Three principles that encourage effective training:
1. Balance the conversation between limiting defensiveness and
communicating the value of bias and social justice training
"It is important to reduce defensiveness, some training programmes go too far and
give the impression that, "we all do this, so it's okay." [This normalises bias] and
people's actions are more likely to be influenced by stereotypes. It's important that
training makes clear the importance of managing bias and offer strategies to do so".10
2. Structure the content of the workshop around workplace situations
A bias training session should focus on specific situations the employees
would find in everyday business practice (i.e. hiring and team dynamics). When
information is presented in a way that is linked to an employee's current work
environment, they are more likely to remember and act on it.11
3. Have action-led goals
Make sure when raising awareness about bias to educate your team on the
underlying causes and systems of inequality too. Training should provide
employees with both an understanding of the issues and action-orientated
plans. Encourage each employee who takes part in a workshop to bring a copy
of their team's objectives, as well as individual goals, along to the session.
Evaluate feedback
Following workshop participation, seek feedback from participants by using a
short, structured interview to identify positive and negative outcomes. Not only
will this contribute to benchmarking your D&I strategy, it will also reinforce the
fact that your strategy is about having conversations at all levels in the company.
Evaluate the feedback against the initial priorities in your D&I document. Does
the feedback support the priorities you previously listed? Does the feedback
suggest new priorities to consider? Update your list of priorities accordingly.
Tugce Bulut
Co-founder and CEO of Streetbees
I do see progress towards diversity and inclusion. I recognise that not every
company is as lucky to have diversity hard-wired into it as we are. At a start-up,
it can be hard to get the talent you want. It can be even harder to find talent
while recruiting, or trying to find female coders or data scientists. But if you
give in to that mindset and forget about diversity, that's how problems start -
much better that you look to build an inclusive culture from day one.
24 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Understanding bias and building consensus
Objectives, or purposes, normally fall
into one of two categories: generic,
or specific. At this stage, focus on
the generic (high-level) objectives -
a few examples are shown below.
We recommend preparing specific
aims with the help of the wider
company during Part Two: Planning
a D&I strategy.
DEFINE D&I STRATEGY OBJECTIVES (GENERAL)
Generic
Objectives
James Field
Co-founder and CEO of LabGenius
At LabGenius, we have a diverse team of talent: 31%
of our team is female and 50% is international. As
a startup (22 employees), we make it clear that we
endorse diversity and inclusion by putting our D&I
statement on our website, and also at the top of every
job description. Our mission D&I statement is:
Diversity makes for innovative teams. LabGenius is an
equal opportunity employer and we do not discriminate
based on gender, race, colour, religion or belief, national
origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status, disability,
or any other protected class.
Develop internal
communication
Partner with
customers to
provide
solutions
Improve cross-
departmental
collaboration
25 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
WRITE YOUR D&I STATEMENT
If you are a small company, sit down
with your fellow founders to determine
core values (the principles which
define the ethos of your company),
key objectives and consider a short
D&I statement.
For larger companies, once you have
stated the need for your strategy,
determined your stakeholders, and
set generic objectives, write a D&I
statement.
Your D&I statement acts as your
reference point throughout the
planning and implementation of your
D&I strategy. In the case of small
companies, it will hopefully put you
in good stead for developing a D&I
strategy when you begin to scale at a
fast rate!
Your D&I statement should clearly
set out the main aspects of your
document:

What does the discussion on D&I
mean to your firm's culture
Core values

What problems will your D&I
strategy address
What are the expected outcomes

Projected timeline (to be developed
during the next section Part Two:
Planning your D&I strategy)
PART TWO
Planning your
D&I strategy
In this section, we'll guide you in working
out the specific needs and opportunities
in your business for a D&I strategy.
All Shades Covered is a beauty retailer for black
women who have been under-served. Given this,
it is at our core to be diverse and inclusive in the
way we market, hire and raise funds. It would be
impossible to build my business without this kind
of proactive strategy and a diverse team who
represent my consumers.
Tommy Williams
Co-founder and CEO of All Shades Covered
TOP TIPS
Map communities in your company with different requirements
to determine key needs and appropriate actions.
Open a communication (feedback) channel which people at
the companycan use to input comments and suggestions.
Resources: allocate budget, people and time as part of the
strategy. Seek approval for these resource allocations upfront.
26 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
27 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
INTRODUCTION
REVIEW EXISTING INITIATIVES
The first step is for mid- to large-size
companies to define the specific
needs and opportunities in your
company requires you to review
existing D&I strategies already in
use. This review period will help you:
1. Integrate your plans with existing
strategies
2. Highlight opportunities for
operational efficiencies
3. Improve consistency of messaging
4. Develop a partnership, and
potentially engage an important ally,
with the manager responsible for
the existing D&I initiative.
After you review existing strategies, refer to the executive summary of
Part One: Understanding bias and building consensus. Do your findings
still support the D&I statement?
The planning phase can be structured as follows:
Review Existing Initiatives (for mid- to large-size companies)
Determine Key Needs
Resources: Allocating Budget, People and Time
Maintain Ownership
Accounting for Risk: Don't Be Afraid to Fail!
STRUCTURE
With consensus for your D&I strategy approved and your D&I statement defined, it's
on to the planning phase. The process of planning a new or improved D&I strategy
requires you to identify who will use your strategy and what their requirements are.
This section will help you develop an appropriate action plan to meet the needs of
your employees, customers and any other stakeholders.
The planning phase will also require you to specify internal structures and
resources needed to deliver your strategy successfully and to consider possible
risk factors associated with the strategy.
The guide
Planning your D&I strategy
1
2
3
4
5
28 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Planning your D&I strategy
An effective D&I strategy is focused on people. A strategy that is representative
of the culture it seeks to assist will see higher levels of adoption and
engagement these are the best indicators of success. Lou Gerstner and IBM's
diversity turnaround is an industry-leading example of an effective D&I strategy1
which focused on people (customers and employees, alike). To establish key
needs, consider the following steps:
OUTPUT
Outline key objective and action-specific strategies
DETERMINE KEY NEEDS
Map communities in your company
1
Determine community needs, and assign D&I Task Forces
2
Open a channel of communication
3
Define specific objectives and purpose
(define common needs)
4
Determine key objectives
6
Review and compare: How does the mission statement
compare with community needs?
5
7
John Down
Founding member of Series Q
(the UK's first LGBT+ network for entrepreneurs)
and COO/CFO of The Dots) and COO/CFO of The Dots
Series Q is an inclusive space where people can listen to
LGBTQ+ speakers, network with like-minded individuals,
and discuss LGBTQ+ specific issues faced by entrepreneurs.
1 Thomas, David A. Diversity As Strategy. Harvard Business Review, (September 2004), accessed on October 01, 2018.
29 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Map Communities in Your Company
It's easy to group employees by department, seniority or job title, but a D&I strategy
looks to expand a company's cultural awareness and support underrepresented
groups. With the approval of your co-founders or leadership team, consider
traditional categories and think outside the box to identify a balance of
diverse communities at the organisation. Here are four examples of workplace
communities, and their potential needs which would benefit from D&I initiatives:
Define Diversity and Inclusion Task Forces to Help Define Community Needs
To determine community needs and
requirements, set up Diversity and
Inclusion Task Forces. How many task
forces you establish depends on the
size and variety of communities at
your firm.
A task force's responsibility is
to determine the needs of their
communities (by means of surveys
and focus groups) and to share their
findings with you and other task force
leaders. Ultimately, the goal is to
identify key concerns and the best
method of implementing a strategy
which appeals to the broadest set
of employees.

Mid-size company (30-100 people):
You probably only need one task
force comprising one or more
member from each community.

Large-size company (100+ people):
You may choose to have one task
force per community.
Example one
Community: Parents
Definition: Employees who balance work life with raising a family.
Examples of requirements: Parental Leave Policy, flexible work
agendas, childcare support.
Example two
Community: HR Team
Definition: Employees who work together due to their shared
profession in Human Resources
Examples of requirements: Tools to mitigate bias before and
during recruitment.
Example three
Community: Physically Disabled Workers (PDW)
Definition: Employees who have physical, mobility or dexterity
limitations.
Examples of requirements: Improved access to building facilities,
flexible workplace arrangements.
Example four
Community: Underrepresented Employees
Definition: A group of minority individuals
Examples of requirements: Greater awareness of cultural
differences, Equal Opportunity Policy
COMMUNITIES IN
YOUR COMPANY
30 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Planning your D&I strategy
DEVISING CUSTOMISED STRATEGIES FOR YOUR COMPANY
OPEN A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL
Together with the feedback from Task Force groups, use this
input to enhance your list of community needs.
Your firm is made up of individuals.
Each employee will have unique
concerns and needs. Your D&I
strategy needs to be accessible to
each employee regardless of:
Technical skill.

Physical location
(i.e. remote workers).
Accessibility requirements.
Language.
Open a line of communication to all
employees, with the possibility of
submitting feedback anonymously.
How to collect feedback? Consider

Installing a suggestion box in the
office.

Sending out digital surveys
monthly.
Seek help from the HR department
if you need additional support setting
up this channel.
STEP ONE
A step-by-step feedback loop to define relevant purpose.
REVIEW AND COMPARE:
HOW DOES THE D&I STATEMENT COMPARE TO COMMUNITY NEEDS.
You now have a set of common needs which reflect community
needs and your D&I statement.
At this stage, you will have a list of community needs. Now:

Refer to your executive summary from the previous module.

Place the goals (aka general objectives) listed in your D&I statement
alongside the key needs of communities.

Determine what commonalities are evident from the list of
community needs.

How do these reflect your D&I statement?
STEP TWO
31 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
DETERMINE SPECIFIC NEEDS, DEFINE STRATEGY PURPOSE
You now have a defined purpose for your D&I strategy.
STEP THREE
The commonalities which you
identified in the previous step are
in fact key objectives issues you
seek to resolve as part of your D&I
strategy. With your:

list of key objectives
(or key community needs).

alongside the general objectives
of your mission statement.
OUTLINE NEW STRATEGIES
STEP FOUR
Take each specific objective, and determine action-based solutions and
initiatives. List these to disclose your new and customised strategies for
your D&I strategy.
You now have a custom-built D&I strategy. This feedback loop will help you
update your strategy and keep it relevant to your company's needs.
Remember to audit your strategy at regular intervals using this loop.
"The main thing is to get something out there.
Sometimes it can feel like too daunting a task to
even start, however the most important thing is
to start the conversation, with your team, future
employees and your stakeholders."
Alice Bentinck
Co-founder, Entrepreneur First and Co-founder, Code First: Girls
AND
REPEAT
32 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Planning your D&I strategy
RESOURCES: ALLOCATING BUDGET, PEOPLE AND TIME
Budget
Financial resources are crucial to the launch and management of the D&I
strategy. You will need to sit down with your C-level executives to discuss
funding the strategy. Additionally, it's important to realise that while all D&I
initiatives require time, some D&I actions plans are free (for example, sending
out an employee survey for feedback).
There is no universal structure for determining a budget for your D&I strategy:
each strategy is custom-designed to fit your company's needs. However, before
meeting with your fellow founders (for small companies), or your CFO (for mid- to
large-sized companies) to determine a budget, prepare a realistic budget that
takes into consideration:
By preparing a plan for your budget in advance, your CFO or fellow founders
will be able to forecast costs and approve a final budget more quickly.
Guided by the strategy's purpose and objectives, alongside an understanding of
how diversity and inclusion can improve different categories of business (i.e. talent
retention, winning the business and loyalty of customers, driving market innovation2)
you will know what needs to be addressed, but not necessarily how to do so.
There is no 'one-size fits all' solution, but don't worry! There will be resource
requirements and business impact on the company when you launch your strategy.
By identifying who and what will be required from the start, you can plan for any
additional resources, reduce risk and create tangible timelines.
2 Hewlett, S A and Yoshino, K. LGBT-Inclusive Companies are Better At Three Big Things. HBR, February 02, 2016, accessed on October 01, 2018.

3 to 5 objectives you hope to achieve during the period
for which you are budgeting
Goals

How you achieve these goals, what resources
(people, tech tools) you'll need
Action plan(s)
Is the budget for a year? Or is it for 36 months?
Term
33 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
People
Get the right people behind your strategy from the get-go, as well as during the
launch and to manage the project after its implementation (both critical to the
strategy's success).
For small companies (<30 people), get your whole team behind the initiative -
if you do, you will be creating a team of cultural ambassadors who will help share
the responsibility with the leadership team.
Plan your team and define roles and responsibilities to reduce common risks
including project overload, lack of ownership, poor governance, and lack of
direction. Companies should plan this team to match their distinctive objectives
and values. However, there are some fundamentals to consider when identifying
who needs to be involved, and what their role may include. Remember: the
success of a D&I strategy starts with the leadership team and subsequently
depends on the strategy's adoption by the company as a whole.
Depending on the size of your company, roles will differ from one business to
the next. If you are a startup or small company, you may have limited resource
availability. Therefore, one person may undertake multiple roles.
34 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Planning your D&I strategy
WHO
WHY
ROLE(S)
C-Level Executive(s)
This leadership group has the power and
influence to generate real change in your firm
(both in terms of culture and procedure)
Sign off and support the strategy
purpose and objectives
Offer input regarding the company's
objectives
Lead change, break down barriers
preventing the strategy from reaching
full capacity
Escalation point for management
regarding unsolved issues
D&I Manager/Lead
(strategy management)
They facilitate centralised management
of the D&I strategy on a daily basis.
Works with leadership group and
stakeholders to plan and carry out
the strategy
Daily management of the strategy
(i.e. creating and maintaining)
Head of Talent/
Recruitment
They lead hiring decisions (a crucial division of
the business that directly correlates to people
diversity), and has the power to influence
workforce diversity
Consult and assist with selecting
methods/tools to source and recruit
diverse talent pools
Provide metrics on hiring
PR
They are accountable for content/messaging
published showing the company's support of D&I
Provide content publisher resource,
and keep content up-to-date
Work with C-level execs.
To adhere to content strategy
Task Force Reps
(steering groups)
This group is the workforce sounding board. They
represent cultural representation within the
company and should consult on ideas, and plans
you want input on.
Work with your D&I manager (if applicable)
to provide workforce feedback on current
and future developments
Maintain open channel of communication
between their community and
D&I manager.
If your resource is internal, employees
may be faced with balancing project
responsibilities alongside their job.
This may cause conflicting priorities.
To counteract task overload, ensure
that the D&I strategy team roles
and responsibilities are agreed,
documented, and clarified upfront.
Make clear what is expected of each
team member both during the project
and in the long run. If roles change,
handover needs to be documented
and agreed upon by all stakeholders.
Below, we set out a few example
roles and responsibilities for a D&I
team and ongoing management of
the project:
35 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Time (and deliverables)
Timelines for strategy deliverables vary depending on scope, size and complexity
of the company. What matters is that you devise a realistic timescale that allows
for both short term and stretch goals to be realised. Change in company culture
is not instantaneous. Allow for contingency events and delays. Break down your
project into crucial stages and establish deliverables for each step (for example:
when do C-level execs. need to sign off on initial resource budget). As you work
through your plan, the timescale will become clear.

Maintain ownership
The most successful D&I strategies are those with 'higher levels of continued
engagement and accountability, such as task forces, diversity managers, and
mentoring programmes.3 For some leading industry examples, check out Part
Four: Case studies.
To foster high levels of engagement, hold workshops, one-to-one meetings with
task force leads/department heads and encourage participation in diversity and
inclusion-related outreach programmes. These activities and feedback sessions
will ensure accountability and help to instill a sense of employee ownership in
your D&I strategy.

Accounting for risk: don't be afraid to fail
Risk is a set of possible factors (events or conditions) that should they occur,
they could cause impact on, or deviation from, a project objective. Risk factors
differ from one firm to another so take into consideration the size, priorities and
sector of your company. Evaluate any potential challenges to your D&I strategy
with a simple brainstorming session between you and your D&I team.
Don't ignore stating risk. Transparency and prevention
measures are the most effective ways to mitigate the
severity of risk.
3 Pruitt, A-S et al. 5 Things We Learned About Creating a Successful Workplace Diversity Program. HBR online, March 30, 2018, accessed on October 01, 2018.
4 Sultani, M A. "Candi Castleberry Singleton Hired as VP of Inclusion and Diversity at Twitter", USA TODAY 9online): https://www.techfunnel.com/hr-tech/
candi-castleberry-singleton-hired-vp-inclusion-diversity-twitter/. Accessed on Ocotber 01, 2018
"Go beyond the illusion of inclusion. It's the difference
between mentorship and sponsorship that means
you have skin in the game. It takes a conscious
personal commitment from everyone."4
Candi Castleberri-Singleton
VP of Inclusion and Diversity at Twitter.
PART THREE
TOP TIPS
Building and
implementing
In this section, we offer specific strategies
to implement in your business.
To me, diversity also refers to
someone's skill set. Beyond
education backgrounds, we look for
hires who illustrate a variety of skills.
Devika Wood
Co-founder and Chief Care Officer of Vida
Brief recruiters specifically to build a diverse pipeline and mitigate
bias by removing irrelevant information from applications.
Build an inclusive workplace by ensuring that team members
feel supported and understood. Make sure all employees have
a personal development plan in place.
Think upfront when designing products about accessibility and how
different barriers to reaching your product might be mitigated.
36 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
37 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Diverse and Inclusive hiring
Diverse and Inclusive workplaces

Creating inclusive products and services
Diverse and inclusive hiring
Sourcing Candidates
In theory, it is easy to say that as a
firm you aim to recruit and source
candidates from a diverse range of
places. In practice, this can be difficult.
Typically, tech founders and workers
come from homogenous industry
and educational backgrounds such
as engineering, data science, finance
and consulting. Candidates may be
sourced through recruiters (who
often only access this same pool
of candidates) or they are sourced
through personal contacts (who
tend to recruit in their own image -
this is known as affinity bias. If you
choose to work with a recruitment
firm, make sure they are well versed
with your D&I strategy. Remember,
the recruiters are essentially
representing your organisation
during this important stage.
It is important to ensure that the pool
of candidates is varied and diverse
from the start: indeed, if there is only
one unrepresented candidate in your
candidate pool, there is statistically no
chance they will be hired. The odds of
hiring an underrepresented candidate
are 79.14x greater if there are at least
two unrepresented candidates in the
shortlisted pool of candidates.1
In this section, we explore tried and tested strategies to promote:
The guide
Building and implementing
BACKSTAGE CAPITAL: A NEW APPROACH TO SOURCING TECH TALENT
Experiment with unusual ways to recruit
talent - consider social networks (i.e. Twitter
or Instagram). Backstage Capital, a venture
capital firm who invests in underrepresented
founders (particularly black, Hispanic,
LGBTQ+ and women founders), swears by
this new method.
The Backstage Capital team, or crew (as they are
known), was launched by Arlan Hamilton who was
determined to hire a diverse crew to represent
her bold mission. The crew now boasts 21
members. Team members come from a variety
of educational backgrounds and broad spectrum
of professional experiences. But! They mostly
have one trait in common they met and reached
out to Hamilton on Twitter before joining. As the
crew continues to scale, this new approach is
recruiting isn't going anywhere. As partner and
Chief of Staff Christie Pitts says, "using social
networks has been an incredibly powerful way to
hire passionate, talented people who will go the
extra mile for Backstage. Unlike using recruiters,
it's also completely free"
Not only is Twitter free to use, but it is
accessible for anyone with a phone or access
to internet connection (if you don't have
access at home, pop down to your local public
library). It's one way to access new people
outside of local networks, education circles,
or the professional industry you're in!
Christie Pitts
Founding Partner,
Backstage Capital
1 Johnson, S.K., Hekman, D. R., & Chan, E. T. (2016). If there's only one woman in your candidate pool, there's
statistically no chance she'll be hired. Harvard Business Review, accessed on October 01, 2018.
INTRODUCTION
38 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Writing job descriptions
Coded language in job descriptions
can attract, or deter, certain groups
of candidates from applying. For
example, in terms of gender diversity,
research shows that certain phrases
and words that are masculine-
coded (for eg. adjectives including
'competitive' and 'determined'2) reduce
the likelihood of women applying
to jobs. By contrast, phrases which
highlight flexible working options,
such as 'we are open to flexible
working' have shown to increase
applications from female candidates
and parents.
There are free software programmes
available to scan job descriptions for
gendered words: these tools ensure
that job descriptions are not actively
discouraging applications from
certain gender groups (see Part Four:
Tools and Resources for examples).
Additionally, it is worth stating on the
job description that your company is
committed to promoting diversity and
inclusion. Also let candidates know
that if they have any questions about
accessibility, or policies that might
affect their ability to do a good job, to
get in touch.
Engage with education programmes
Many relevant university programmes
run networking events, seminars and
careers days focused on providing
their students with access to potential
employers. It is important to select
events which are likely to have diverse
audiences, and to ensure that any
presentation from the firm leads with
the firm's commitment to diverse hiring.
It is key to remember that it is not just
the tech events within your sector
that you can be involved in many
universities (and schools) also run
minorities-focused events and groups,
encouraging and inspiring minorities
in business, such as the African OBN at
The University of Oxford or the Dynamic
Women In Business Conference at
Harvard Business School. It is crucial
to be involved in these events, and to
present the firm's vision and mission
clearly to their members.
There are many other ways to
engage with the relevant university
programmes including job postings
on relevant portals (e.g. MBA course
portals), engaging with their outward
content (e.g. blogs, social media
channels), guest lecturing/Q&As and
sponsorship.
The guide
Building and implementing
2 Knight, R. 7 Practical Ways to Reduce Bias in Your Hiring Process. HBR online, June 12, 2017.
Millie Zah
Head of Programmes at colourintech.
At colourintech, we believe that the future of tech will be a collaboration of
people from different backgrounds and experiences. To achieve change, we
need to address issues D&I at the educational level. We introduce kids and
teachers to the broad spectrum of jobs available in the tech industry, and we
help provide access to skills and opportunities.
39 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Creating and building your firm's profile
Communicate the message to the
tech community that your company is
actively championing diversity in its
hiring and sourcing processes. There
are several ways to incorporate this
into your organisation's messaging,
once you've laid the foundations for
this internally.

Online presence: Share first or
third party content (e.g. articles,
or videos) on social media that
celebrate and discuss the positive
impacts of diversity. The firm
website should reflect this as well,
(through the language of inclusion
and the imagery used).

PR: Develop a proactive media/
PR programme focused on
profiling the achievements of
underrepresented employees of
your company. It is a good idea to
develop relationships with relevant
journalists so that they come to you
for comment on best practices.

LinkedIn: Use LinkedIn carefully
and strategically. As above,
sharing third party content is
important but it is key to develop
your own voice and your own bank
of content that can be re-posted
by others. LinkedIn is not just for
job postings: it is a channel with
a high organic reach.

Brand ambassadors: If they are
comfortable doing so, empower
individuals from underrepresented
groups within your company
to take a brand ambassador
approach (through testimonials
online, university networks or
speaking at events).
Brief and manage recruiters
For mid- and large-size companies,
you will probably have a hiring
manager (an internal search
committee) or use recruitment
firm to bring in new talent. To
both parties, remind them of the
organisation's diversity goals and
clearly brief them on what you want
to see in the shortlist of candidates.
An example brief could be the
following:
I would like to see three members
of underrepresented groups in the
shortlisted group of candidates.
It is important that you insist upon
your requirements for sourcing from
a diverse range of candidates. If you
are unsure whether a recruiter has
understood your brief, submit your
requirements as a short, written list
and ask them to explain how they
will go about fulfilling the brief. Also
ask the recruitment agency what
other measures they take to recruit
from diverse pools of talent: as
one example, do they use software
programmes for blind CV reviews?
Use diversity-focused tech platforms
Software tools can help better promote
diverse hiring, e.g. by anonymising and
structuring application processes.
A list of such platforms is found in
Part Four of this guide.
40 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Assessing Candidates
Select a diverse hiring panel.
Discuss angles of vision.
Diverse teams are hired by diverse
interview panels. The demographic
structure of an interview panel sends
a clear message to candidates:
a diverse hiring panel signifies a
diverse organisation. It also helps
to mitigate personal bias during the
interview process. A diverse hiring
panel will also allow a multitude of
angles of vision to be brought in
when making decisions will prevent
pattern-recognition bias (particularly
for senior executives who might
over-rely on their experience) and
action-oriented bias.
Collect individual feedback before
gathering hiring panels as a team
Team members should be allowed to
express their views individually and
independently of one another before
debating as a team. This will lower the
chances of team members influencing
one another and give them the
opportunity honest opinions.
This simple, 3-step assessment process is objective, therefore reducing the
chances of making biased decisions based on opinion and gut instincts.
Use competency-based, structured interviews where all candidates
are asked the same questions (see Appendix II for sample questions)
Score each answer immediately after it is provided4,
using a simple scale of 1-10.
Then compare the scores of all interviewed candidates to highlight
the top candidate(s) for the role.
Mitigate bias by removing irrelevant information and having
clear assessment processes and criteria
Have a transparent, predetermined assessment process and criteria to keep
biases in check and ensure companies and candidates are assessed fairly and
objectively. Remember to set your assessment process and criteria upfront
rather than during the process.
Experiments in the US, Canada and Australia (which involved sending fake
resumes to real employers) showed that applicants with 'white-sounding'
names tend to receive more interviews. Response rates to otherwise identical
applications can be up to 50% higher for names that sound caucasian; in the
UK, in the figure is just over 75%.3 This is because recruiters (of a similar ethnic
demographic) tend to favour candidates with whom they identify.
Sample assessment structure outline:
The guide
Building and implementing
2 Applied Team, Applied White Paper, Hiring is Broken, 2018
3 Bohnet, I. How to Take the Bias Out of Interviews. HBR online, April 16, 2017.
1
2
3
41 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Offers
Allow enough time!
Try to avoid scheduling interviews when extremely time-pressured, as the
likelihood of making quick and biased decisions will increase when CEOs or HR
managers are not fully engaged and distracted by other tasks. Fast-growth tech
companies are particularly pressured to make decisions fast, and should therefore
take extra care when assessing candidates to avoid inaccurate decisions.
In practice, there is no prescriptive timeframe for 'enough time'. What matters
is that short breathers are scheduled directly before interviews, to allow hiring
panels a few moment's space to ready themselves.
Be critical of your own process, and ask for feedback from candidates
Whether successful or not, candidates may have an interesting perspective
on a recruitment process - so don't hesitate to ask for feedback.
Some general feedback questions that can be asked to check for bias include:

Would you recommend this company / recruitment process?

Do you feel like our process assessed you fairly?

What questions do you wish you were asked?

Did you have any questions that didn't get answered?

Did you feel like the process and culture were inclusive?

Did interviewers make you feel comfortable and help you through the process?
Pre-close: understanding the candidate
Try to understand how the candidate is feeling about the job, and what matters
most to them (e.g. personal circumstances, child care, flexible working, religious
commitments, base salary).
Does the candidate feel that there is an opportunity to progress, grow, and
develop themselves within the organisation? What, if any, limitations do they
potentially foresee with this opportunity?
Referencing
There is one key reason why it is essential to take references during the offer stage:

To ensure that the candidate's references offer a values fit for your company
(i.e. what are they like within a working environment, and do they share similar
values). As mentioned in the previous section, it is essential to ascertain
whether a new employee will be a positive asset to Diversity & Inclusion.
42 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Induction
Let new hires know that D&I is important (inc. glossary of terms)
This can be done via:

Sharing your D&I resources,
including your internal policies

D&I onboarding sessions during
induction (and afterwards!)

Invitation to your Employee
Resource Groups (ERGs)

Every company has their own unique
company language - acronyms or
specific terms. It's important to
help newcomers feel like they're
speaking the same language as the
rest of the community, so provide
them with the resources to help
them get up to speed.
Paint the bigger picture
For onboarding to feel inclusive, new
employees need to feel like they're "in
the know". This can be achieved by:

Sharing your team's current
roadmap or strategy to give them
an understanding of what the
team does, and their priorities at
the moment;

Providing an organisational chart
or explanation of how the team
shares responsibilities;

Making sure employees know who
their main point of contact is in
the team (without isolating them
from the rest of the team), how
the relationship will work.
Set up a Buddy System
Implementing a Buddy System within
the workplace can be invaluable to an
organisation as it provides benefits
for the employee and employer in
gauging how they are settling into
their new role, and to talk through any
potential concerns:
1. It gives the employee a chance
to integrate early on within the
workplace, ensuring that they have
someone to speak to during the first
few months;
2. A formal Buddy System can also
become an informal way of sharing
knowledge or learnings across the
organisation;
3. It is essential that a Buddy System
crosses genders, ages, seniority,
ethnicity as it will help to embed
the new employee into your
organisation's culture.
The guide
Building and implementing
5 Sherbin, L and Rashid, R. Diversity Doesn't Stick Without Inclusion. HBR, February 01, 2017.
Abadesi Osunsade
Founder of Hustle Crew
From my work as a founder, the best on-boarding experience (that fosters a
sense of inclusion for for both the new hire and the mentor) is the result of:
managing expectations on both sides of the on-boarding equation, clearly
expressing milestones (and ask questions if there is any doubt) and distilling
mission to better understand the company's expectations.
43 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
6 Winsborough, D and Chamarro-Premuzic, T. Great Teams Are About Personalities, Not Just Skills. HBR, January 25, 2017.
7 Ibid.
8 Reese, H. Ellen Pao worries that tech's diversity problem is stuck in 'raising awareness'. Vox (online): https://www.vox.com/
conversations/2017/9/26/16367602/ellen-pao-diversity-tech-silicon-valley-sexism. Accessed October 01, 2018.
Team structure and composition
Effective teams indicate inclusive work culture. What makes a cohesive and
operative team?
In 2016, Google analysed more than 100 teams to find the answer: effective team
performance correlates to the group's average level of emotional intelligence
and a high degree of communication between members6. In other words, an
individual's personality affects team performance, and in particular:

What role you have within the team

How you interact with the rest of the team

Whether your values (core beliefs) align with the team's7
More effective teams feature a mix of skills and personalities (a balance between
functional roles based on formal position and technical skill - and psychological
roles based on personality). To determine the kind of person each team member
is, choose one test (or both) for the team to take, individually:
(introspective
self-report questionnaire)
(behavioral test)
Diversity doesn't stick without inclusion5. What does it mean to have an inclusive
workplace and how do you create one?
An inclusive workplace is a welcoming culture where employees are treated
with dignity and respect and feel valued. The workforce anticipates being
representative of the local community or customers (or if not, under-
represented groups are encouraged to apply) and the senior management
support plans to improve the culture. The following measures suggest how you
can make your workplace more inclusive.
Creating an inclusive workplace
Ellen Pao
CEO of Project Include
The real change for D&I has to be comprehensive. It has to include everyone not just
women. When you are only including one group, that's not real inclusion. It's not the one-off
checkbox activities it's making inclusion part of your culture, part of everything you do,
and making everybody feel like they're included and that they belong.8
1. The Belbin
Team Inventory
2. Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator
44 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Wellbeing and Mental Health
It's important to make sure that a
feedback system regarding wellbeing
and mental health is available for
employees. Mental health and
wellbeing are two of the least
discussed barriers in the workplace,
and yet one in six of people at work
have symptoms of a mental health
condition.8 The relationship between
employee wellbeing and engagement
is crucial and necessitates investment:
a healthy and happy employee means
a more productive and engaged
employee Create a simple, online
questionnaire to capture current
health behaviors of employees.
Working environment
The space in which you work also
contributes to the company's diverse
and inclusive culture. Consider how the
design of your office(s) provides and
accommodates the needs of employees
and customers alike. Try to remove
barriers by reflecting on the following
examples of inclusive features:
Gender neutral toilets

Induction Loop for hearing
impaired users
Quiet spaces for coding
Prayer room
Wheelchair accessible entrances
The guide
Building and implementing
8 BBC News, Mental Health: Firms Ask PM to Deliver on Pledge, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46251391
Personal plans and feedback systems
Personal development plan (PDP)
The primary aims of a personal development plan (PDP) are:

To give direction for individuals towards the achievement of their short-term
or long-term goals by looking at their behaviours, attitudes and results;

To allow individuals to learn more about themselves, their strengths and
weaknesses, and how they can be managed for self-benefit.
For mid- to large-size companies, line managers will most likely be in charge of
PDPs, and a yearly check-in should be sufficient. However, consider bi-annual
PDPs for junior hires to make sure they have the chance to clearly develop
steps in their career progression.
Arrange to speak with line managers if you think PDPs do not ask important
questions regarding employees' perceptions of your D&I strategy (i.e. how an
employee feels about the D&I strategy, how it affects their sense of inclusion
and their level of comfort at work). PDPs can offer valuable insights into how an
individual's career progression correlates to their sense of inclusion at work.
Tom Blomfield
CEO and Co-Founder, Monzo
Some of our roles lend themselves to allowing people to work remotely,
and are fully supported. This works not only for parents, but also for people
with other commitments (careers) and those with limited mobility.
45 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Human Resources
Staff handbook
Consider providing (and regularly auditing) a staff handbook, available to all
employees. This resource is contains key sections which include the company's
mission statement and information on the company's culture, policies and
procedures, as well as contact details for optimizing communication between
departments and offices (if your company has more than one office).
Policies
Policies and formal practices set out behaviors you expect in the workplace
and concern human rights, equality and inclusion. Your organisation may have
sector-specific standards and legal requirements with which you need to comply,
but beyond what is legally mandated (for example, the Equality Act 2010), which
policies help to create a welcoming environment? Consider the following policies
for a fairer, and more representative workforce (if you don't already have them):
Your company policy
This statement can emphasize your
stance on the importance of a diverse
workforce at should complement the
legally required equal employment
policy.
Inclusion Clause
A procedure that ensures at least one
member of a population currently
underrepresented within the company
is formally interviewed for any open
executive position.9
Flexible Working Policy
Procedures that offer flexible and
remote working options in a fair and
objective manner.
Procedures for Parents,
Carers and Expectant Parents
This includes topics such as parental
leave, adoption leave, time off for
dependents, parental pay and whether
you provide over the statutory minimum.
Code of Conduct (Anti-Discrimination,
Bullying and Harassment)
Procedures that clearly set out
behavioral standards that are
expected in the workplace, and the
consequences of unacceptable
behavior. Each firm should have
someone responsible for dealing
with complaints when they occur.
Everyone at the firm should be aware
of who this person is, and how to
approach them with an issue.
Consider whether you could also
create an external Buddy System
outside the firm but within the
industry, where founders and
employees can freely ask the
question "is this behaviour normal?"
Training and Development
Procedures to ensure all employees
have access to regular training on
equality, human rights and bias.
9 Mark Suster, Both Sides of the Table, The VC Inclusion Clause, 8th March 2018, https://bothsidesofthetable.com/
the-vc-inclusion-clause-movingforward-c5e21e61820, accessed on October 01, 2018.
10 Green, J. Deloitte Thinks Diversity Groups Are Pass. Bloomberg Business Week, July 17th, 2017 (online) 01, 2018.
11 Emerson, J. Colourblind Diversity Efforts Don'T Work. HBR: September 11, 2017 (online)
46 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
1. Learn about employee preferences
(via an organisation-wide anonymous
survey) and provide options for:
Food
Drink
Activities
3. Audit number of attendees and
frequency of attendance and ask
for feedback after events.
2. Plan a greater variety of events that
Don't feature alcohol
Happen during the day (for those
who are carers or have child-
care responsibilities)
Scheduled days of no events/
parties in respect of religious
holidays
Are group activity-based (for
example: potlucks, community
volunteering)
Informal Networking Events (Work Functions and Socials)
Even with the best intentions,
what sounds like a fun, informal
networking event (or social) at your
company may be an example of bias
that excludes certain employees
from their company's culture12. To
ensuring the next work function is a
party for everyone, consider these
top tips for managers in charge of
organising the event:
Social
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are both celebrated and criticised10. However,
the business benefits of ERGs outweigh the negatives. These groups (or forums)
provide spaces for discussing community-specific needs and opportunities.
ERGs facilitate feedback from employees to decision-makers and serve as
points of contacts for engaging allies in D&I efforts. Well-functioning ERGs
therefore have the potential to:
Improve customer insights
Increase employee engagement
Supporting talent development11
Although ERGs sometimes fail to progress organisational inclusion efforts,
this is due to design and execution - not to the underlying logic.
The guide
Building and implementing
10 Green, J. Deloitte Thinks Diversity Groups Are Pass. Bloomberg Business Week, July 17th, 2017 (online) 01, 2018.
11 Emerson, J. Colourblind Diversity Efforts Don'T Work. HBR: September 11, 2017 (online)
12 Tulshyan, R. How Managers Can Make Casual Networking Events More Inclusive. HBR, October 22, 2018 (online).
Reshma Sohoni
Founding Partner, Seedcamp
There is an ever growing array of tools to help
manage individuality in organisations.
It starts with hiring ensuring you see a diverse
set of candidates and an interview process
that is inclusive of diverse and properly trained
interviewers. Also, understand any individual
hire's needs and circumstances and create
a more customised work environment. This
is hard to do as an organisation scales, but
extremely important in getting the best out
of individuals and teams.
47 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The opportunity for inclusive design
In the tech industry, designers and developers often imagine one, single "target"
user. The "target" user may well be somebody from the majority population, who
is then represented in design choices, onboarding and marketing.
In practice, no two users are exactly alike. Physical and cognitive disabilities,
as well as environmental factors or barriers, can result in people encountering
design barriers that prevent them from fully engaging with technology:
hardware, software, and beyond.
As we've discussed in previous sections, there are many reasons why
accessibility should matter to you and to your work. These include:

The business benefit of reaching
broader and marginalised
audiences. In the UK, Government
prevalence data shows around 15-
20% of the population identifying
as disabled13. And when looking
more broadly at the people who
encounter impairment related
barriers with day to day tasks
regardless of how they identify,
the figure is as much as 57% of
the working adult population.

The creative benefit of thinking
about different kind of problems
- many technologies that we rely
on today, from the keyboard to the
touchscreen to vibrating ringtones
came from thinking about disability.

A means of making your products
better for everyone, as what's an
impassable barrier for one group
is often also an annoyance for
everyone else. If you solve for
a permanent physical disability
(e.g. one arm) you also solve for
temporary disability (eg. broken
arm), situational disability (e.g.
driving, holding a beer) and simple
difference in preferences too.

Legal compliance: many industries
have explicit accessibility
requirements under both domestic
and international law.
Don't exclude people with disabilities from advancing and meaningfully making
use of your product or service; think in terms of how to reach as wide an
audience as possible rather than how to design for an average. Remember that
representation does not mean adding a token solo shot of a technology user
with disability but truly aiming for broader inclusion in society.
Creating inclusive products and services
What does it mean to create an inclusive product or service? It means designing
a product/service that is representative of your consumer base. In this section,
we offer advice on understanding the need and opportunity for inclusive design,
as well as tips for improving the inclusivity of your product or service across a
range of design considerations.
13 HM Government, 16 January 2014, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-facts-and-figures/disability-facts-and-figures (online)
INTRODUCTION
48 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Building and implementing
For more online tools and resources see Part Five: Tools and Resources
General principles of accessible and inclusive design
Basic accessibility can often require relatively minimal development impact.
Indeed, accessibility features may already be a built-in feature of the software,
tech and tools you already use.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (2.0) provide a helpful framework to
analyse accessible design in a methodical way, based around four key principles:14
Can users perceive the content?
This helps us keep in mind that just
because something is perceivable
with one sense, such as sight, that
doesn't mean that all users can
perceive it.
Can users understand the content?
Can users understand the interface
and is it consistent enough to avoid
confusion?
Can users use UI components and
navigate the content? For example,
something that requires a hover
interaction cannot be operated by
someone who can't use a mouse or
touch screen.
Can the content be consumed
by a wide variety of user agents
(browsers)? Does it work with
assistive technology?
Perceivable
Understandable
Operable
Robust
14 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, 11th December 2008, https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ (online)
Henry Davis
COO and President at Glossier.
Diversity and inclusion isn't just
good for business. It's necessary.
49 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Design considerations, for a range of situations
Disability
Disability is a mismatched interaction, a difference between the capabilities of
the user and the requirements of what they're interacting with. When someone's
physical ability encounters some kind of barrier, making it difficult to perform a
day-to-day task.
These barriers are usually designed, put there by another person. By being
aware of what kind of barriers people can face we can remove or avoid them,
preventing disabling situations from occurring and avoiding unintentional
exclusion. It's that process that is known as accessibility.
Accessibility
Accessibility can seem like a daunting prospect as there is such a wide variance
of disabilities. But those conditions aren't what matters, you do not need to
design for each individual condition. What matters is barriers, and barriers are
shared. So, for example the barrier of small fiddly interface elements. Avoid that
barrier and you've solved for not only people with completely medically unrelated
motor conditions from Parkinson's to Dyspraxia, you've also solved for a wide
range of vision related conditions too.
There are some considerations that take time and money. There are others
that are cheap and easy, sometimes even free, just a simple design decision.
The earlier you address accessibility in the process the cheaper and easier it
becomes. Retrofitting accessibility can be difficult, expensive, and limited. For
example, trying to change all of your small text to a reasonable size once you've
design a product is no fun at all. Deciding at the outset that you aren't going to
use small text is free.
50 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Building and implementing
14 Top 10 most spoken languages, Ethnologue, 2018, https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size (online)
15 NHS, "Dyslexia" https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/ (online)
While it may seem tempting in early stages of design and ideation to think
that it would be wasted effort, that it would be better to wait until you have
something more concrete, this is a mistake. Early design decisions can save you
considerable time and effort later on, and often do carry through even if you're
planning on scrapping your current prototypes. They can also influence the
direction you're heading in, and provide you with new angles that you might not
otherwise have considered.
There are three key tools to help you, all of which are better carried out as early
as possible. Each has its own pros and cons, but if you're able to make use of
even one of them your products will provide a much better experience; if you can
make use of more than one you stand the best possible chance of them being as
useful or enjoyable as possible for as many people as possible.
Most industries have freely available resources on the kind of barriers that
exist for that sector and the kind of solutions available to bypass them.
Sometimes guidelines may be in the form of legal requirements, such as CVAA's
requirements on communication and broadcast video technologies for use
in the US market, WCAG2.0 requirements for UK public sector websites and
software, or the upcoming European Accessibility Act's requirements across
several digital areas.
There are many companies who can help you recruit participants with
disabilities for to take part in user research and focus groups. This even can
be done before any design and development takes place, through formative
research on competitors' products.

Seek advice to help interpret and prioritise and bring experience of solving
similar issues in your field.
But even just spending a couple of hours looking at your early ideas and thinking
about what kind of unnecessary barriers they might present relating to vision,
hearing, mobility, cognition (taking in, processing and actioning information) and
speech can go a really long way to improving your product or service.
1. Follow existing best practice guidelines
2. Testing directly with the audience
3. Expert advice
51 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Top 10 most-spoken languages
1
English
1.121 billion
2
Mandarin Chinese
1.107 billion
3
Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu)
697.4 million
4
Spanish
512.9 million
5
Arabic
422 million
6
French
284.9 million
7
Malay
281 million
8
Russian
264.3 million
9
Bengali
261.8 million
10
Portuguese
236.5 million
Language (international,
reading ability)
English is the most dominant language
on the web, but on a global level, it's
not that widely spoken or understood.
According to Ethnologue (2018) the top
10 most-spoken languages are:14
It's also worth noting that reading and writing abilities may vary too. In the UK, it
is estimated that 1 in 10 people has some degree of dyslexia15. The chart below
shows the percentage of adults between 16 and 65 who have literacy difficulties.
16 Colourblindness, http://www.colourblindawareness.org/
Average
16,4
Austria
15,6
Czech Republic
11,9
Denmark
15,8
Estonia
13,1
Finland
10,6
France
21,7
Germany
17,8
Ireland
17,5
Italy
27,9
Netherlands
11,9
Norway
12,5
Poland
18,8
Slovak Republic
11,7
Spain
27,7
Sweden
13,3
Flanders (Belgium)
14,8
England and N.I.
16,6
Percentage of adults between 16 and 65 years with literacy difficulties
52 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Strategies to consider

Use simple, basic language and
avoid jargon.

Translate to languages your users
are most comfortable with for
reading. Make sure you also use
fonts that support the character set
of foreign languages and text flow in
your interface. For example, Arabic
takes more vertical space and is
rendered right to left.

Keep sentences short and provide
graphical cues to guide low-literate
users and people with cognitive
disabilities.

Minimise the need to type or text
search. Whenever possible, allow
voice input, autocomplete text
fields, and present browseable
interfaces.
Colour blindness
Colour is usually a pretty
straightforward ordeal. You take a
look at a colour and without really
having to actively think about it you
know what colour it is. You know
the name and where in the colour
spectrum it resides.
For the colourblind, it isn't so simple.
Naming colours and telling the
difference between two or more
colours can be difficult. 4.2% of the
population - some 300 million people
worldwide - are colourblind (affecting
1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women).16

Strategies to consider
Apply a simple texture
Increasing contrast
Use a colourblind simulator
For tools and resources, see section six.
The guide
Building and implementing
Language (international, reading ability) continued
Dr Uma Valeti
CEO and Co-founder, Memphis Meats

The earlier you start build a diverse and inclusive team, the simpler it is
to recruit talent who share these values and amplify your culture of high
performance, diversity and inclusion.
53 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
COLLECT FEEDBACK, ADAPT AND GROW STRONGER
Track metrics on all of the action
plans you employ as part of your
D&I strategy (for example, sourcing,
hiring, and the composition of the
current workforce). However, metrics
alone only paint part of the picture17.
To measure the full impact of your
D&I strategy, seek feedback on
strategies from all employment levels
in the organisation (from the C-team
to junior hires) using some of the
recommended methods suggested
in previous sections of the guide (i.e.
employee surveys, one-to-one and
group meetings). For areas needing
development, adapt strategies
accordingly to meet those concerns
and to strengthen the strategy.
Ultimately, an effective D&I strategy
will foster a diverse representation
of employees who interact with one
another. In other words - one step
closer to equality.
17 Yamkovenko, B and Tavares, S. To Understand Whether Your Company is Inclusive,
Map How Your Employees Interact. HBR: online, JUly 19, 2017. Accessed on Oct. 01, 2018.
PART FOUR
Case studies
In this section we share a few stories of
founders from companies around the
world, working in companies big and small,
to understand how they have implemented
D&I strategies within their workplace.
With thanks to
Oli May
CCO and Co-Founder at Streetbees
Pip Jamieson
CEO and Founder at The Dots
Dr Uma Valeti
CEO and Co-Founder at Memphis Meats
Sharmadean Reid
CEO and Co-founder at beautystack
Naren Shaam
CEO and Founder at GoEuro
Jacob de Geer
CEO and Co-Founder at iZettle
Roberta Lucca
Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist
at Bossa Studios
Henrique Olifiers
Co-Founder and Gamer-in-Chief
at Bossa Studios
Tom Blomfield
CEO and Co-Founder at Monzo
54 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
55 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Streetbees
What drives a D&I strategy in a tech
company?
The values of the founders (and the
company that they want to build)
are really what drives a diversity and
inclusion strategy. Values give the
strategy purpose and define specific
actions within it. For example, Tugce
and I, the two founders of Streetbees,
are from Turkey and Australia. This
internationality has driven a large part
of our talent and recruitment strategy
- unconsciously at the start - but it now
acts as an important role in how we hire
diversely. Our policy has always been
based on hiring based on talent, rather
than focusing on background. As a
result, the business that we have built
has been inherently international and
diverse from day one.
What do you look for in a new hire?
When you are looking at hiring
somebody you need to make an
assessment: is this somebody who you
can see yourself working with for the
long term as opposed to somebody
who's coming in to fill a short-term
stop-gap? This isn't about culture fit, it's
about values.
A value fit signifies whether that
individual is someone you can work
with for the long term. Values bind
people together in a company; values
help a group work through difficult
situations and every startup
has those!
Recruiting
We focus on trying to recruit in-house;
but there are some roles for which we
use recruiters. We speak to recruiters
directly to ensure they're sending us
a diverse range of candidates. If we
don't, I've found that some recruiters
will have a specific genre of candidate
they think you'll like in other words, a
homogenous set.
A classic mistake that almost every
company makes is quickly hiring
employees without paying attention to
detail in the hiring process. We've really
focused on trying to rectify those issues.
Hiring the right people solves all of your
problems: hiring the wrong people can
lead you into so many disasters.
We've now set a much higher bar. This
means longer recruitment times but
we're comfortable with our choice. We
see the leverage that the right talent
provides when we deliver successful
people into the business.
Workspace
We've always had an open plan office
layout. However, as a tech company,
we are conscious that the tech team
likes to brainstorm and work in quiet
areas. As a solution, we are building
a quiet library space for them right
next to an open-plan office space that
features a variety of desking options, to
accommodate our other teams such as
sales and operations.
Oli May
Co-founder
and CCO

FOUNDED: 2015
EMPLOYEES: 89
LOCATION: LONDON, UK
FUNDING (TO DATE): $17M
WOMEN: 50%
BAME: 30%
LGBTQ+: 10%
WWW.STREETBEES.COM
56 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Case studies
The Dots
D&I in the tech industry
I feel like there is a change coming: the
industry has awoken to the value of
diversity in all its guises.
About three years ago I was speaking
at a tech conference and noticed
that roughly 90% of the attendees
were men. Fast forward to this year,
when I spoke at Founders Forum
accelerateHER, and about 40 percent
of the audience was male and mostly
looking for female deal flow.
In terms of gender diversity, we're
definitely not at parity but it's great to
see that the industry is starting to move
in the right direction.
Value Fit vs. Culture Fit
So often I hear many of my fellow
founders saying, "We've got to hire for
culture fit". And I become worried about
that: hiring for culture fit tends to mean
hiring someone you think you'll get on
with someone you would potentially go
to the pub with. This attitude tends to
lead to very non-diverse teams because
you're hiring people like you and if
we're all the same how can we think
differently? What's more important is
hiring talent people who share your
company's values.
As a founder, one of my jobs is to
maintain the company's values. For
every candidate we interview, we
screen for a 'values fit' in the first round
before progressing to the next stage.
I've found that any bad hiring mistake
I've made in the past was due to a values
misfit. As such, we screen for values
fit even before getting any further
into, say, tech tests. If the candidate
isn't passionate about diversity, it just
doesn't work out.
Towards Socioeconomic diversity
At The Dots, we help companies and
we reach over ten thousand now - hire
no collar talent (creators, freelancers
& entrepreneurs) from diverse
socioeconomic backgrounds. We
removed the ability to search for talent
by university: our talent is judged on
what they create, not based on what
university they went to.
When people search our platform, they
can choose to search in bias blocker
mode; you can't see profile pictures,
names, educational background or
anything that could bias your decision in
that hiring process.
Onboarding
For every new hire that joins the team,
they do an induction with me personally.
Part of that induction is intrinsically
linked to diversity: I introduce them to
the different layers of diversity at The
Dots to ensure they understand the
issue is more than just a discussion
about gender balance it's about
Pip Jamieson
Founder
and CEO
FOUNDED: 2014
EMPLOYEES: 20-30
LOCATION: LONDON, UK
FUNDING (TO DATE): $6M
WOMEN: 62%
BAME: 34%
LGBTQ+: 16%
NATIONALITIES: 11


THE-DOTS.COM
57 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
ethnicity, sexuality, neurodiversity,
socio economic diversity in essence
building team that reflect society
so we remove biases in product
innovation.
On neurodiversity, dyslexia and
leadership models
We need to broaden the discussion
on neurodiversity in the tech industry,
those with dyslexia, autism, attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
etc. For example, thirty five percent
of entrepreneurs are dyslexic, as are
many self-made millionaires. Albert
Einstein and Steve Jobs were dyslexic,
as is Holly Tucker (founder of 'Not
On the High Street'), Jo Malone and
Richard Branson to name but a few!
Many of the traits that make us
dyslexic also make us formidable
entrepreneurs: we have high levels of
perseverance, we're very creative and
we high levels of empathy meaning
that we make good leaders.
I'm very vocal about my dyslexia in
order educate audiences, so that
they don't view dyslexia as a disability
and to empower anyone else who
is dyslexic in the room. Dyslexia is a
superpower if you manage it in the
right way!
The conversation about
neurodiversity is starting to develop.
What has enabled people across
the tech industry to become more
open about their neurodiversities,
comes from the top. I think leaders
really need to be more open about
neurodiversities so that the mid-levels
and juniors coming through can also
feel empowered and bring their whole
selves to work.
You get the best out of people if they
can bring their whole selves to work.
If someone is struggling in silence
because they find for example their
open plan office distracting because
of their autism, they're not going to be
happy or productive.
Diverse Talent takeovers
To celebrate and highlight different
types of diversity, we do huge Diversity
Takeovers at The Dots. For example, for
Black History Month, we only featured
black talent and projects created by
black talent on the The Dots platform.
We did the same for International
Women's Day, only featuring women and
projects by women for a full month, as
well as a full LGBT Takeover for Pride.
Last month we featured Social Purpose,
which highlighted people creating
business with social hearts. Next up?
A Socioeconomic Takeover!
Our core values
The first core value is positivity. That's
not positivity for positivity sake. I want
my team to challenge me and I want
them to challenge each other. It's
about having a team that's focused on
solutions and not problems. This is so
important in scaling a business.
Diversity is another of one of our core
values. It's vital to our business and has
been embedded from the beginning.
Diverse teams are better for business,
and better for creativity. We put
diversity at the heart of our values.
We have a diverse team to reflect
this ethos, a team that also respects
diversity and is passionate about the
issue. The Dots is very much a business
that is built on the principle of being
an example of ethical tech and not on
the typical 'move fast and break things'
principle. I want a team around me that
totally shares in that vision. We are
definitely stronger together than we are
apart: the whole company is actually
built around the power of teams and
how teams form an intrinsic part of the
creative process. This is actually our
last core value collaboration.
Collaboration makes us stronger, it
gives us drive. This is a team that's
driven to succeed. This doesn't mean
working all hours, but it means happy
teams made of people that want to
drive for success.
FOUNDED: 2015
EMPLOYEES: 32
LOCATION:
SAN FRANCISCO, USA
FUNDING (TO DATE): $22+M
WOMEN: 53%
NATIONALITIES: 10
WWW.MEMPHISMEATS.COM
Memphis Meats
A business built on diversity
and inclusion
A founding principle of the company is
to have a 'big tent', a company where
we have talented people coming
from various parts of the world, from
various cultural backgrounds and of
various genders. Diversity of talent
brings diversity of thought. This
diversity is evident in all areas of the
culture company, from investors to
partners and advisers to our team.
Ownership and feedback
One of the things that we talk about
a lot in the company is having an
ownership mindset. I want each
team member to know they are an
owner, think as an owner and act
as an owner of Memphis Meats. If a
team member sees an area that can
be improved, I want them to share
that view right away. In order to have
those kinds of conversations, though,
one needs to feel comfortable to
speak candidly. We work hard to
make sure that Memphis Meats
fosters such an environment. We
have weekly group meetings such
as our All Hands meetings which
may take many formats incl an
informal team lunch or small group
informal fireside chats with the CEO.
Whatever the format may be, we
get together on a weekly basis. This
builds a sense of community for the
team and fosters communication.
As a team, we talk about feedback
as a gift. That's a phrase that
everybody in the company knows.
We collectively acknowledge that
not everybody will know how to give
feedback at some point or another.
In this instance, the conversation
becomes about encouragement:
everyone is encouraged to approach
the concept of feedback with the
mindset of candor and compassion.
When we remind each other of that
mindset, it really helps to build safe
channels of communication, and our
sense of community as a team.
We also make sure that feedback
is a two way street. We make sure
that managers are also sharing their
experiences, and feeding back to
their teams.
Team Activities and the Pep Squad
Recently, we conducted a broad
survey across the whole company -
about 65 questions in total. Instead of
doing the survey independently, we
agreed: Let's all do this together!
The survey became a team activity.
We settled in the company's kitchen
(located in the centre of our office
space), sat down, shared food and
Dr Uma Valeti
Co-Founder
and CEO
The guide
Case studies
58 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
59 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
completed the survey in fellowship.
We gathered feedback, then
and there, and held a discussion
regarding our achievements and the
areas we wanted to develop. One
outcome of that discussion was the
Pep Squad, a people engagement
program. This exercise was
incredibly helpful for our team of
30-plus people. They each got a fair
say in the company, and our newly-
formed Pep Squad is now charged
with working on preserving the
strengths we have and improving on
the areas for development.
Communication
One area of particular development
for us is maintaining clear
communication. It's one of the
easiest things to do; and one of the
easiest to forget! As a startups,
we're all growing fast and tackling
technically-challenging hurdles.
Feedback and clear communication
helps us achieve our objectives.
Leadership
How do you build an effective D&I
programme? It's a complex subject.
But what has become clear is that
if you build a D&I programme just
for the sake of building one, it won't
be effective.
A D&I program needs to begin with
the startup or company's leaders.
They need to ask, how are we really
going to benefit from adding diversity
to this organisation? For me, it was
important from the moment I founded
Memphis Meats.
But diversity doesn't mean you have to
compromise. I still want to work with
the brightest, most-skilled people for
the job. It's about leading by example,
building a high-achieving culture and
letting people perform to the best of
their abilities.
Vision
Memphis Meats is a visionary
company. As a team, we need the best
talent to bring that vision to life and
we make sure that everybody on the
team feels part of that vision. To do
pioneering work, the following three
aspects are most important to the
Memphis Meats paradigm: people,
process and product. We know that
our people are the most important
factor in that paradigm. Our people
determine the processes, our people
determine the product. Because we
are pioneering new technologies, we
do not compromise on performance.
Our people are always going to be
performing at a very high level and
being a diverse and inclusive team
allows us to do so.
59
The guide
Case studies
GoEuro
Be Diverse. Be Global.
Diversity is, and has always been, at the
core of what we do at GoEuro. It's part
of who we are, it features in our values.
As the company's founder, I knew
that building a diverse team would
reflect the diversity of our customer
base. Back when GoEuro had 10
employees, I started making sure we
tracked numbers regarding a range
of diversities such as gender and
nationality. To develop diversity, you
must keep track of progress. Metrics
help you keep an eye on how diversity
and inclusion fluctuate and areas that
need developing.
To me, it's a no brainer: every
company needs to have a positive
attitude to diversity and inclusion,
and to act upon that attitude as early
as possible. To be a global company
providing solutions to a global
customer base, you need to reflect
that variety in your organisation.
Start early with diversity
Start early: This is the best way
to create a diverse work base and
inclusive environment. The first ten
hires are crucial. And, although it is
easier to start early, it's never too
late to begin a D&I strategy in your
organisation. If leaders are vocal
in their support of D&I, it becomes
easier for managers to enact D&I
policies throughout the organisation.
Change is coming to the industry.
Young people want to work for
organisations that they can relate to,
organisations which serve a purpose.
Build diverse interview panels
To mitigate bias in hiring, and to
share how important diversity is to
company culture, we always structure
diverse hiring panels. If you interview
candidates with a diverse hiring panel
consisting of multiple nationalities
and genders, you send the candidate
a strong message: we value diversity
at our company, and this is what our
work environment looks like.
Naren Shaam
Founder
and CEO
FOUNDED: 2013
EMPLOYEES: 300
LOCATION: BERLIN,
GERMANY
FUNDING (TO DATE): $296M
WOMEN: 39%
NATIONALITIES: 45


WWW.GOEURO.CO.UK
60 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
61 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
WP.BEAUTYSTACK.COM
Toolkit
Case studies
beautystack
kickstarting diversity from day one
Beautystack began as an idea to
democratise the beauty industry,
with a diverse team of co-founders.
Diversity is in our DNA! As we scale,
we'll put these views into a company
policy but for now, we let our actions
do the talking.
Our values, our foundation
Our core values at beautystack
include innovation and being a user-
first platform. We are redefining
salon software with our image-based
social network and booking system,
and we're always re-evaluating and
improving.
Our users are at the core of everything
we do, and we've hired a diverse team
to reflect our growing customer base.
We're bringing user-insights into
the market, and social media (e.g.
WhatApp and Instagram) helps us get
that valuable customer feedback. At
beautystack, we value these different
mindsets.
Building a strong team
We work hard to make sure our teams
are happy and working efficiently.
Each new hire does a personality test
to determine how they work best, and
we do check-ins every 6 months. Each
staff member will also present their
'Guide to Working with me' to the rest
of the team, and we'll use this session
to discuss how best to work together.
My top tip for making a new hire feel
welcome? A meal with the whole team!
As part of our onboarding process, we
treat a new hire to breakfast or lunch
during their first week. This is a great
opportunity to introduce ourselves
and get to know the new team member
outside of the office.
Speak up and lead
I founded FutureGirlCorp, a series of
free monthly events for the female
business leaders of tomorrow. A huge
part of my mission revolves around
the economic empowerment of
women - providing them with industry
knowledge and showing them that
their ideas have global potential.
If you feel passionately about
something, act on it!
Sharmadean
Reid MBE
Co-founder
and CEO
FOUNDED: 2018
EMPLOYEES: 10
LOCATION: LONDON, UK
FUNDING (TO DATE):
UNDISCLOSED
WOMEN: 60%
BAME: 50%
NATIONALITIES: 5
61
The guide
Case studies
iZettle
Core Values = Team Values
Our core values weren't solely
mandated by leadership: all 12 of our
markets helped to define our core
values. These twelve markets cover
Europe, Mexico and Brazil. Why?
We want cohesive core values that
represent our company, no matter
where our offices might be.
Keeping an eye on KPIs
If you want to have diverse and
inclusive teams in your global
company, you need to track metrics.
We track KPIs on women and
nationalities. Diversity within your
team has long term dividends and you
need to track progress diversity is a
journey, not a side agenda.
Mitigating bias
Bias affects us all. We address bias
by including a Diversity and Inclusion
Module (which touches on bias) in our
e-learning modules for all employees.
Every employee needs to be aware of
these issues, this topic isn't only for
management to discuss.
D&I outside the office
I am an advocate for D&I in tech. Three
examples of initiatives that I actively
support include:
Stockholm Dual Career Network
(SDCN): SCDN helps expats' spouses/
partners integrate into Swedish
society: providing support to settle
in, look for work in Sweden, discover
Swedish culture, and broaden social
and professional networks.
www.sdcn.se/
Stockholm School of Economics
RAMP program: The RAMP project aims
to increase diversity in Swedish industry
and help newcomers to a fast track into
the Swedish job market. We have hired
interns through this program.
www.hhs.se/en/outreach/sse-
initiatives/ramp/
Tjejer Kodar: Programming
community for women. iZettle has
long been a sponsor of Tjejer Kodar,
providing programming coaches for
their programming trips and online
courses. Next (physical) bootcamp
taking place March 2019 with around
300 women participating.
www.tjejerkodar.se/
Jacob de Geer
Co-founder
and CEO
FOUNDED: 2010
EMPLOYEES: 650
LOCATION: STOCKHOLM,
SWEDEN
FUNDING (TO DATE):
RECENTLY ACQUIRED
BY PAYPAL.
WOMEN: 17%
NON-BINARY: 13%
NATIONALITIES: 45
WWW.IZETTLE.COM
62 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
63 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Bossa Studios
Roberta Lucca
Co-founder
and Chief
Evangelist
Henrique
Olifiers
Co-founder and
Gamer-in Chief
FOUNDED: 2010
EMPLOYEES: 90
LOCATION: LONDON, UK
FUNDING (TO DATE): $11.4M
WOMEN: 22% (33% C-LEVEL)
BAME: 15%
NATIONALITIES: 46
WWW.BOSSASTUDIOS.COM
Our Company. Our Values.
Our core values include originality,
openness, passion, appreciation,
improvement and nimbleness. In terms
of openness, we mean that we share
with one another (with everyone in
the team) and with our players. We are
open about what we do, why we do it,
how we do it and we are unafraid of
asking others for help. We recruit others
into our work as equals and we work
candidly with our partners. We also
communicate clearly with our players,
making them feel part of Bossa.
Combined, our core values promote
inclusion and value diversity. Bossa
always seeks to ensure that the work
environment for its employees is
supportive, and respect is shown
to each individual. All Bossians,
regardless of their gender, race, ethnic
background, culture, (dis)ability, sexual
orientation, age, religion, socio-
economic status or any other factor
will be supported and encouraged to
perform to their best potential.
Inclusive by design
A great way to reflect our views on
D&I is to build inclusive games. We
made a big statement with one of
our newest games, World's Adrift:
the first character you meet is
female. Normally, you (the gamer)
meets a female character very late
in a game. This decision of ours led
to an interesting question: how do
we portray the female character
in the game's environment? It was
enormously rewarding to develop this
character in depth.
What is the message we send with our
choice? We should all be equal. Games
need to reflect the growing body of
global gamers.
Speaking up for D&I in gaming
We are both active in external education
projects, to promote D&I in gaming.
RL: These activities are very high up on
my agenda. I make sure that I speak at
numerous conferences and university
STEM panels to reach out to women, to
encourage them to get into games and
technology. I have also started a YouTube
channel: Beta Lucca - How to Start a
Business (YouTube). My mission is to
help young women shape their future, to
empower them with practical knowledge
and to motivate them so that they can
become incredible entrepreneurs.
HO: I recently completed a weekly
education initiative (for 6 months),
Aspirations Academies', at Tech City
College (ages?) in which young students
were taught how to build games.
Although there were many nationalities
represented by the kids, only 2 (of 36)
were female. I hope to encourage a
more balanced gender representation
with my education efforts!
63
64 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Monzo
Where did it all start?
Diversity and inclusion has been with
us from the beginning. Ultimately, we
have a culture where we genuinely
care about people. We believe it's
important that people can come to
work and be their whole selves. And
that's been with us from Day 1.
Admittedly, looking at the industry
in general, the finance and tech
industries have traditionally struggled
to promote diversity in particular
roles (such as engineering). Across
the industry, we see these are heavily
male-dominated, and very early on, we
realized we weren't as diverse as we
wanted to be in certain areas.
Nurturing a more diverse and
inclusive workforce
Since we first started, we've
formalised a number of recruitment
initiatives to encourage a more
diverse workforce here at Monzo.
1. We run all of our job adverts through
third party gender decoding tools, to
make sure that that they're neutrally
worded.
2. We've tweaked our job applications
to remove specific labels (such
as years' experience, university,
grades etc.) and focus instead on
competency questions.
3. We also avoid asking too many
personal questions in the
application process (such as age,
ethnicity, gender). Admittedly, the
fact that we don't capture personal
data makes it harder to track how
we're performing but it's been
working for us.
Diversity and Inclusion is not just in
our policies, it's in the way we work
We do not have a separate D&I policy.
Instead we simply have one, single
"People Policy" which sets the tone
for our entire working environment.
And there are specific clauses within
it that relate to equality within the
workplace.
However, the real substance to
our D&I comes from the way we
behave. We all care deeply about
people. Whether those people are
our customers or our colleagues. We
have an excellent team who all shared
that same value in people right from
the start, and who helped to shape a
strong and inclusive workplace here
at Monzo.
A transparent workplace
One key value that of Monzo is
transparency. Internally, we are
completely transparent. Any
employee can take a look at any
Tom Blomfield
Co-founder
and CEO
FOUNDED: 2015
EMPLOYEES: 50-500
LOCATION: LONDON, UK
FUNDING (TO DATE): 180M
WOMEN: 36%
NON-BINARY: 2%
BAME: 16%
DISABLED: 6%
LGBTQ+: 27 %
WWW.MONZO.COM
The guide
Case studies
65 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
meeting agenda. Our meeting minutes
are open too. You can see our board
deck before our board sees it. Our
financials are open too. In short,
everyone is able to see everything.
We try to be transparent as far as we
can externally too. So we talk to our
community about our decision making
processes. And show previews of our
products before we push them live too.
Designing for inclusion
It's also particularly important for us
that we make our product as inclusive
as possible.
From a basic usability point-of-view,
we have specific features for the
visually impaired (such as those who
are colourblind, partially blind or
indeed fully blind). We've embedded
a third-party tool to offer voice-over
interaction to the user, so you can use
the app regardless of the quality of
your sight. And we also make sure to
test it with partially sighted users to
make sure it actually works.
We have also worked hard on our
terms and conditions to make sure
that they as accessible as they can
be. Our current terms are written in a
simple way, and correspondingly have
a relatively low reading age. In fact,
so long as a user is able to read at the
level of an 8 year old, they should be
able to comprehend our terms in full.
One final initiative which we're
preparing for in 2019 is to work on
financial inclusion. In a nutshell, we're
hoping to offer banking services to
those who aren't typically able to
access mainstream finance, say for
those who've gone through bankruptcy,
who've come out of prison, for those
who are homeless, or who might
be refugees. We are working with
the regulators to enable us to open
accounts for those who are otherwise
excluded from mainstream finance.
We have more to do
We still have room to improve, and
I'm acutely aware that some of our
early morning meetings might not be
compatible with parents doing the
school run; and our engineering teams
could be more diverse.
But we're working on it! I am proud to
say we signed the Women in Finance
Charter committing to improving
our gender ratio in our board and
executive committees and we are
constantly reviewing our broader
diversity and inclusion efforts through
an annual survey, which we publish in
our blog. The next one will likely go live
in March 2019 I hope it'll show a good
step forward.
66 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
PART FIVE
There are a whole range of companies which
have tools and products that can help you build
an inclusive company. We've listed some below.
This is a non-exhaustive list.
If you know a great product that we've missed
here, don't hesitate to let us know using our online
feedback form at www.inclusionintech.com.
Tools and
resources
A practical set of tech tools and
resources to use in your companies
67 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Tools and resources
TECHNOLOGY TOOLS FOR PROMOTING DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Hiring
Applied recruitment and assessment
platform recognised for promoting diverse
hiring, by anonymising and structuring the
application process, the Applied platform aims
to minimise the risk of unconscious biases.
www.beapplied.com
Atipica helping to rediscover underrepresented
talent within your candidate pool.
www.atipica.co
Blendoor a mobile job-matching app that
hides application data that is not relevant -
such as age, employment history, even photos
- and highlights what is. www.blendoor.com
Clusjion - a tool which identifies specific
examples and general patterns of exclusionary
behaviour and discrimination in daily operations.
www.clusjion.com
Gapjumpers tool for hosting blind screening
challenges to hire diverse talent.
www.gapjumpers.me
GapSquare - software which calculates your
gender pay gap and provides recommendations
for closing the gap.
www.gapsquare.com
Gender Decoder for Job Ads test your job
adds to see whether they include "gendered"
words, which may discourage some
applicants.
gender-decoder.katmatfield.com
Glassbreakers - diversity and inclusion complete
management system including mentor matching
and data and analytics
www.glassbreakers.co
How do I? online training tool for new staff,
particularly those with disabilities.
Hundred5 reducing hidden biases
by screening applicants based on
job-related skills.
www.hundred5.com
HustleCrew a career advancement
community empowering the
underrepresented in tech.
www.hustlecrew.co
Jopwell connecting companies with
top-tier minority candidates.
www.jopwell.com
Juggle Jobs job marketplace for people who
are returning to work and are seeking flexible
opportunities across HR, sales, finance,
operations.
www.juggle.jobs
Kanjoya uses machine learning to analyse
interview notes, performance reviews, and
employee surveys to spot trends.
www.kanjoya.com
Leave Logic a parental leave management
platform for employers.
www.leavelogic.com
Managing Maternity Leave - best practices for
managing maternity leave for line managers
www.bit.ly/managingmaternity
Mentorloop - a tool to match your people into
effective mentorships
www.mentorloop.com
Panopy - an assessment tool to discover team
strengths and empower to work better together.
www.panopy.co
Planted focused on junior talent, helps match
non-techies with jobs at tech companies
www.planted.com
Pluto - analytics platform for Diversity and
Inclusion including anonymous surveys and
incident reporting
www.pluto.life
Pymetrics applying proven neuroscience
games and bias-free AI to predictively match
people with jobs where they will perform at the
highest levels.
www.pymetrics.com
ROIKOI helps companies find diverse
candidates through employee referrals and
match those recommendations to open jobs.
www.roikoi.com
Textio based on listings from over 10,000
companies, helps removes bias and negative
language and trains individuals how to improve
their job descriptions (goodbye rockstar ninja!).
www.textio.com
68 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
The guide
Tools and resources
Board Hiring
Product design
Accessibility
Language
and literacy
Inclusive Boards. Agency set up specifically
to support organisations in efforts to develop
more diverse boards and stronger governance
structures.
www.inclusiveboards.co.uk
Nurole. Innovative recruitment platform
for board and senior executive roles.
www.nurole.com
Web Accessibility (Udacity program, and
online resources). Developed by Google, these
resources provide a valuable knowledge base
and training program, covering the basics
developing accessible products for the web
developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/
accessibility/
www.udacity.com/course/web-accessibility-
-ud891
Readable.io. Readable.io analyses your
writing to give you a "readability score"
helping you identify text which may be
difficult to understand and highlighting
changes which could make it easier to read.
Packages range from $4-$69 / month
www.readable.io/
Dyslexie Font. The most common reading
errors of dyslexia are swapping, mirroring,
changing, turning and melting letters
together. In the Dyslexie font, every letter is
uniquely shaped, eliminating the common
reading errors of dyslexia.
www.dyslexiefont.com/en/typeface/
Noto Fonts. Google has been developing a
font family called Noto, which aims to support
all languages with a harmonious look and feel.
www.google.com/get/noto/
FontAwesome. A free icon set which look
great and can also help low-literacy users to
interact with your product.
www.fontawesome.com/
How to write in plain English. Widely adopted
free guide from the Plain English Campaign
on how to write clear accessible copy while
maintaining style and meaning.
www.plainenglish.co.uk/files/howto.pdf
Colour Contrast Check. Free tool to evaluate
contrast ratios between foreground and
background.
www.snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/
colour.htm
Dyslexia Style Guide 2018. Creating Dyslexia
Friendly Content. Free resource from the
British Dyslexia Association describing
simple design considerations for clear text
presentation. www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/
employer/dyslexia-style-guide-2018-creating-
dyslexia-friendly-content
Test your document's readability. Overview
of the reading level checking tool available
within Microsoft Word. support.office.
com/en-us/article/test-your-document-
s-readability-85b4969e-e80a-4777-8dd3-
f7fc3c8b3fd2
Think about your micro-copy. A few tips to
help you write accessible microcopy: the text
that guides you through a website or app.
www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/writing-
accessible-microcopy/
69 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Audio
impaired
Dexterity
& mobility
Add your own subtitles and captions.
Simple guide to using YouTube's subtitling
functionality
support.google.com/youtube/
answer/2734796?hl=en-GB
Channel 4 subtitling guidelines for foreign
language programmes. Publicly available
guidelines on structure and presentation
of foreign language subtitles, including
information on size and layout
www.channel4.com/media/documents/
corporate/foi-docs/SG_FLP.pdf
BBC subtitle guidelines. Free resource
concentrating mainly on content of subtitles,
and how to communicate different types of
audio through text
bbc.github.io/subtitle-guidelines/
Inclusive Design Toolkit. General mobility
& dexterity accessibility tips, including
products, built environment, and transport
www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/
UCmobility/mobility.html#general_design_
considerations
Accessible Unboxing of the Xbox Adaptive
Controller. Overview of the the wide range
of accessibility considerations in the
packaging design for an accessible Xbox
controller news.xbox.com/en-us/2018/07/25/
accessible-unboxing-of-the-xbox-adaptive-
controller/
Improving accessibility for motor impaired
users. Overview of some key dexterity related
accessibility considerations to keep in mind
when designing and developing websites
www.webcredible.com/blog/improving-
accessibility-motor-impaired-users/
Colour
blindness
Considering colour blindness in UX design
(with five examples). A collection of examples
of barriers in interaction design and examples
of how to fix them www.econsultancy.com/
considering-colour-blindness-in-ux-design-
with-five-examples/
Textures.js. Textures.js is a free JavaScript
library for creating SVG patterns, designed to
improve the readability of data visualization.
Free riccardoscalco.it/textures/
Stark. Stark is a free colour-blind simulator
and contrast checker plugin for Sketch -
www.getstark.co/
Colour Oracle Colour Oracle. Free colour
blindness simulator - applying a full screen
colour filter to art you are designing,
independently of the software in use-
www.colororacle.org/
70 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Further initiatives
Type of
Initiative
Short description
URL
AllBright
Angel group
Angel group and co-working club focussed on female founders
https://www.allbrightcollective.com/
Angel Academe
Angel group
Angel group focused on female founders & angels
http://www.angelacademe.com/
Astia Angels
Angel group
Angel group focused on female founders & angels
http://astia.org/astia-angels/
Rare Seed Capital
Angel group
Angel group focused o n BAME invetsors
https://www.rareseedcapital.com/
23 Code Street
Coding school
Teaching women in the UK and India
http://www.23codestreet.com/
One Tech
Collective /
network
Focussing on promoting entreprenrship to BAME / female
entrepreneurs
http://capitalenterprise.org/one-
tech/
Hustle Crew
Community
Community for entrepreneurial women of colour
http://www.hustlecrew.co/
People of Color in Tech
Community
Community for entrepreneurial people of colour
https://peopleofcolorintech.com/
Techish
Community
Podcast / community showcasing diverse tech rolemodels
http://www.techishpod.com/
YSYS
Community
Community group of diverse entrepreneurs
https://www.thisisysys.com/
Accelerate Her
Company
Born out of Founders Forum, consulting fast growth tech
companies
https://accelerateher.co/#/
Inclusive Boards
Company
Helping recruit more ethnically diverse boards
http://www.inclusiveboards.co.uk/
Success Talks
Event series
Platform and event series showcasing diverse speakers
http://www.success-talks.co.uk/
Jane VC
Fund
Fund focused on female founders
https://www.janevc.com/
Merian Ventures
Fund
Fund focused on female founders
https://www.merianventures.com/
Voulez Capital
Fund
Fund focused on female founders
https://www.voulez-capital.com/
Backst age Capital
Fund /
Accelerator
Accelerator in the UK focussed on LGBT, people of colour and
female founders
https://backstagecapital.com/
Divinc
Incubator
Young Enterprise focused on inner city schools
http://wearedivinc.com/
Muslamic Makers
Meet-up group
Meet-up group for Muslims in Tech
https://muslamicmakers.com/
50/50 Pledge
Network
A pledge for events and conferences to be 50:50 represented
http://www.5050ple dge.com/
FemStreet
Newsletter
Start-ups / VC
https://www.femstreet.com/
30% Club
Non-pro t
Dedicated to increasing women on boards
https://30percentclub.org/
Code First: Girls
Non-pro t
Non-pro t teaching women how to code and helping them get work
in tech companies
https://www.code rstgirls.org.uk/
Color in Tech
Non-pro t
Non-pro t promoting a fairer tech industry
https://www.colorintech.org/
DevelopHer
Non-pro t
Non-pro t social enterprise promoting women in technology
https://developher.org/
Dot Everyone
Non-pro t
Focused on tech companies
https://doteveryone.org.uk/
Level 20
Non-pro t
Focused mainly on women in the Private Equity and LP community
https://www.level20.org/
Fearless Futures
Training group
Training focussed on Social Justice
http://www.fearlessfutures.org/
Source:
Note: This list is illustrative and not exhaustive. If you would like to add your initiatives to this list, please contact us at research@atomico.com and we will update the list.
In the UK alone, Diversity VC has identified 28 separate initiatives that
are all tackling diversity and inclusion in various different ways.
The guide
Tools and resources
71 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
METHODOLOGY
GLOSSARY
This guide, led by Dr. Victoria Bernath (Editor-in-Chief at Diversity VC), was put
together by a group of entrepreneurs and VCs based on in-depth interviews
with twenty founders of companies large and small, Diversity and Inclusion
practitioners, HR experts and pre-existing applied research. Much of the research
for this guide is publicly available in open source papers or journals. It has also
been overseen by several specialist contributors, listed overleaf.
This guide will be a living document, hosted online at www.inclusionintech.com.
If you have any suggestions, additions or corrections, please contact us via
our website.
We recognise that many of the words used in this document are understood
differently and by different groups of individuals. For clarity, here we define the
way in which we use some of the key terms featured in this guide.
Bias: inclination or prejudice for or
against one person or group, especially
in a way considered to be unfair.4
Benchmark: measuring the quality
of something by comparing it to an
accepted standard.
Cognitive biases: mental shortcuts,
or systematic patterns of deviation
from norm or rationality in judgment.
Also called "heuristics", made popular
in Daniel Kahneman's book 'Thinking
Fast and Slow'.5
Diversity: the range of human
differences within a group of people.6
Functional roles: positions in teams
based on functional skill that can be
tested to ensure group compatibility.
Groupthink: the process in which
poor decisions are made by a group
(usually a group featuring common
demographic characteristics)
because its members do not want to
express opinions, suggest new ideas,
etc. that others may disagree with.7
Inclusion: inclusion is the act of
making someone feel part of a group.
Proactive: creating a situation,
not reacting to a situation
(antonym: reactive).
Psychological roles: positions in
teams based on personality types that
can be tested with the Belbin or Myers
Briggs assessment to ensure group
compatibility.
Social justice: fair behaviour or
treatment for all members of society
concerning the dissemination of
wealth, privilege and opportunity.
Stakeholder: any individual who has
an interest in your company.
4 Oxford Dictionaries (n.d.). "bias". [online]
5 Kahneman, D. (2015). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Note that the book is based on the original research
paper of Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124-1131.
6 Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.). "diversity". [online]
7 Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.). "groupthink". [online]
72 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Summary
Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
CONTRIBUTORS
DIVERSITY VC EDITORIAL TEAM
Dr Victoria Bernath
Editor-in-chief (Practical Guide
research lead), Diversity VC
Angela Dhir
Project Lead, One Tech for Diversity VC
Esther Delignat-Lavaud Rodriguez
Analyst, Oxford Capital
Kate Glazebrook
Co-founder and CEO, Applied
Jessica Greenhalgh
Portfolio Community & Content
Manager, HG Capital
Jenny Gyllander
Backed VC
Lillian Li
Co-founder Diversity VC and Investor,
Eight Roads Ventures
Check Warner
Co-founder and CEO Diversity VC
Travis Winstanley
Co-founder, Diversity VC and Games
Investment Director, Catalis SE
ATOMICO TEAM
Sophia Bendz
Partner
Caroline Chayot
Partner
Will Dufton
Associate
Dan Hynes
Partner
Bryce Keane
Head of Communications
Eleanor Warnock
Communications Manager
Tom Wehmeier
Partner and Head of Research
Niklas Zennstrm
Founding Partner & CEO
DIVERSITY VC TEAM
Farooq Abbasi
Principal, Costanoa Ventures
Shriya Anand
Associate Consultant, Bain & Company
Juliet Bailin
Associate Partner, Mosaic Ventures
Seb Butt
Business Development, Craft.co and
Client Partner, Engage Infotech
Ben Goldsmith
Founder and Director, Goldsmith
Communications
Tillie Hands
Consultant, La Fosse Associates
Anna Huyghues Despointes
Head of Strategy, OWKIN
Sarah Millar
Associate, Citylight Capital
Jen McCloy
Founder, Jennifer Kate Australia
Olivia Neale
Senior Project Associate at Novo
Nordisk
Sarah Nckel
Chief at Femstreet, Venture Fellow at
Backed VC
Andrew Richardson
Head of Growth, La Fosse Associates
Michael Tefula
Investor, Downing Ventures
Lola Wajskop
Associate, Hummingbird Ventures
ADVISERS
Suranga Chandratillake
Partner, Balderton Capital
Kathryn Mayne
Managing Director, Horsley Bridge
International
Harry Briggs
Investor
Ryan Naftulin
Partner, Cooley LLP
Aaron Archer
Senior Associate, Cooley LLP
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR
CONTRIBUTORS
Pip Jamieson
Co-founder and CEO, The Dots
John Down
Co-founder, Series Q
Steve O'Hear
TechCrunch
Oliver May
Co-founder and CCO, Streetbees
Dr Uma Valeti
Co-founder and CEO, Memphis Meats
Devika Wood
Co-founder and CCO, Vida
Millie Zah
Head of Programs, colorintech
Sharmadean Reid MBE
Co-founder and CEO, Beautystack
James Field
Co-founder and CEO, Lab Genius
Reshma Sohoni
Partner, Seedcamp
Henry Davies
President, Glossier
Abadesi Osunsade
Founder, Hustle Crew
Jacob de Geer
Co-founder and CEO, iZettle
Tom Turula and Johan Bendz
iZettle
Alice Bentinck
Co-founder, Entrepreneur First
and Co-founder, Code First: Girls
Christie Pitts
Partner and Chief of Staff,
Backstage Capital
Sara Shahvisi
Director of Programmes,
Fearless Futures
Tom Blomfield
Co-founder and CEO, Monzo
Mike Jackson and Sinead Daly
TechNation
Abigail Rappoport
Co-founder and CEO, Emoquo
Julia Elliott Brown
Founder and CEO, Enter the Arena
Ian Hamilton
Consultant and Game Accessibility
Specialist
Baroness Martha Lane Fox
Founder and Chair, Doteveryone
Roberta Lucca
Co-founder and Chief Evangelist,
Bossa Studios
Henrique Olifiers
Co-founder and Gamer-in Chief, Bossa
Studios
DESIGN TEAM
Joe Lovelock
Studio Lovelock
Tom Gaul
Studio Lovelock
Ben Jakob
Studio Lovelock
Ant Jumratsilpa
Studio Lovelock
Diversity VC is supported by Cooley
LLP, voted #1 Law Firm on Fortune
Consulting and Professional
Services List.
73 | Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
www.inclusionintech.com