The number of women in technology has been relatively steady over the past decade. However, it will take until 2060 for gender participation in tech to reach 50-50. My question is: What does inclusion mean? Does inclusion mean everyone? Does it mean to have the exact same percentage of people of a different gender, ethnicity or race at every industry, segment and role within an organization?
Inclusion should not be about percentages, ticking boxes or filling quotas. Inclusion means to provide equitable opportunities for everyone. That is the mindset we should adopt; we need to reward talent and find the right skill sets for the job, not just the statistics behind the candidate.
Equality, diversity and inclusion are multidimensional and include many aspects in addition to race and gender, such as location, culture and values.
Today, I want to talk about travel tech and the imperious need we have to demystify this sector. We are building a society based on technology and still there are lots of people without a full understanding of tech careers, what they involve and what skills are needed.
My family, for instance, struggles to explain what it is that I do for a living. Perhaps they come from a previous generation that has yet to understand what tech jobs involve and how many different types of roles fall under the tech banner, including non-technical support roles.
Educating people about what tech roles could encourage more people to expand their skill set and make the jump to a tech-related role, which ultimately will attract people from different backgrounds and increase the pool of candidates. Questions like “I don’t know how to code” or “I am not an engineer” won’t be as relevant as we may think they are.
As industry leaders, we need to be mindful of not only bias but what potential misconceptions the travel tech industry intrinsically has. Some people may not have tech in mind because they feel that they don’t have the right skill set.
Using a mix of interview styles, focusing on soft skills, ability, temperament or personality, rather than rigid technical skills when looking for new candidates may help increase diversity within tech and amplify the pipeline of potential candidates allowing us to suppress entry barriers.
While AI and automation are moving at a fast pace, diversity in travel tech is just the opposite. Coincidentally, AI can be used to create equitable hiring and training practices. AI software can use data points to eliminate hiring bias and hire the most suitable candidate for the job. Nonetheless, to attract a diverse group of applicants, we need to go beyond traditional recruitment and consider where and how to advertise.
The tech industry is a man’s world, where the gender divide between male developers (92%) and female developers (5%) is one of the starkest in the knowledge work sector. The divide leads to pressures for women to over-perform, resulting in stress, job dissatisfaction and burnout. This partially explains the high rate of women leaving the tech industry today.
After going on a hiring spree during the pandemic, tech companies are now laying off staff in job cuts that sometimes involve thousands of employees. While the layoffs may be necessary to help boost sagging profit margins, proponents of diversity in the tech sector are concerned that the job cuts may disproportionately affect underrepresented groups.
While organizations such as Girls Who Code are making strides in closing the gender gap, additional structural change is needed across the globe so that we can establish a more inclusive culture for future generations.
In order to truly achieve inclusivity in the travel tech industry, we must go beyond simple percentages, look for talent providing equitable opportunities for all and eliminate rigid requirements. We must take an active role in creating a culture that is truly welcoming and encourages diversity. This means actively seeking and promoting diversity in all its forms — gender, ethnicity, location, culture and values — in every aspect of travel tech.
Only then will we be able to create a tech industry that is truly inclusive and reflective of all of its members.
Mercedes Blanco is vice president of strategic partnerships at The Hotels Network and a founding member of Women in Travel Thrive.
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