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Having too few women in the IT team could hurt the company’s bottom line by hampering its ability to win public sector IT contracts, bosses were told yesterday. The warning to business to ensure IT teams are gender-diverse came on the back of new figures showing the number of female techies has fallen for the last seven years. In its alert, the British Computer Society said 37,000 women IT workers have ‘gone missing’ since 2001, when 23% of the IT workforce (229,440 staff) was female. By last year however, the number of women in UK IT had fallen to 192,580 - a fall of six per cent, representing a disappearance of nearly 37,000 women. This is despite the overall number of IT professionals working in the UK rising from 989,120 to 1,034,290 over the same period, shows ONS data from e-skills. “Credit crunch or not, IT industry leaders are still predicting skills shortages,” said Dr Jan Peters, manager at the BCS Women’s Forum, reflecting on the figures. “And yet the number of women exiting the IT profession continues to rise alarmingly, mainly due to the lack of flexibility offered by employers.” Forum chair Rebecca George hinted bosses without a sufficient number of women in their technology teams were missing a trick for their business, budgets and profits. She said: “Having effective diversity and flexibility policies can strengthen bids for public sector contracts because the public sector has sophisticated requirements their suppliers must match. “These policies also help companies better meet their customers’ needs, reduce recruitment costs and create a more loyal workforce.” Such an advantage of having a sufficient number of women in the IT team is spelt out in a guide BCS is releasing with Intellect, the hi-tech trade body, to help employers retain them. The guide, Returners and Re-entrants: Making the Most of a Lost Talent Pool, works on the idea that women who take planned career breaks are likelier to return if they get support and training. Employers who work proactively with female ‘returners’ and their line managers are also more likely to retain them through and subsequent to the six-month ‘crunch’ period after returning. Nov 14, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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