Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership
There has been a great deal of publicity lately surrounding the lack of STEM women at high-tech firms. Unfortunately, we have to give two thumbs down to the diversity data from each of the top high-tech firms that have publicly released their numbers. Although the firms’ intentions were good, the limited scope of the metrics that they revealed do not provide the necessary information that STEM women need in order select which firm to join or the right information needed in order to encourage them to actually apply for a different tech job.
High-tech firms have two basic reasons for attempting to hire and retain more STEM women into key roles.
The first and most obvious is to meet EEOC legal requirements, but the second is related to improving business results. This business reason is critical because if you don’t have a sufficient number of women designing a product and providing customer service, it’s unlikely that the products and services that the firm offers will fit the needs of current and potential women users. This business reason means that simply hiring women is not enough, because it is also equally important to make sure that STEM women are placed in influential positions that directly impact a firm’s products, services, and the way that it does business. The current metrics that firms use are not clearly aligned with their business goals, and because they are only “quota metrics,” we find that they do not provide the in-depth information that is needed in order to identify the barriers that prevent STEM women from applying, accepting an offer, and succeeding in a new job.
