‘Inhospitable environment’: Tech Council launches plan to retain women

The Technology Council of Australia is responding to the string of recent high-profile instances of harassment and inappropriate behaviour plaguing the sector, launching industry standards to improve diversity and help companies attract and retain female talent.

The “T-EDI standards” launched at the peak body’s national summit on Monday denotes a certification framework for companies to assess their performance against 10 equity, diversity and inclusion standards and then develop an action plan to improve.

Telstra, CyberCX, Accenture, PEXA, Culture Amp and Commonwealth Bank are among the companies to have endorsed and adopted the standards internally.

Damian Kassabgi is chief executive of the Tech Council.Credit: Danielle Smith

Emma Jones is chief executive and founder of Project F, a social impact business that has worked with the ABC, Google and Canva on their gender targets. Jones, who led the development of the standards after six years of research, said women make up 51 per cent of the population but just 28 per cent of the technology workforce.

“This is the right time,” Jones said. “We’ve been working with the Tech Council since about February, but the fact that WiseTech has had the woes that it’s had, and the other similar issues at other companies, these things are not in isolation. They’re just high-profile.”

Emma Jones is chief executive and founder of Project F, a social impact business that has worked with the ABC, Google and Canva.Credit:

“This stuff is rife – it’s been going on for a long time, and if we don’t approach these things head-on together, it’s just going to continue. Retention is a massive issue because it’s an inhospitable environment [for women].”

The tech council received criticism for taking nearly a week to deal with serious allegations of misconduct by one of its board members, WiseTech chief executive Richard White, but the organisation has defended its processes.

White’s departure came the same day a report from women-led collective Grapevine was released, finding sexual harassment and discrimination remain rife in Australia’s technology sector. It found 72 per cent of victims of harassment, bullying or discrimination decided to leave their business altogether.

The T-EDI standards cover categories including hiring, parental leave, leadership and respect at work. Companies will self-assess and then be benchmarked against peers.

“There is a monumental gap between the number of tech jobs and the number of qualified candidates available to fill them,” Jones said. “This is a national imperative.”

The standards will be independently governed by Project F’s Standards Advisory Council and a board of directors.

“Improving diversity and inclusion in tech will better position Australia to address social challenges, and support more women and other under-represented groups to accelerate their careers in our growing tech sector,” TCA chief executive Damian Kassabgi said in a statement.

Jones is hopeful of seeing widespread uptake of the standards, but said that significant change would probably take years.

“My expectation is that we will be able to meet our goals by 2030 if we do this work,” she said, regarding the tech council and Australian government’s shared commitment of reaching 1.2 million tech jobs by 2030.

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