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The Tech Council of Australia (TCA) has partnered with Project F to launch a set of standards to boost diversity in Australia’s tech sector.
Referred to as T-EDI standards, with the acronym standing for technology, equity, diversity and inclusion, is an evidence-based certification framework that allows companies to assess their performance against 10 equity, diversity and inclusion standards.
Participating organisations use an app to make a series of self-assessments to form a benchmark status. This then leads to the development of an action plan to address areas for improvement via tools, data and resources.
The standards contain levels of certification and compliance across 10 areas, which cover hiring practices, parental leave policies, pay transparency and flexible work.
TCA members Atlassian, Telstra, CyberCX, Accenture, PEXA and Culture Amp and TCA partner Commonwealth Bank have all taken on the standards and have adopted them internally.
“With only 28 per cent of the tech workforce identifying as women compared to 51 per cent of the whole workforce, it is essential for the tech ecosystem to undertake additional coordinated action that builds on existing efforts by individual employers,” a statement from the TCA claimed.
Project F founder and CEO Emma Jones led the development of the standards based on six years of research and, along with the TCA, interrogated the standards with the Council’s members through a testing process.
“There is a monumental gap between the number of tech jobs and the number of qualified candidates available to fill them, so there is a national imperative to address the structural issues that have become ingrained in the culture of tech workplaces over decades and get more women into tech jobs, which are some of the most flexible on offer,” she said.
Meanwhile, TCA CEO Damian Kassabgi said the T-EDI standards launch was important for the Council’s work towards improving diversity in tech, which has been a priority for over three years.
“The T-EDI standards promote systemic change and take the guesswork out of creating an inclusive workplace,” he said.
“Improving diversity and inclusion in tech will better position Australia to address social challenges and support more women and other underrepresented groups to accelerate their careers in our growing tech sector.”
The TCA’s launch of the T-EDI standards to tackling diversity in tech comes weeks after the Australian Computer Society claimed in October that the industry has lower levels of representation across gender, age, disability and First Nations representation compared to the Australian workforce at large.