JUNE 2019
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMT
he current lack of diversity within the UK
design industry remains a major societal
issue that should be a priority on every
boardroom’s agenda. While the creative economy
is booming, it performs poorly on diversity
compared to the wider economy. According to the
Design Council’s latest research, 85 per cent of the
digital design sector in the UK are male, and only
13 per cent of the wider design economy are from
BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) groups.
There’s a sector-wide diversity challenge, a
disconnect for an industry that prides itself on
being innovative and forward-thinking.
While the moral imperative for promoting a
diverse and inclusive workforce is indisputable, it
also makes business sense. Creating great design
depends on understanding the needs of customers,
who by their nature are diverse populations
spanning socio-economic backgrounds, genders,
sexual orientations and disabilities. Building
inclusive and diverse teams internally enables design
agencies to create the most relevant, insightful and
creative solutions externally.
Looking beyond the design industry, a 2018
study from McKinsey found that companies in
the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity
across industries are 35 per cent more likely to have
financial returns above their national industry
medians. In the UK specifically, McKinsey found
that for every 10 per cent increase in gender diversity
on senior executive teams, EBIT rose by 3.5 per cent.
With such clear moral and economic benefits,
it’s evident that change is in everybody’s interest. So
what can companies do to tackle these issues?
Looking to the initiatives being put in place by
large technology and consulting firms can provide
a source of inspiration. EY’s Smart Futures scheme
supports students from disadvantaged backgrounds
by offering a paid work-experience programme,
while Hewlett-Packard’s award-winning Reinvent
Mindsets campaign aims to highlight diversity
issues through a mini video series, with the goal of
attracting underrepresented minorities.
Here at This Place, we’ve joined forces with
Flipside – a talent training and development
programme focused on digital product design – to
share our skills and experiences with young people
to equip them to kick-start careers in digital design.
Flipside aims to address the lack of diversity
in the sector by providing opportunities for
talented young people from groups traditionally
underrepresented in the industry, with a focus on
east Londoners from Newham, Tower Hamlets,
Hackney and Waltham Forest. The course covers
three main aspects – digital product design, personal
effectiveness and career development – which are
delivered through a mix of exercises, lectures, tasks
and mentoring sessions.
The great thing about the course is that it not
only addresses the traditional design aspects, but also
covers career development, equipping participants
with the skills needed to land a job in the industry.
Last year, all 12 trainees entered full-time employment
by the end of the programme.
For us at This Place, it’s also a way to connect with
the local community and give back. Our headquarters
are based in Shoreditch, so we feel especially strongly
about nurturing and championing the local talent.
There’s a huge pool of gifted and ambitious young east
Londoners whose fresh perspectives and ideas would
greatly enrich the industry. Through collaboration in
programmes like Flipside, we hope to lead by example
on our approach towards diversity in the workforce.
Yet there’s still a long way to go and a myriad of
other steps that organisations can take to begin to
remedy the diversity imbalance.
Emphasis should be placed on raising awareness
with younger audiences of the opportunities that
a career in design can bring. A rethink of company
recruitment strategies that focus on hiring based on
‘potential’ rather than ‘proof ’ could go some way to
opening doors to the industry. Job specs themselves
should be analysed to ensure they appeal to diverse
audiences and interview processes interrogated to
ensure they provide an unbiased experience.
Where possible, design companies should introduce
paid internships and apprenticeships. For smaller
agencies, these can start small scale while still making
a difference. At This Place we’ve supported interns in
the past and hope to grow our focus on this in future.
For companies operating within the digital space,
it’s important to keep the conversation about diversity
going, and to ensure that diversity and inclusion
efforts are ever-present and not just one-off or annual
initiatives. It’s only through creating a culture of
inclusion and belonging that the benefits of diversity
can truly be realised. As quoted in LinkedIn’s 2018
Global Recruitment Trends Report, “diversity is being
invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance,
and belonging is dancing like no one’s watching”.
The digital landscape is constantly evolving and
while we see fast-paced innovation across the industry,
there’s greater and faster progress we can make when
it comes to diversity. All things digital are underpinned
by innovation, and you can’t have innovation without
diversity. Remedying the diversity imbalance should
be a top priority for all senior executives.NATALIE HUGHES
Is the drive for diversity in danger of becoming a box-ticking
exercise? Tweet @ComputerArts using #Design Matters