Diversity gaps
The report notes that white/Caucasians working in data and analytics make up 75% of the entire workforce, which is smaller than the UK population at 86% nationally, meaning the data and analytics industry is one of the more ethnically diverse industries in the UK. However, not all ethnicities are experiencing increased representation.
Asian/Asian British professionals measure 15% of the industry – up from 7.8% in 2011 – while Black/African/Caribbean/Black British professionals only account for 3% of the industry – decreasing from 3.5% in 2011.
When considering male-female divides, 28% of data and analytics professionals identified as women. This is important as although it is a small improvement on last year’s numbers, it does show that the previous fall in female data professionals was not an ongoing downward trend.
Despite this general uptick in numbers, there was a continued decrease in specific sectors (data and technology, data science and digital analytics) which recorded fewer female professionals than last year. The decreasing numbers across the last 12 months were most prominent for digital and analytics which reported a drop of female professionals from 37% to 32%.
It must be noted that the gender balance in professionals in their first data role improves parity – now at 40%, up from 28% across the entire industry.
Pay gaps
One of the mixed areas of the report was the topic of gender pay gaps. The gender pay gap across data and analytics professionals, according to the report, is 6% – an improvement upon last year’s numbers and below the UK average of 9.8%.
However, the concern with pay gaps and inequality arises when examining professionals with parental responsibilities. The report states that male data professionals with parental responsibilities earn an average of £76,700 compared to females in the same position and circumstances only earn £65,580 on average – a gap of 14%. The Harnham report also showed that these figures are tempered by the fact other specialisms surveyed stated a gap smaller than the UK average, from 9% in data and technology to –1% (where the gap favoured female staff) in marketing and insight roles.
“No two people in the same role will be on the same salary, but regular and transparent salary benchmarking helps all staff understand the salary range the market pays for their role type, and then where the organisation sits against that,” said Waseem Ali, chief executive officer, Rockborne. “I have been in an organisation where the disparity is so big between men and women that the organisation’s finance team will not accept a pay increase of essentially double with the person is currently on.”
Despite this, some positive news for first roles in data shows that gender parity stands at 40%, in comparison to the overall 28% of roles being filled by women.
This is a solid base to work from as data organisations continue to improve their talent pipelines and get involved with outreach programmes.
Elsewhere, the ethnicity pay gap has risen by more than 50% in the last 12 months. In past releases, the Harnham reports have shown gender pay gap to exceed the ethnicity pay gap, but this has been turned on its head for this year. The ethnicity pay gap is now 8% versus 6% against the gender pay gap, more than doubling since last year.
White/Caucasian men are the highest paid individual group with average earnings of £69,260 per year, while women with a Black/African/Caribbean/Black British background earn an average of £53,850 – a 22% pay disparity.
Leadership gaps
There has been an increase in awareness about the importance of equality in leadership from data businesses across the board, but this has not seemed to stem the trend of diversity decreasing as seniority rises.
There is a fall from 42% to just 16% when looking at representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic professionals from entry-level to director level.
This trend is less extreme when examining gender, but there is still a fall from 36% at entry-level to 26% at director level – this contrasts with nearly 40% of FTSE 100 board positions being held by women.
“One solution is to fill your senior executive table with diverse talent and stop thinking about this in terms of ‘we need more females or more people from an ethnic minority’; instead think about it terms of the value you bring around the table – that will drive better conversation and behaviour,” said Ali.
One theorised reason behind the fall for women is taking an extended career break for childcare (longer than three months) may be in part to blame.
Only 3% of male data and analytics professionals had taken an extended break for this reason, compared with 21% of female professionals.
“It is vital to us that we continue to monitor the industry’s progress and do not shy away from revealing where gaps exist,” said David Farmer, chief executive officer, Harnham. “There is no benefit in burying our heads in the sand, we must instead continue striving forwards… We know that change takes time, but I firmly believe that if businesses and, crucially, educational institutions keep pushing for better diversity, we will see significant change over the next five to ten years.”
Reed added: “DataIQ members frequently discuss diversifying talent pipelines and encouraging underrepresented groups into data careers, with many members being involved in outreach programmes and creating new opportunities. However, clearly more needs to be done to ensure that the correct audiences know that these opportunities exist. Data businesses and leaders need to work hard to encourage a career in data as many people end up in these professions inadvertently and research shows that many potential candidates are unaware of data’s opportunities.”
DataIQ recently wrote about encouraging women to follow a career in data.
For more information, read Peter Galdies report on attracting, nurturing and retaining talent to see how you and your organisation can improve.
Read about the 2022 DataIQ Award winner for best diversity, equity and inclusion.
