D&I Survey Information

    Signatories need to complete the Tech Talent Charter Diversity & Inclusion survey each year. You can find the 2023 questions and survey guidance on this page

    What you'll find on this page

    The D&I survey questions by section

    1: Basic information

    2: Tech Jobs by Gender

    3: Tech Jobs by Ethnicity

    4: Diversity of Senior Tech Employees

    5: Your D&I Strategy

    6: Diversity of Software Engineers

    7: Other Diversity Metrics

    FAQs about the survey

    1. Before your start the survey

    2. FAQs about the survey process

    3. FAQs about Typeform

    4. FAQs about the survey questions

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    Before you start

    To help you complete your organisation's D&I survey commitment, here are five steps you should take before you start:

    1. Download the spreadsheet version of the survey questions. You can use this to collect all your answers in one place, which will help you complete the survey faster. 
    2. Read the survey questions on this page and check anything that's unclear by using the question guidance below each question. 
    3. Have there been staff changes at your organisation and you need to tell us to liaise with different people about the survey? Update your Tech Talent Charter core contacts here.
    4. Not sure who your organisation's core Tech Talent Charter contacts are? Check them here.
    5. Check your spam folder. You'll receive regular emails from us during the survey window. Check your spam folder to ensure these are reaching you and if any of our messages have ended up there, please move them back to your inbox. 

     

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    Mandatory survey section with one optional question 

    Section 1: Basic Info

    Make sure the organisation name you provide in this field matches the name your organisation uses to sign up to the TTC. We use your answer to track who has completed the survey.

    We ask this question so we can send a copy of your responses to you for your records; this will happen automatically upon you submitting your data. We also use this to track who has completed the survey so we don’t send you survey reminders once you have submitted your data.

    If you’re not sure who your Principal or Data contact is, you can use this form to find out.

    Answer options are:

    • TTC has permission to keep our submission for D&I insight creation and to provide a copy to us in future if we need it
    • Delete our submission after use in the annual report

    This question is confirming consent for us to store your survey response to create our annual report and further D&I insights and to be able to provide you a copy of your responses in future if you need them. We find that many companies reach out to us for their historic survey responses, particularly where there are internal team changes. 

    The vast majority of Signatories gave us permission to store their data submission last year.

    If you select "Delete our submission after use in the annual report" as your answer to this question, you can still complete the survey. 

    You can read more about how we manage data confidentiality and protection here.

    Please select the industry that best reflects your organisation from the dropdown list.  

    The dropdown list will allow you to select one of the following options:

    Automotive Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Insurance Online Media
    Aviation & Aerospace Entertainment International Trade and Development Philanthropy
    Banking Environmental Services Internet
    Primary/Secondary Education
    Broadcast Media Events Services Law Enforcement
    Professional Services and Consulting
    Civic & Social Organization Farming Legal Services
    Professional Training & Coaching
    Civil Engineering Financial Services Leisure, Travel & Tourism
    Program Development
    Computer & Network Security Food & Beverages Logistics and Supply Chain
    Public Relations and Communications
    Computer Games Food Production Management Consulting Public Safety
    Computer Hardware Fund-Raising Market Research Publishing
    Computer Networking Gambling & Casinos Marketing and Advertising Real Estate
    Computer Software Government Administration Media Production Research
    Consumer Electronics Government Relations Medical Devices Retail
    Consumer Goods Health, Wellness and Fitness Mental Health Care
    Semiconductors
    Cybersecurity Higher Education Mining & Metals
    Staffing and Recruiting
    Defense & Space Hospital & Health Care Music
    Telecommunications
    Design Human Resources Newspapers
    Transportation/Trucking/Railroad
    E-Learning Information Services Non-Profit Organization Management Utilities
    Education Management Information Technology and Services Oil & Energy
    Venture Capital & Private Equity

     

    Please provide the specific number of employees.

    You should include employees or those on contracts that share the same rights and benefits as an employee, such as apprentices or graduate scheme employees. 

    You should not include contractors or freelancers in this count.

    You should also include remote or location agnostic role holders in this category if the individual is tax resident in the UK. 

    Please provide the specific number of tech employees.

    You should include remote or location agnostic role holders in this category if the individual is tax resident in the UK. 

    In the context of our survey any reference to “technical”/"tech" roles refers to those which require digital technology skills. Although a person might be referred to as a technical specialist in their field due to their specialised knowledge of that area, if the use of “technical” in that context does not relate to digital and technology focused skills, please do not include them in this category.

    Generally this will include roles in:

    • Data
    • IT Operations
    • Product and Delivery
    • QA & Testing
    • Engineering
    • Development & Architecture
    • Design

    The TTC uses this government guidance as a guideline for what would fall into this category. However, there may be situations where you have to consider unique roles at your organisation which may be considered technical even if they are not on this list. For example, at a technical product company a consultant or account manager might be considered a technical role due to the nature of the tasks they undertake day to day interacting with a digital technical tool for example. In other companies those same roles may not be technical. Where you find ambiguous cases, please use your best judgement as to whether that role actually requires technical skills as opposed to just having information about or from a technical product or system. 

    Please provide the number of tech contractors your organisation is using. These includes all types of contingent workers who are commonly referred to as freelancers, contractors or consultants.  You can provide the number of contingent workers as a snapshot from any time during the data collection window of 1st March 2023 - 13th October 2023. 

    This question is optional. If you are unable to provide this information you will be able to skip the question. However, we ask that if you are able to get this information, please share it with us as it will enable us to serve richer insights back to you in our next Diversity in Tech Report.

    In asking this question we are seeking an indication of the regional presence of organisations rather than an exact measure of all tech employees per region.

    We are therefore not asking for the exact numbers of role holders per region.  Rather, we want to know which regional situations are most significant in terms of headcount for each Signatory.

    Please base your response on the office location to which the majority of tech roles are linked as opposed to the addresses of employees.

    You can only select one option and it should reflect the answer for the majority of your tech roles. 

    The options you can select are:

    • London
    • South East
    • South West
    • East of England
    • West Midlands
    • East Midlands
    • Yorkshire and Humber
    • North East
    • North West
    • Scotland
    • Wales
    • Northern Ireland
    • Roles are spread evenly across different regions of the UK
    • Roles are mainly location agnostic or remote such that office locations are not relevant to where most employees work.
    • We have no tech roles within our organisation.

    These answer options will be randomised in the survey, so you may see them appear in a different order to the list above.

    If your employees are able to work remotely day to day but are expected to be present at a specific office location on a regular frequency (e.g. every week / fortnight / month) please report the office location from the dropdown list.

    Mandatory survey section

    Section 2: Tech Jobs by Gender

    Only count each employee once across the categories of men, women, non binary or the unknown categories.

    You should include cis men (people who identify as men and this matches the sex they were assigned at birth) and trans men (people who identify as men but this was not the sex they were assigned at birth) in this figure. 

    You will have the opportunity to count trans employees who do not identify as men or women in a later question. For definitions of gender terms, you can reference Stonewall's glossary.

    Only count each employee once across the categories of men, women, non binary or the unknown categories.

    You should include cis women (people who identify as women and this matches the sex they were assigned at birth) and trans women (people who identify as women but this was not the sex they were assigned at birth) in this figure. 

    You will have the opportunity to count trans employees who do not identify as men or women in a later question. For definitions of gender terms, you can reference Stonewall's glossary.

    The answer options to this question are:

    • Yes
    • No

    Examples of genders you should count in this question could be gender fluid, genderqueer, trans people who do not identify as a man or a woman, and other non binary genders. 

    If you have an employee who has identified as trans, and does not identify as a trans man or a trans woman, please count them in this category.

    Stonewall has a comprehensive glossary of terms you can refer to if needed.

    Only count each employee once across the categories of men, women, non binary or the unknown categories.

    You will only be shown this question if you indicated in the previous question that you collect data for genders other than: man, woman.

    Example of genders to count in this category include, but are not limited to: gender fluid, genderqueer, trans non binary and other non binary genders.

    Please note that trans people may identify as a man or a woman. If a trans person identifies as a man or a woman, please include them in these categories. If someone identifies as trans but does not identify as a trans man or a trans woman, please include them in this non binary category. 

    You will have the opportunity to share trans identity data specifically in a later question.

    The answer options to this question are:

    • Yes
    • No

    If you select "no" you will skip past the next question that asks you to report the figure for trans identity.

    You will only be shown this question if you indicated in the previous question that you have data on how many of your employees identify as trans.

    You should already have counted all your trans employees in the relevant questions above, that ask about whether employees are men, women or non binary. 

    This question is different because it asks you to provide a number for the total count of tech employees who identify as trans, whether they are trans men, trans women, or non binary trans employees.

    The number you provide here should count employees who have already been accounted for in at least one of the other three questions about gender. 

    Please include in this category people who have specifically been asked about their gender identity and have declined to share it actively (i.e. in their survey response they selected an option not to disclose their gender).

    Do not include in this category people who have not been asked to disclose their gender or people who have been asked but not responded; you will have the option to supply this number in a later question. 

    The sum of the numbers reported in this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1. 

    This question aims to ask how many people in your organisation have not been asked about their gender identity. It does not include people who have been asked to provide their gender identity but have expressed that they do not wish to share this data. 

    We ask this question because we appreciate that there are some organisations who only ask this information at specific times and therefore, they may not have a complete dataset at all times. 

    The sum of the numbers reported in this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1.

    This includes people who have been asked about their gender but for which the information has not been supplied by the individual and therefore their gender is unknown to the organisation.

     

    Self-identification data means that individuals have given you information about their identity, rather than the information coming from another source that is not the person themselves. For example where this information has been assumed by another person or system.

    Your answer options here will be:

    • Self-identification data
    • Other 

    Selecting "Other" will prompt you to write a short answer for where the data is drawn from.

    Examples of what you might write here could be things like: "payroll system" or "We have assumed this information but have not directly asked our employees".

    Mandatory survey section with one optional question

    Section 3: Tech Jobs by Ethnicity

    The sum of the numbers reported in this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1. 

    These ethnicity categories are based on the UK census categories. You can see a more granular breakdown of each category on the UK Government ONS website.

    If you don't have the ethnicity data we are asking for you can find more information on how to answer these questions in the bottom section of this page (FAQs about the survey questions). 

    The sum of the numbers reported in this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1. 

    These ethnicity categories are based on the UK census categories. You can see a more granular breakdown of each category on the UK government ONS website.

    If you don't have the ethnicity data we are asking for you can find more information on how to answer these questions in the bottom section of this page (FAQs about the survey questions). 

    The sum of the numbers reported in this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1. 

    These ethnicity categories are based on the UK census categories. You can see a more granular breakdown of each category on the UK government ONS website.

    If you don't have the ethnicity data we are asking for you can find more information on how to answer these questions in the bottom section of this page (FAQs about the survey questions). 

    The sum of the numbers reported in this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1. 

    These ethnicity categories are based on the UK census categories. You can see a more granular breakdown of each category on the UK government ONS website.

    If you don't have the ethnicity data we are asking for you can find more information on how to answer these questions in the bottom section of this page (FAQs about the survey questions). 

    The sum of the numbers reported in this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1. 

    If you don't have the ethnicity data we are asking for you can find more information on how to answer these questions in the bottom section of this page (FAQs about the survey questions). 

    Please include in this category people who have specifically been asked about their ethnicity and have declined to share it actively (i.e. in their survey response they selected an option not to disclose their ethnicity).

    Do not include in this category people who have not been asked to disclose their ethnicity or people who have not responded to a request to share their information; you will have the option to supply this number in a later question. 

    The sum of the numbers reported in this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1.  Remember not to count employees in more than one category. This means that if you have accounted for employees in other categories already, you should not also count them in this question.

    If you don't have the ethnicity data we are asking for you can find more information on how to answer these questions in the bottom section of this page (FAQs about the survey questions). 

    This question aims to ask how many people in your organisation have not been asked about their ethnic identity such that your organisation cannot measure its ethnic diversity. It does not include people who have been asked to provide their ethnic identity but have expressed that they do not wish to share this data. 

    We ask this question because we appreciate that there are some organisations who only ask this information at specific times and therefore, they may not have a complete ethnicity dataset for all employees at all times. There may also be organisations who are in the process of setting up ethnicity data collection internally but have not obtained their first set of ethnicity data yet.

    The sum of the numbers reported in this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1.  Remember not to count employees in more than one category. This means that if you have accounted for employees in other categories already, you should not also count them in this question.

    Guidance for two edge cases: 

    1. If you collect ethnicity data as part of a larger organisation but you cannot segment your data for just your organisation, (e.g. you are a department within a university, where the university collects ethnicity data, but you cannot segment this for your specific department) please report your roles in this category as unknown and then provide additional details of your circumstance in the final open text question of Section 3. This will enable us to categorise your response properly when we come to aggregate and analyse the data.  

    2. If your organisation has plans in place to start collecting ethnicity data from employees for the first time, but your timeline for collecting this data is after the TTC data collection window closes and therefore you will not have this data in time to report it to the TTC: please report your tech roles under this category as unknown and then provide additional details of your circumstance in the final open text question of Section 3. This will enable us to categorise your response properly when we come to aggregate and analyse the data.

    If you don't have the ethnicity data we are asking for you can find more information on how to answer these questions in the bottom section of this page (FAQs about the survey questions). 

    Remember not to count employees in more than one category. This means that if you have accounted for employees in other categories already, you should not also count them in this question.

    We have asked this question as a catch-all, to allow organisations who have used different ethnicity categories to the ones in our survey to report their categories and the number of role holders in them. 

    You can also use this field to indicate any other relevant details about your ethnicity data collection, which are not easily accounted for in the questions above.

    You do not need to answer this question if you have already provided a complete ethnicity breakdown of UK-based tech roles at your organisation into the categories we have already asked about above.

    If you have already accounted for all of your organisation's UK-based tech role holders  in your answers to the questions above this one, please write "Not Applicable" as your answer.

    If you do need to provide additional information about ethnic diversity in this field, below is an example of how an organisation might answer this question.

    For example: if your organisation measures the number of UK-based tech role holders who are White, and the number of  UK-based tech role holders who belong to all ethnic minorities, but not disaggregated by the categories in our survey (Asian, Black, White, Other, prefer not to disclose and ethnicity unknown) you could provide an answer for the number of White UK-based tech role holders in the relevant question above,  write "0" in the answer fields for the rest of the ethnicity categories,  and then in this field, write "ethnic minorities hold [X] UK-tech roles at our organisation. We do not have this data disaggregated by individual ethnic minority group".

    Another example of how you might wish to use this field would be in the event of a Signatory belonging to a larger organisation e.g. if you are a department at a university, who is independently signed up to the TTC, and where you have ethnicity data at university level but not at department level. You could then write: "We have reported all tech roles in our organisation as unknown, because we collect this information at a university level, but we do not have it disaggregated at the IT department level, and therefore our ethnicity data for the department is unknown."

    The sum of the numbers reported in each question of this section must equal the total number of UK-based tech roles at your organisation that you reported in section 1. 

    Mandatory survey section with some optional questions

    Section 4: Diversity of Senior Tech Employees

    Depending on your organisation structure this may include board level, partner level or senior staff who may or may not have people management or leadership responsibilities.

    We have not made this question mandatory to aid organisations that are unable to provide this data yet.  Some of the other questions in this section however, are mandatory.

    This is a Y/N question and is mandatory.

    Gender minorities refers to women, non binary people, trans and people of genders other than cis man/male.

    We have identified these genders as minority genders because in the context of the tech workforce they are minority groups. We recognise that across the wider workforce and society, some of the groups named would not be considered minority groups.

    If you select "no" we will ask you to tell us more about your organisation's experience of D&I data in relation to seniority, and you will not be asked to answer the following question about how many of your senior employees are gender minorities. 

     

    You will only be presented with this question if you indicated you were able to answer it in the previous question. This is a numeric question.

     

    "Gender minority" in the context of our survey refers to women, non binary people, trans and people of genders other than cis man/male.

    We have identified these genders as minority genders because in the context of the tech workforce they are minority groups. We recognise that across the wider workforce and society, some of the groups named would not be considered minority groups. 

    This is a Y/N question and is mandatory.

    Ethnic minority refers to people whose ethnic group is not White.

    If you select "no" we will ask you to tell us more about your organisation's experience of D&I data in relation to seniority, and you will not be asked to answer the following question about how many of your senior employees are ethnic minorities. 

    You will only be presented with this question if you indicated you were able to answer it in the previous question. This is a numeric question.

    This question is optional but encouraged. Please share with us your organisation's experience of diversity and inclusion in senior tech roles. 

    This question will be more relevant for some Signatories than others. If this is less relevant to your organisation because of your organisational structure or demographics, feel free to write this as your answer. 

    If this question is not relevant for your organisation because you're doing really well on this front, please tell us about it!

    And of course, if your organisation is experiencing challenges, please tell us about them. 

     

    Mandatory survey section

    Section 5: Your D&I Strategy

    This is a grid question that asks you to share what your organisation is doing in relation to different areas of diversity and inclusion.

    For each lens we ask if you are:

    1. Measuring and taking action on it

    2. Measuring it but not taking action on it

    3. Taking action on it but not measuring it

    4. You're not focusing on it right now and therefore are neither measuring nor acting on it. The lenses you will be asked about are:

    - Age

    - Disability

    - Ethnicity/race

    - Gender (includes women in tech)

    - LGBTQ+

    - Neurodiversity

    - Religion

    - Socio-economic diversity/social mobility

    - Something else

     

    Please provide as much detail as possible. Examples of what to include are: what measures you use for different areas of diversity practice, how often you review your progress, what targets or goals your organisation has, and how diversity metrics are used across different process areas of your organisation. If you don't have examples like the ones mentioned above, please share with us the ways your organisation is gauging your success when it comes to D&I. 

    Remember that the responses shared in these open text questions are what TTC uses to create case studies, quotes and features in our Diversity In Tech Report. So, providing clear details could result in your organisation being recognised and celebrated in our materials. Valuable responses don't need to be limited to what went well, but also areas of learning too.

    In this section you can include information that relates to your organisation's wider D&I practice, not just tech-focused efforts. However, if you are using specific measures within tech, please highlight what these are within your answer.

    We'd like to understand more about the resources that help your organisation to work towards better Diversity and Inclusion. This could be partner organisations, specific reports or data points, paid for services or publicly accessible sources of information. Tell us what resources are helpful to your D&I efforts.

    Remember that the responses shared in these open text questions are what TTC uses to create case studies, quotes and features in our Diversity In Tech Report. So, providing clear details could result in your organisation being recognised and celebrated in our materials.

    In this section you can include information that relates to your organisation's wider D&I practice, not just tech-focused efforts. However, if you are using certain resources specifically within your tech function, please highlight what these are within your answer.

    This question looks at what your organisation is focusing on most in the year ahead. Please tell us about your strategic priorities, what your current goals are and your current or upcoming programmes in relation to D&I.

    Remember that the responses shared in these open text questions are what TTC uses to create case studies, quotes and features in our Diversity In Tech Report. So, providing clear details could result in your organisation being recognised and celebrated in our materials. Valuable responses don't need to be limited to what's going well, but also areas of learning or exploration.

    In this section you can include information that relates to your organisation's wider D&I practice, not just tech-focused efforts. However, please also specifically call out what you are doing within your tech function.

    Optional but encouraged survey section

    Section 6: Diversity of Software Engineers

    This question refers to any engineers who work in a digital setting, so this could include roles like data engineers, SDETs, web developers and any other tech employees who write code to build digital products or services.

    Gender minority here refers to people who are women, non binary or trans.

    Ethnic minority here refers to people who are not White.

    Optional but encouraged survey section

    Section 7: Other Diversity Metrics

    If you don't wish to answer this question, simply skip down to the next one, leaving the field blank.

    In the UK, a long-term health condition falls under the category for legal protection as a disability if it has lasted more than 12 months. Neurodivergent conditions, which include things such as ADHD or autism, are also covered by the term “disability” in UK law. Some neurodivergent individuals identify as neurodivergent, but do not identify as disabled. 

    If you don't wish to answer this question, simply skip down to the next one, leaving the field blank.

    To learn more about neurodivergence, please take a look at our dedicated section in the TTC Open Playbook.

    If you don't wish to answer this question, simply skip down to the next one, leaving the field blank.

    To learn more about socio-economic diversity and how to measure and report on it, you can view our dedicated section in the TTC Open Playbook.

    FAQs about the survey process

    Your survey response enables us to provide a unique lens on diversity and inclusion in tech in the UK. We use it to create our annual Diversity in Tech report. 

    One of the four pledges of a TTC Signatory is to share diversity and inclusion information from your organisation, with TTC. 

    The survey submitted by Signatory organisations (now numbering over 800) allows us to create a unique report on diversity and inclusion in tech in the UK. And the report enables you to benchmark your progress against other groups of organisations (segmented by industry, size etc) and to learn what other companies are doing to improve D&I.

    If you are not familiar with the TTC - for example if the survey has been delegated to you but you've not heard of TTC before and have questions, please visit our Signatory Hub.

    The survey window will open on 10th July 2023. and the deadline for submitting data is 28th September 2023.

    The survey will go live on 10th July and a link to the survey will be emailed to Signatories. Once the survey launches you will also be able to access the survey link on this page.

    The last day you will be able to submit data into the Typeform is 28th September. The survey window is the period of time from 10th July to 28th September.

    You will also receive a link to download this survey template spreadsheet which we encourage you to use to record answers before submitting them in the Typeform. We send this to you so you can gather your data in advance in multiple sittings. If you collect all your answers in the spreadsheet and have them ready before you start filling out the Typeform, you will find it easier to make your Typeform submission.

    We will send your Principal and Data contacts email reminders to submit your survey before and during the survey submission period.

     

    Please refer to this FAQs page where you will find answers to questions we’ve received in the past. We will also have a live chat available on this page that will go directly to one of the TTC team. If someone is available they will respond immediately to you in the chat. If not, you can leave your email and they will contact you as soon as possible to answer your question.

    You can also attend a Data Collection Q&A which we will run throughout the survey window. These sessions will give you the opportunity to speak directly to Lexie or Karen from the TTC about the survey, get an overview of the process and ask any questions you may have. 

    You can also email Karen Blake on karen.blake@techtalentcharter.co.uk with any questions.

    We will reach out to you, emailing the people you listed as the core TTC contacts at your organisation throughout the survey window to ensure that you have received the information you need to submit your information and to give you the opportunity to reach out with any queries.

    If you do not submit your survey by the deadline  (and have not been in touch with us to discuss any support or accommodations you need to complete this requirement) we will remove your organisation as a Signatory of the TTC. This will include removing your company logos and references from our websites, asking you to remove TTC  branding/references from your own materials and being removed from our Signatory-exclusive networks.

    We always work hard to ensure this cannot happen by accident! If you have any concerns or difficulties in meeting the survey submission requirements, please talk to us ASAP. We will do whatever we can to help you stay a Signatory and in many cases we can support organisations with certain challenges to help them retain Signatory status by making accommodations where possible. 

    If you need to update the core contacts at your organisation, please do this using the relevant form on this page.

    In the survey we ask whether we can keep a copy of your submission on file. We do this because Signatories often ask us for copies of their previous survey responses, particularly in cases where the submission might have been delegated to different people or where a role-holder has changed.

    The majority of Signatories select "yes" to this question, so most will be able to contact us to obtain last year's survey submission.

    The request to retrieve your submission can be made via email by one of the named TTC contacts at your organisation. If you are not sure who your named contacts are, you can check them here. 

    Yes - submitting the survey is a requirement for every Signatory!

    You must still complete this survey even if you are:

    • A small, or single person organisation. 
    • An organisation with no/few tech employees
    • A service-provider organisation, such as but not limited to, a staffing and recruiting business or D&I consultancy business. 
    • A third sector organisation such as a charity.

    If you input that you have 0 tech employees or 0 UK employees, you will automatically skip sections of the survey to make the process more streamlined for you.

    By submitting the survey you are helping us to better understand D&I in tech across various sectors. You are also helping us to understand the nature of the challenges faced by businesses of different sizes and industries.  You may also help us to identify new perspectives on the problems and solutions pertinent to D&I in tech issues. 

    If you have any questions, please speak to us, as failure to submit your survey will result in your organisation being removed as a TTC Signatory. 

     

    GDPR

    The D&I data we collect from you in our survey does not fall under GDPR because we do not collect personal information relating to individuals. All D&I numeric data is requested as an aggregated number.

    Whilst we do ask for the email address of a key contact at the start of the survey, so that we can send you a copy of your responses and confirm your organisation has submitted data, this is an email address that you gave us legitimate consent to store under GDPR when you signed up to be part of TTC. There is no other data relevant to GDPR that we request during the survey.

    You can view our data protection and privacy policy here.

    Confidentiality

    In terms of the confidentiality of your data, if your data would make individuals or your company identifiable due to a small sample size, we will aggregate the data into a larger sample to protect your confidentiality and will omit this data from our reports if it becomes possible to deduce individual companies' information.  

    In the past we have sought permission from specific organisations to include segments of your response in our reports, either anonymously or attributed, according to the specific Signatory's request. We will never publish information from your response without your permission in writing from your organisation's designated contacts. 

    Where Signatories give us permission to do so, we will continue to keep the data submission on file for the purposes of record keeping and longitudinal D&I insights. Any use of your survey responses will always prioritise maintaining confidentiality and anonymity in any public forum and your response will only be used for the purpose of the TTCs D&I work. 

    If you would like to discuss this with us because your organisation has alternative needs, please contact Karen Blake: karen.blake@techtalentcharter.co.uk.

    Tools and platforms we use

    We collect your data using a secure platform called Typeform, which is a commonly used survey tool. 

    At the end of the survey window we download the responses into a spreadsheet which is stored in a restricted file in TTCs Google Work Suite. 

    NDAs

    TTC has a standard NDA available to sign with Signatories if desired. If your organisation would like an NDA in place, please contact us on karen.blake@techtalentcharter.co.uk and we can send you our standard NDA to countersign and keep on file.

    We would love to celebrate Signatories who have continued to show their commitment to D&I by honouring their survey pledge to the TTC and renewing their TTC membership.

    We have created social media assets to promote that your organisation has completed its annual TTC survey pledge, showing your commitment to D&I.

    Please share on LinkedIn or Twitter that you've submitted your survey, helping to position you as an employer of choice and encouraging other organisations to take action in the future as well. Please tag the TTC (LinkedIn or Twitter) in your posts so that we can highlight.

    Below are the downloadable assets:

    Download instructions:

    In the likely event of the images opening in a new tab when you click on the hyperlinks, follow these steps:

    1. Right-click on the image.
    2. Select the "save image as..." option (screenshot below).
    3. Select the folder you'd like to save the image to on your computer.
    4. Click "save" to initiate the download.

    Screenshot_1-1

    Tech Talent Charter on social channels:

    If you aren't already collecting D&I data at your organisation, please have a look at the TTC Open Playbook, which has a section dedicated to data collection. The resources have been developed by professionals in the TTC Signatory network and are free to use. 

    Sometimes certain organisation firewalls do not allow our CRM to track when you have clicked the link in our emails.  In these instances, we sometimes don't get the update from you and may therefore end up contacting you again. 

    If this happens, apologies! We do our best to try and avoid chasing people. The best thing to do is to reply to our email to let us know, and we can then manually update our lists. 

    Yes!

    We have produced an employee explainer document which you can use to support your internal communications with employees if they would like to understand more about TTC and why your organisation shares D&I data with us. 

    Please complete the relevant form on the Update your contacts page.

    To find out your company's current contacts with a core TTC role, please complete a quick form to receive these by email.

    We estimate it will take 7-10 minutes to complete the survey if you have already prepared all of your answers in advance using the spreadsheet template.

    BUT

    It will take longer if you are working out your answers as you go and will be dependent on how easy it is for you to pull data from your systems, or get information from other people in your organisation. 

    Yes!

    We have designed an additional set of questions for staffing and recruiting businesses to complete in addition to the main survey. 

    Here is a link to the recruiter survey. 

    The recruiter survey questions:

    There are 10 questions in this section, but 3 of them are asking for basic information like your organisation's name, so really it's 7 questions! All but one are multiple choice or numeric questions.

    They ask you whether you track candidate diversity, and if so your figures for gender minority (i.e. women and non binary) candidates and placements. 

    There is one open text question asking you about any measured D&I efforts or interventions you use to improve diversity amongst your candidates and placements. 

    Why should you fill out this extra section?

    We have asked these questions to organisations in this sector so that we can understand more about great work going on in the recruitment space. 

    Our intention is to feature great ideas and case studies in our report. 

    It is optional to complete this survey, but we hope that you will fill it out and have been careful to ensure it is short and straightforward.

    FAQs about Typeform

    In the past Typeform has not had the functionality to allow you to save your work and return to it later. This year they have released an update that allows you to fill in answers, close the survey, and then return later and your answers will still be there. When you open the survey again, you'll be taken to the start of the form, but will see your existing answers from your last visit. You can edit those answers and fill out the rest of the questions before submitting.

    But...

    Answers will be kept in your browser's local storage, for 15 days. You must be on the same browser and device (and not in Incognito or Private browsing mode). Some of our Signatories' IT infrastructure will not enable these conditions.

    So...

    To be on the safe side, we advise that you use this data collection spreadsheet template with all the survey questions and guidance so you can gather your answers in multiple sittings before you do the submission via Typeform.

    By copying your answers into Typeform from the spreadsheet, if anything interrupts you during your Typeform submission, you will have not lost your work and can resubmit it easily. 

    The spreadsheet will be emailed to data and principal contacts when the survey launches and can also be found at the top of this page. 

    There are several ways to move through the Typeform. If your progress seems to be stuck try the following:

    • Scroll down with your mouse or trackpad. This should take you to the next question.
    • Press your ‘Enter’/ ‘Return’ key which should take you to the next question.
    • Use the cursor to click the turquoise “up” or “down” arrow icons on the Typeform screen. These will navigate you to the previous question or next question respectively. 
    • Check you have completed any mandatory question; you will not be able to scroll beyond certain points if required information is missing. 

    If you can't access the Typeform survey please contact Karen Blake karen.blake@techtalentcharter.co.uk to let us know and then complete your submission using this survey template spreadsheet. Please email the completed spreadsheet to Karen and the TTC will then enter your data manually on your behalf. 

     

    FAQs about the survey questions

    In the context of our survey, any reference to “technical” roles refers to those which require digital technology skills as part of their core function. Although a person might be referred to as a technical specialist in their field due to their specialised knowledge of that area, if the use of “technical” in that context does not relate to digital and technology-focused skills, please do not include them in this category.

    The TTC uses this government guidance to determine what would fall into the category of "technical role".

    This includes jobs in the following families:

    • Data
    • IT Operations
    • Product and Delivery
    • QA & Testing
    • Engineering, Development & Architecture
    • Design

    We would advise you to have a scan through the link if you're not sure which roles to include. If you look at the junior permutations of the roles, which are under each main category, it's likely that you'll see similarities and crossovers with roles in your organisation, even if you don't use the same job title. For example, the IT Operations section includes a category for Service Desk Manager, and a version of this role is included under the name "Service Desk Analyst". Under the description for Service Desk Analyst, there are descriptions of skills being used by employees in your business even if they are not considered to be in a technical division of your organisation.

    However, there may be situations where you have to consider unique roles at your organisation which may be considered technical even if they are not on this list. For example, at a technical product company a consultant or account manager might be considered a technical role due to the nature of the tasks they undertake day to day interacting with a highly technical tool for example. In other companies those same roles may not be technical. Where you find ambiguous cases, please use your best judgement as to whether that role actually requires digital technical skills comparable to those in the guidance, as opposed to just having information about or from a technical product or system. You can contact the TTC if you are unsure. 

    Data submitted to this survey can be taken from any single date between 1st March 2023 and 28th September 2023. 

    We have done this to allow organisations to use data they have collected through a wider window of the year. 

    If your organisation is unable to provide data from within this window please contact Karen Blake on karen.blake@techtalentcharter.co.uk

    In Section 3 - questions about ethnicity - we have asked how many tech employees have not been asked about their ethnicity, how many have been asked but not responded, and how many told you they prefer not to disclose their ethnicity.

    We ask these questions because we appreciate that some organisations who only ask for ethnicity data from employees at specific times of the year and therefore, they may not have a complete ethnicity dataset for all employees at all times. There may also be organisations who are in the process of setting up ethnicity data collection internally but have not obtained their first set of ethnicity data yet. Many organisations might not have a complete disclosure rate for this information. 

    Therefore all Signatories can still complete the ethnicity questions for TTC even if they do not hold 100% of their employees' ethnicity data. 
     
    If you have to report a large number of ethnicity roles as unknown (e.g. you don't yet have any ethnicity data for your employees so you report all your technical roles as unknown) and you are able to provide information to contextualise this, you can do so by writing any additional information in the open text field for the final question of the ethnicity section. The type of information you may wish to share in this instance might be, for example: "We have a timeline for the rollout of internal ethnicity data collection, but it is scheduled for early 2024 and therefore we do not have this data yet, but we will have it soon."

    Yes, please include apprentices and graduate role holders. You should include any role holders who are employees at the time of your data snapshot.

    If you have any questions about any of the survey questions, please contact Karen Blake on karen.blake@techtalentcharter.co.uk

    You can also attend one of our Data Collection Q&A sessions in which we will run throughout the data collection process and then answer any participant questions.  If you would like to attend a Q&A session but can't make the date and time, please get in touch. 

    Throughout our survey we use the term "gender minority" to refer to people who are women, non binary genders or trans. 

    Whilst we know that women are not a minority group in context of the wider UK population, our survey looks specifically at tech roles, and within that group women are a clear gender minority group.

    We use the term gender minority rather than just saying "women" because it also allows us to include people who are non binary/trans in our research. 

    We know from previous years of research that many organisations do not yet have data on non-binary genders, so by using these categorisations, we can include non binary/trans individuals in the wider picture but without creating obstacles to organisations who don't have this data participating in the TTC survey.

    Signatory Spotlight:

    We are always looking to showcase impactful DE&I interventions that Signatories are using on social media and to add to our Open Playbook.

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