TECH TALENT CHARTER (TTC) OCTOBER 2021 Hackathon

About this hackathon

Sponsored by Signatories, Experis and Nominet, we will stage our next hackathon in October with three groups of inclusion and diversity subject matter experts building new employer products for our Open Playbook. 

Timing: running for just over 4 weeks, the hackathon will kick off on Tuesday 12th October at 10 am and conclude on Thursday 11th November 2021.

Participants* in each team will be experts in the I&D topic areas outlined below and will work in small, virtual teams of 5 or 6, led by a team leader to deliver a new employer product for the Open Playbook to be judged by an expert panel.

Who is this hackathon for?

This opportunity is for people who have strong inclusion and diversity (I&D) knowledge and experience of at least one of the following areas:

• Reskilling your existing workforce into tech roles
• Setting and embedding inclusion and diversity targets to drive accountability
• Developing inclusive promotion processes using data

This opportunity is ideal for people with experience of working in an Inclusion and Diversity, Talent, Learning and Development, or senior HR business partner role. As spaces are limited, we request that participants please provide evidence of having the necessary expertise of one of the three subject areas.

What's in it for you?

• We often ask hackathon participants to join future TTC panels to showcase the products they produce
• Cross-company learning
• Networking
• Personal and company PR
• Deepen your understanding of the topic area
• An opportunity to ‘give back', supporting our not for profit organisation to develop new employer resources.

All participants and companies will be credited on social media channels (especially the winning team!) and all participants are invited to add their TTC hackathon expertise to their LinkedIn profile.

The mission

There will be 3 teams. Each team will create one employer product and the focus for each team will be:

1. Team 1: How to reskill your workforce into tech roles to drive greater diversity
2. Team 2: How to set and embed inclusion and diversity targets
3. Team 3: How to run inclusive promotion processes using data

The employer product should be a high-level menu of the most important actions organisations should consider with respect to the specific topic. The goal is to “join the dots”, i.e. to signpost great resources. What we don't ask for is an exhaustive list of all actions employers of tech could do. Examples of products from previous TTC hackathons can be found on the Hackathon page on the TTC website and all products live in our Open Playbook.

Time commitment

Based on our recent hackathons, we anticipate the amount of time it will take teams to co-create their product will be approximately 10-12 hours over a month (done flexibly).

*Important point! If this hackathon sounds like a good fit for your skills and experience, before submitting the hackathon registration form, we kindly request that you double-check that you will have the capacity to commit to participating for the duration of the hackathon period. We anticipate the amount of time it will take teams to co-create their product will be approximately 10-12 hours over a 4 week period (done flexibly).

Hackathon timing and key dates

Each team's specific meeting dates/times will be confirmed once participants are in teams (meetings will be set up by team leaders). The below dates and times are confirmed at the outset:

• 10 am on 12th Oct: hackathon begins with a briefing led by TTC followed by 30 mins with your team
• 12th Oct - 8th Nov: Teams work together to create their 'product' (the roadmap)
• 5 pm 8th Nov: Deadline for submissions. This is when all submissions will be sent to judges
• 15.00, 11th Nov*: Feedback session with an expert panel of judges. This session is when judges will provide their feedback on all submissions. During this session, each team will be asked to provide a 5-minute overview of the key elements of their submission (one slide) for the benefit of other teams.

The team leader role

As part of the sign-up process we will recruit 4 team leaders - please indicate if you'd like to be a team leader when signing up. The role of the team leader is to help facilitate the team discussion, encouraging all team members to share their ideas; organise team meetings and submit the final 'product' for judging by the expert panel.

Team leaders are free to organise and structure meetings at times that work for your team and use tools that work best for the team. On the day the hackathon kicks off, the TTC will provide team leaders with each of their team member's names, their skills and experience, preferred working style, any availability preference (this information is provided when signing up) and your team's email addresses.

What is the TTC Open Playbook?

Our Open Playbook has six themes all focussing on driving inclusion and diversity in tech. Within each theme, there are several recommendations and resources shared by organisations and subject matter experts. In each section, you'll find lots of strategies, articles, tools and reports about how to address specific challenges and increase inclusion and diversity in tech teams.

The expert judging panel will include (more to be added shortly!)

• Martin Ewings, Brand Leaders and Operations Director, Experis
• Beverley Hamblet-Bowes, HR Director, Nominet
• Edleen John, TTC Director and Director - International Relations, Corporate Affairs & Co-Partner for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, The Football Association
• Debbie Forster MBE, CEO, Tech Talent Charter

The Tech Talent Charter is a non-profit organisation leading a movement to address inequality in the UK tech sector and drive inclusion and diversity in a practical and uniquely measurable way. Our ultimate goal: that the UK tech sector becomes truly inclusive and a reflection of the society which it represents. We work at scale, addressing the tech ecosystem as a whole to drive change. We focus on the how, not just the why of inclusion.

There are over 680 Signatories of the Charter and each organisation has made a number of pledges in relation to inclusive recruitment and retention practices. Although it is very much an employer-led initiative, the TTC is supported by the UK Government's Digital Strategy. Membership is free.

The TTC focuses on practical action --events are not a sales pitch or a promotional piece. We also believe in sharing what works rather than treating it like a "trade secret". Our working events are a great opportunity to learn, share and plan for action.

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REGISTRATION HAS NOW CLOSED FOR THE OCTOBER HACKATHON. OUR NEXT HACKATHON WILL TAKE PLACE IN MARCH 2022