FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

To find out more about the questions asked in our annual data submission survey, see the 2021 version of the Data Collection Questions and FAQs here.

A very basic data set is required from all signatories, that we would expect all organisations to already hold in their HR systems.  This data is gathered annually in September and submitted online via a Typeform.  Further data can be entered on an optional basis, and over time we expect that more and more employers will also gather this optional information, enabling richer insight and analysis.  You will find that you already need to gather some of this data under the recent UK gender pay gap legislation.

Please note that no personal data is gathered at any point and all data is covered by NDA.

To find out more about the questions asked in our annual data submission survey, see the 2021 version of the Data Collection Questions and FAQs here.

The company providing this service, Attest, carry out all the data management.  Research data is gathered and stored in accordance with the Market Research Society (MRS) Code of Conduct.  Attest is a member of the MRS (mrs.org.uk), and is a fully-accredited Fair Data company (fairdata.org.uk).  They are also an Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Registered Data Controller (ZA120737), use SSL encryption, and run on secure servers based in the EU to ensure all data is treated securely.

Please note that no personal data is gathered at any stage and no company-identified data is held beyond the point when the data is anonymised. 

To get a clearer sense of how we use the data, you can view our most recent Diversity in Tech Reports here.

The report allows companies to measure their own data against the wider Signatory group, companies of similar size, sector, etc. 

Data is the way in which we cut through our assumptions. It enables us to have tough conversations in an informed and productive way and to identify the most promising solutions. This is why submitting diversity data is one of four things a company must commit to when signing up to the TTC. We know that simply having this data recorded does not result in a more diverse workforce. It’s a vital first step but must be linked to action. Our intention is to support organisations through, particularly those early on in their D&I journey, who wish to develop their D&I data strategy to be as inclusive and thorough as possible. We do this through the various elements within our toolkit.

Our latest Diversity in Tech report uses data from 418 organisations, an increase of nearly a hundred organisations compared to our 2019 report. Our dataset covers 161,859 people working in technical roles in the UK and we estimate this represents around 13-14% of the current UK’s tech-skilled labour force, now making TTC’s dataset comparable in size to the equalities datasets provided by the ONS.

Data gathering will open on 1 Aug 2022. The deadline is end of the day 30 Sep 2022. Companies will have two months to complete their submission.

The 2022 data collection information pack will be available in the Spring. In the meantime, see the 2021 version of the Data Collection Questions and FAQs here.

The TTC was founded by a number of organisations across the recruitment, tech and social enterprise fields that included Monster.co.uk, Code First Girls, Stemettes, Apps for Good, RBI, Michael Page, S3 Group, JLR Solutions and Global Radio. From early 2017 engagement widened further to Nationwide, the BBC, Aptum, Tech UK, Tech London Advocates and the Cabinet Office. Work to expand the signatories is now well underway with the support of the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) who are leading on the UK digital skills agenda for the current government.

The charter deliberately and explicitly acknowledges that it will take time for a signatory to achieve all the pledges in the TTC, by saying that each signatory undertakes to “define its own timetable for change and implement the strategy that is right for their organisation (acknowledging that all signatories will have different starting points)”. So you do need to have a senior leader overseeing the work, to have an action plan and deliver on it, and be willing to share anonymised data, but all this doesn’t have to be operational upon signing.

Here are some of the sound commercial arguments for gender diversity – at its broadest, not specific to digital/tech skills:

• Researchers discovered that shifting from an all-male or all-female office to one split evenly along gender lines could increase revenue by roughly 41 percent. (Source: study from Journal of Economics and Management Strategy.)
• Publicly traded companies with male-only executive directors missed out on £430bn of investment returns last year. (Source)
• The Tech Sector accounts for 67% women-led businesses with 35% of the businesses growing 50% or more per annum. (Source: Sherry Coutu research)
• Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. (Source)
• Studies reveal that gender diverse companies are 45% more likely to improve market share, achieve 53% higher returns on equity, and are 70% more likely to report successfully capturing new markets. (Source)

It’s great that there are now so many strands of activity, as the challenge needs tackling on many fronts at once, and they are all serving slightly different purposes.  The TTC aims not to re-invent the wheel and indeed with signpost to such initiatives rather than create new ones.  Signatories are encouraged to share the work that they are doing in this space and the TTC website will link to relevant content.