Why diversity is important in tech

Photo credit: A Glorious Ruin

There’s something lacking in the tech community.

Diversity.

It’s a prevalent issue in Silicon Valley and beyond, and a hard nut to crack even for tech giants like Facebook and Google. According to Facebook, females comprise 32 percent of their global workforce, with blacks making up 2 percent of their US employee numbers. Google reports similar numbers in its 2015 diversity report – 31 percent of its workforce are women, and 2 percent black.

It’s a step in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go. These companies are certainly not the only ones struggling to diversify, what more emerging startups whose top concerns are users and profitability?

Here’s why diversity is important.

Diversity breeds innovation

A study by Harvard Business Review found compelling evidence that diversity unlocks innovation and drives market growth. In particular, these six behaviours were found to unlock innovation across the board: ensuring that everyone is heard; making it safe to propose novel ideas; giving team members decision-making authority; sharing credit for success; giving actionable feedback; and implementing feedback from the team.

Diverse companies perform better

You’d be surprised to learn how it takes only one person from a different country, gender, experience level, or background, to start questioning “Why?” or “What if…?” to shake up the entire team. Diversity allows for ideas and decisions to be continuously challenged and when that happens, you get a better team, and an even better product.

Diversity attracts talent

According to Nolan Caudill, Engineering Chief of Staff at Slack, everyone’s upbringings, biases, and life experiences result in referral networks that are very homogenous. As a result, failure to hire and retain employees from underrepresented backgrounds causes companies to miss out on great talent, and subsequently, innovation.

It makes us feel better

Let’s admit it – amongst all the reasons for creating an inclusive workplace, the one we can’t shake it off is that it ultimately makes us feel better. The international tech community is still predominantly made up of men, and throwing in diversity into the mix confronts this moral problem.

At the same time, it proves to society that women and minorities do have a place in tech, easing the social inequality that plagues the tech industry’s present and future.

So what are we doing at Tech in Asia to encourage diversity?

We’ll be upfront that we’re nowhere near what Facebook and Google are doing. But we’re taking baby steps. As one of the nodes connecting Asia’s startup ecosystem, one of our first initiatives in encouraging diversity was to invite women in tech to attend our Tech in Asia conference series for free.

We have been doing this for two conferences now – Singapore and Bangalore this year – and this initiative will be here to stay. We certainly want the tech and startup community to benefit from diversity, and celebrate it.

Needless to say, with our Tokyo edition coming up on September 6 & 7, we are setting aside complimentary passes for women in tech. We’re also welcoming developers into our conference mix as we realise there aren’t many dedicated avenues for them to meet the rest of the tech or startup community.

If you’d like to be part of Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016, sign up for a Women in Tech pass, or a Developer pass. Successful applicants will be notified via email by August 31.