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Australian companies are racing to boost their IT capabilities. Consulting company Gartner estimates that spending on technology products and services in Australia exceeded $109 billion in 2022, an increase of 6.5% from 2021.

Yet despite the big spend, Australian companies often struggle to recruit and retain skilled IT professionals. One key factor could be acting as a major road block.

The 2022 Digital Pulse Report from the Australian Computer Society (ACS), notes that fewer than one in three IT workers in Australia are women. The report adds that “in an industry where employers are regularly complaining about the lack of skilled workers, we have here what seems to be an easy win…addressing diversity and inclusion issues in the IT industry”.

The need to embrace gender diversity in the tech sector is becoming increasingly urgent. The number of Australians working in the IT sector grew by 64,743 in 2021, reaching a total of 870,268. This represents 8.0% year-on-year growth, and ACS forecasts that by 2027 there will be almost 330,000 more technology workers in the Australian workforce than there are today.

Filling these roles calls for more women to embrace the possibilities of a career in IT – and for more employers to engage female talent. The Tech Council of Australia observes that “keeping a focus on the role of women in the tech sector is absolutely critical” if roles are to be filled , adding that reskilling can be a valuable pathway to get women into IT jobs. This would create more female role models, and provide female-to-female mentors to help women take on leadership roles in the sector.

It’s not just about filling jobs though. A study by Boston Consulting Group and the Technical University of Munich found:

• Companies with higher levels of diversity get more revenue from new products and services.
• The presence of female managers can increase innovation.
• Companies with diverse management teams facilitate an environment of openness in which employees can comfortably speak their minds, something that is crucial in fostering innovation.

With this in mind, three Robert Half leaders – Sylvia Blockx, Nicole Gorton and Dee Robertson explain why we need more women in tech, and how women in technology can unlock the door to diversity to help businesses, and candidates, flourish.

Nicole Gorton is a Director at Robert Half Australia and a leading voice for DEI in the workplace and relishes the opportunity to help companies tackle their workplace challenges.

Sylvia Blockx is a Managing Director at Robert Half in Belgium, and leads the firm’s technology practice across Benelux – Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Dee Robertson is a senior talent solutions manager at Robert Half in the UK. She works closely with Amazon on the AWS re/Start programme, which helps underrepresented groups to enter the technology sector.

What are the key trends in technology employment and how did the pandemic impact these trends?

Nicole Gorton: At the start of the pandemic, businesses parked technology projects amid the uncertainty, which impacted development and business transformation teams. In 2021, these projects restarted, but businesses were short of the skills they needed. What followed was a hiring frenzy, in a market where the supply couldn’t keep up with demand, especially for roles with niche skills. We’ve had to educate clients to hire on potential, and train people up, which is an ongoing process.

Sylvia Blockx: Technology is a fast-paced sector. People move roles more often, especially contractors: the technology is changing all the time and they see opportunities to gain experience elsewhere. Businesses can hire on potential, because a willingness to learn is important, and those with less experience can fill the skills gap left behind.

Dee Robertson: In 2021, I started approaching businesses about the AWS re/Start programme. They were interested, but unsure about hiring people at a junior level, because of a skills shortage in more senior roles. I had a lot of conversations and planted a lot of seeds. In 2022, a client was trying to hire a senior developer, but struggling to secure the right candidate. They saw a six-strong shortlist from the re/Start programme and decided to hire three people. The process worked well, and they are planning to hire again this year. Businesses will hire on potential if people have the basic skills in place.

Why do we need more women in tech, and why is it important to talk about it now?

Dee: Businesses are crying out for female talent and are seeking to balance the genders. In the UK, there is a disproportionate number of men in technology roles, so it’s important for women to hear about the opportunities. I recently heard a female chief executive from a training organisation talking about this issue: she said how important it was to create visibility for women, so they can see technology as a viable career path.

Nicole: In Australia, there are more women coming into the sector. They are often bringing change or project management experience, rather than niche a technology specialism, but they can progress into leadership roles. There is a big appetite to have female leaders.

Related: Women in technology – why aren’t there more?

What makes female candidates suitable for technology roles?

Nicole: They have important skills, including emotional intelligence, collaboration, and leading people through change, for example. These skills aren’t just associated with women, but they help to translate and communicate technology for others. In addition, customers will be gender diverse, and businesses will do better if they can mirror their customer base. They will come up short without women in leadership and customer-facing roles.

Dee: I’m seeing a lot of women in the re/Start programme coming back to work after having a family. They are hugely passionate and bright, but they have a gap on their C.V. Businesses can send the right message by supporting women to come back into the workforce.

Sylvia: Since the pandemic, a lot of businesses have realised they need to give people more ownership and flexibility in how they work. This mindset shift is helping women to combine family life with a full-time job.

How can technology companies improve diversity?

We know we need more women in tech, and our panellists identify diversity in the interview panel, and diversity in the interviewees as first step in widening diversity. Not only will this give the opportunity for women to be included in tech roles, but people of diverse professional and personal backgrounds will get these same opportunities.

Dee: The question I get asked a lot is: ‘How do I guarantee diversity on a shortlist?’ Businesses can help themselves by making simple adjustments: If a technology business is hiring, it needs to make the job advert appealing; if it supports diversity, equity and inclusion, make that clear, too; if it wants to hire junior talent, don’t ask for one to two years’ experience; the same applies for people switching careers – make them feel welcome.

Nicole: Number one, they need to have a diverse interview panel; number two, look at the criteria used to measure diversity (which will help number one); and number three, if businesses are going to hire on people’s potential, then support them. When new starters are mentored, and given the skills to succeed, they are more likely to stay.

Dee: A diverse interview panel is important. I’ve seen one business do it well, and one do it badly. One candidate was in the final stages of an interview process, and likely to land the role, but it was an all-male, all-white panel. She was nervous, didn’t represent herself strongly, and didn’t get the job. In another example, female candidates sat opposite a female on the interview panel, and said their experiences were much more comfortable.

Sylvia: In Belgium, we encourage clients to tell a story to attract a diverse range of candidates; we also encourage candidates to share their story as well. Would they like to be selected based on a C.V.; or would they like to share their story first? This approach has a lot of potential.

Related: Six questions that will impact women in the workplace today, and tomorrow

What’s your advice to women interested in the technology sector?

Nicole: Find allies and mentors. If women are coming back to the workplace and juggling childcare, for example, then a support network to help them grow and develop will be so valuable.

Sylvia: Interview training can help candidates to understand more about the sector, and the kind of questions they might be asked. It’s another step in accessing opportunities and finding the right role.

Dee: Continuous learning, especially in the technology sector, is important. There are many ways to access funded training and certifications. But even if they go on a course, they might not get the first job opportunity, so stay hungry, stay tenacious, and knock on doors until they open. I recently met one women, who had relocated from Nigeria, joined the Royal Air Force and worked her way up the ranks. But, after five years in the RAF, she was determined to get into the technology sector. She became a bus driver in London to support herself through a computer science degree, before working in technology consulting; she then saw the world moving into the cloud and chose to upskill again. Now she is working as a DevOps engineer. There are so many powerful stories like hers in the sector.

Do you need to hire top talent in Australia? Robert Half is a leading technology recruitment agency with a specialisation for finding and placing tech experts.