Building gender diverse and equal engineering teams

At Degreed one of our core principles is Equality with a goal to have every team be 50/50 gender balanced.

In this talk, I will use personal experience to discuss what it takes to build a gender diverse team and the steps necessary to attract, hire, retain, and build an equitable environment for both men and women.

Transcript

1. BUILDING GENDER DIVERSE AND EQUAL ENGINEERING TEAMS August 4th, 2016 Scott Smith | Degreed VP Engineering degreed.com/scottsmith @scottksmith95
2. THE FIGHT FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN TECH IS NOT A “MAN VS. WOMAN WAR”
3. AGENDA 1 Job offer 2 Interviewing 3 Recruiting 4 Job description 5 Work environment 6 Culture 7 Leadership
4. JOB OFFER ANCHORING BIAS
5. WOMEN ARE CONSISTENTLY PAID LESS THAN MEN FOR THE SAME WORK
6. PAY FOR THE ROLE, NOT THE PERSON
7. SALARY MATRICES ARE YOUR FRIEND
8. HIRING AND PROMOTING
9. CORRECT THE PAY BIAS THAT EXISTS
10. WOMEN HIRED BY GOOGLE IN 2015 RECEIVED A 30% BIGGER SALARY INCREASE THAN MEN
11. WOMEN ENGINEERS HIRED BY DEGREED IN 2016 RECEIVED A 200% BIGGER SALARY INCREASE THAN MEN
12. INTERVIEWING AVOID WHITEBOARD INTERVIEWS LIKE THE PLAGUE
13. CODE REVIEWS
14. CONVERSATIONAL TECHNICAL INTERVIEWS
15. CODING EXERCISES
16. BRING IN FEMALE INTERVIEWERS
17. KEEP INTERVIEWS STRUCTURED
18. RECRUITING RECRUITING WOMEN TO FILL A POSITION WON’T WORK IF THE SLIPPER DOESN’T FIT, SO BREAK THE SLIPPER
19. THE PROBLEM LIES WITH YOU
20. BROADEN THE FUNNEL
21. SHOOT FOR AT LEAST 50/50 CANDIDATE POOL
22. WAYS TO RECRUIT 1 Reach out to and participate in women’s groups 2 Hire recruiter experienced in recruiting female applicants 3 Sponsor events 4 Underwrite scholarships 5 Start mentoring or internship program 6 Expand your networks 7 Always recruit even when no open jobs 8 Be active in the community
23. METRICS MATTER
24. JOB DESCRIPTION THE PURPOSE OF A JOB DESCRIPTION IS TO PERSUADE SOMEONE TO APPLY, NOT SCARE THEM OFF
25. BAD X+ YEARS EXPERIENCE SOLVING…
26. GOOD EXPERIENCE SOLVING…
27. BAD JOB TITLES SUCH AS HACKERS, ROCKSTARS, OR NINJAS
28. GOOD JOB TITLES SUCH AS DEVELOPER, ENGINEER, OR ARCHITECT
29. BAD AGGRESSIVE TERMS LIKE DOMINANT, STRONG, OR COMPETITIVE
30. GOOD TERMS LIKE EAGER, FRIENDLY, FLEXIBLE, OR DIVERSE
31. BAD STRONG EMPHASIS ON SPECIFIC LANGUAGES OR TECHNOLOGIES
32. GOOD EMPHASIS ON CURIOSITY, FLEXIBILITY, ABILITY TO LEARN, AND WORK WITH OTHERS
33. BAD VALUING WORKING HARD, BEING THE BEST, THE ELITE, OR TOP
34. GOOD VALUING LEARNING, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, CURIOSITY, AND INITIATIVE
35. BAD EMPHASIS ON DEGREES, GITHUB, DRIBBBLE, OR OTHER SITES
36. GOOD EMPHASIS ON EXPERIENCE, SKILLS, AND EAGERNESS TO GROW AND LEARN
37. WORK ENVIRONMENT
38. FLEXIBILITY
39. REMOTE WORK
40. UNLIMITED PTO
41. MATERNITY AND PATERNITY LEAVE POLICIES
42. ON THE JOB LEARNING
43. AT DEGREED 1 Truly flexible work hours 2 Remote work 3 Unlimited PTO with no tracking 4 Unlimited maternity & paternity leave 5 FlexEd 6 On the job learning
44. KAT’S STORY
45. JIHAE’S STORY
46. CULTURE DON’T CHANGE THE WOMAN, CHANGE THE CULTURE
47. PRINCIPLES 1 Equality 2 Empathy 3 Candor
48. EQUALITY 1 Seek in teams, practices, and process 2 Strive for 50/50 in all teams 3 Universal compensation 4 Matrix by skill level compensation
49. EMPATHY 1 Assume the best in each other 2 Sacrifice on behalf of each other 3 Assume innocence in all things 4 Truly care about others
50. CANDOR 1 Encourage tough conversations 2 Don’t talk in hypotheticals 3 Coach and learn from mistakes 4 Don’t let injustices slide
51. SHARE CURRENT STATE WITH COMPANY
52. LEADERSHIP THIS IS A TOP DOWN PROBLEM
53. GREAT LEADERSHIP ENABLES 1 Support for equal pay 2 Quality recruiting programs 3 Appealing work environment 4 Proper culture
54. GET FIRST FEMALE HIRE EARLY ON TO SET THE STAGE
55. RECAP 1 Job offer 2 Interviewing 3 Recruiting 4 Job description 5 Work environment 6 Culture 7 Leadership
56. THANK YOU! FOLLOW VISIT scott@degreed.com @scottksmith95 EMAIL scottksmith.com