How to hire more female engineers: All the tactics and the tools
As the world moves towards workplace diversity, women in technology functions are still tough to find. According to a report from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, women hold only 25% of all technical roles globally, and when it comes to tech leadership roles, the number falls less than 5%.?
When hiring for engineering and IT roles, recruiters face the problem of having their pipeline flooded with male candidates with next to none women in sight. Hence, with the help of staffing specialists here at Xpheno, we have a comprehensive guide for you to find female engineers in India.?
In this article, get to know:
But first, why female engineers? Well..
Women perform better, studies say so.?
Harvard Business Review conducted a survey on managers across the U.S to give scores to their male and female employees on their professional skills- a variety of technical and soft skills. In 17 out of 19 categories, women scored higher than male employees. The survey had been conducted on a diverse set of fields including STEM fields, such as IT, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.?
Huge talent pool
Statistics showcase great potential for sourcing female candidates in the country, revealing that India has the highest proportion of female engineers around the world participating in Hackerrank tests.
Diversity leads to better innovations for the customers.
A study by Center for Diversity and Research found that companies with better diversity ratios were 158% more likely to innovate effectively for their end-users. Another research from Kellogg School suggests that cognitively diverse teams outperform less diverse groups in solving hard problems.?
A diverse work-team becomes especially important when companies are looking for creative solutions for technical problems. Hence, engineers too are looking for skilled, diverse talent to work with and progressive employers to work for.?
There are a lot more cases for why having a diverse team is good for business. And we know that to create a well balanced team, companies need to go a lot further than just having more women. But for this article, we would focus on how to source more women and tap into a diverse pool of competent candidates.
How to hire more female engineers
To hire more women, you need a pipeline that enables sourcing of women. Here are a few essentials to check:?
Create inclusive job descriptions:?
Job descriptions are usually the first touchpoint for candidates applying for jobs at your company. That is why make sure you pay close attention to the words in your JD to attract female candidates.?
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Use specific job titles
Crafting the right job title plays a huge role in hiring female engineers. A Linkedin business report suggests that women were more selective than men when applying for jobs, as women were 16% less likely to apply for positions they had viewed. Moreover, they were less likely to apply for senior roles and positions that did not completely align with their skillset.
Hence, job descriptions should be made specific.?
For instance, in a job posting for a Front-end Developer, knowledge of UI-UX design should be put in a separate nice-to-have section, so that more female candidates are encouraged to apply.?
Keep the language gender neutral
Avoid buzzwords like- ninja, guru or rockstar, these put off candidates from diverse backgrounds, since the words carry masculine undertones. And in any case, these words don’t add much value to help find competent engineers.?
Include EEO declaration in Job postings
You should include an equal employment opportunity statement that encourages job applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply. The policy signals that the company supports diversity and inclusion at the workplace and aims to establish the same.?
Employee Testimonials
When it comes to hiring, your employees can be the best (or the worst) advertisers. Ask your employees to refer female engineers. You can also talk to female employees and get their opinion on the company culture, if they feel that it is inclusive to women.?
Make your pipeline accessible to women
Women attract women. Therefore, to attract female candidates, it is important to have more women in the hiring funnel. If you don’t have female hiring managers or engineers in the said department, get women product managers or QA engineers involved in the process.?
Along with this, you can share instances and initiatives of diverse hiring on social platforms like linkedin and Facebook, and in other PR places to attract diverse talent.?
Read the entire piece here where we further discuss how to find female engineers. Get to know: