‘Jisc can play an instrumental role in making the technology sector a place women want to work’
How Jisc is using gender pay gap data to help encourage more women into technology roles
As one of the minority of female leaders in technology organisations, encouraging more women into the industry is important to me.
My role gives me the opportunity to make a difference at a time when women are still under-represented in IT and technology workplaces, including at Jisc.
I’ve noticed many positive differences since I started my career.
There are more visible female role models in the technology sector and the government has launched initiatives to encourage girls into technology careers.
There is also a much greater awareness of, and action around, diversity and inclusion, the menopause and the gender pay gap in the workplace.
However, there is a lot more to do to tackle the gender pay gap - to attract and, perhaps more importantly, retain women in technology roles, but we are making progress.
However, there is a lot more to do to tackle the gender pay gap - to attract and, perhaps more importantly, retain women in technology roles, but we are making progress.
At Jisc, we take an evidence-based approach to supporting women in the workplace. This includes feedback from staff surveys and listening events, diversity and inclusion data and annual gender pay gap statistics.
Jisc’s 2022 gender pay and bonus gap report, which has just been published, and similar data collected since 2018, has helped us to understand the continuing challenge and plan a number of initiatives.
Over the last year we have enabled 140 female staff to participate in our Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) leaders’ programme as well as creating a range of employee networks, for example, for ‘women’, those interested in the ‘menopause’ and ‘parents and carers’.
We’re trialing an ‘internal first’ approach to recruitment, where all roles above entry-level are advertised internally before any external promotion. We have also made a commitment to encourage all staff to use 10% of their time for personal development.
These actions have contributed to the good progress we are making in building a more diverse talent pipeline at Jisc. Other initiatives include growing our graduate and apprenticeship programmes and partnering with 10,000BlackInterns.
The overall gender split is narrowing
Since reporting began in 2018, we have gradually increased headcount from 572 to 950, and we are steadily closing the male/female gap. In 2022, 53% of staff were male, down from 56% four years ago.
It’s a mixed picture for the gender pay gap
Our gender pay gap is driven by Jisc employing more men than women in our upper quartile roles. While the gender split is falling in the upper middle pay quartiles, this is not yet significant enough to drive changes in our median gender pay gap.
The mean and median gender pay gaps for 2022 have risen slightly by just under 1% since 2021, but there has been a 6.7% increase in women in the upper middle pay quartiles.
We need more women in technology roles
According to benchmarking we carry out as part of our commitment to the Tech Talent Charter, Jisc is above the national average for employing women in technology roles: women hold 31% of tech roles in Jisc, compared to 28% nationally.
Moreover, the proportion of women in technology roles in Jisc has increased by 2% since we reported in 2021.
The gender pay gap can be challenging for technology organisations. Although there are signs Jisc is doing well compared to others, we know we can, and must, do more to find, nurture and keep women in our technology roles.
Next steps
We are taking steps to address the imbalances through our people strategy, the diversity and inclusion strategy and our work on pay and reward.
Our action plan for 2023 includes:
- Encouraging more aspiring and established female leaders to take part in our ILM leaders’ programme
- Continuing to develop and embed employee networks for women, parents and carers and the menopause
- Promoting greater internal mobility by growing opportunities for secondments and shadowing
- Actively supporting all staff to take 10% of their time for learning and networking to support career development
- Launching a diversity and inclusion programme for all strategic leaders
- Regularly reviewing employee data with a diversity and inclusion lens
- Providing greater access to mentoring opportunities for women, building on the established mentoring and coaching support available for all staff
- Partnering with the 10,000BlackInterns programme and growing our graduate and apprenticeship programmes to ensure a diverse talent pipeline
Women are intrinsic to Jisc’s success and a key focus of our diversity and inclusion strategy.
Women are intrinsic to Jisc’s success and a key focus of our diversity and inclusion strategy. Although there is much more to do, I am proud of the progress we are making to embed the ‘always inclusive’ guiding principle to the way we work across the whole organisation.
Overall, I feel confident that Jisc can play an instrumental role in making the technology sector a place women want to work.
Further information
- Jisc’s 2022 gender pay and bonus gap report is available to read and download
- Read more about our diversity and inclusion work and our commitment to the Tech Talent Charter
- There are many routes for women into tech and they don’t necessarily require a computing degree. Read our blog, 'It's time to normalise women in tech'
About the author
I joined Jisc as chief executive officer in September 2021. My key priority is to ensure Jisc stays innovative and focused on the needs of students, educators and researchers in what will be a turbulent but, I am sure, productive time ahead.