Welcome to Code Chatter, your go-to series for conversational coding insights. What makes this series of questions different from all the others? Well, truth be told, not much, but they're still thought-provoking and fun. Join us as we explore the coding world, one witty question at a time.
What advice would you offer to companies looking to create more inclusive workplaces for women, non-white, or disabled individuals in the tech industry?
Follow the DEVteam for more discussions and online camaraderie!
Top comments (1)
A good DE&I strategy requires autonomy from company agendas, while also having leadership buy-in. It needs to work hand-in-hand with the people/HR team, but shouldn't need them to drive it.
Working groups for DE&I and employee resource groups for different areas of focus tend to work well, and capture the voices of people who are affected by the lack of equity in certain areas.
Accept that sometimes everyones calendars will get full and not be able to make a DE&I sync. But don't let that be a reason to make DE&I an async discussion - it requires commitment to push forward.
Real inclusion and equity doesn't happen naturally. Tech especially has a significant impact on society, and will leads whole world in discovery and equity.
Internally, lack of representation can lead to bias being built into products unknowingly. For example in our company (Deepgram) could be our english-language ASR models could lack accuracy for certain dialects, or accents, or for folks who are ESL speakers. We don't have this problem, but without representation it could easily happen to your products.