One of just nine businesses in the founding group, RBI will work with its partners in the group to encourage businesses to sign up to key measures around diversity in technology.
The Tech Talent Charter was launched at an event in London this week and RBI was represented by Senior HR Business Partner Jo Portlock, Head of Technology Steve Williams, Business Change Manager Terry Tomecek, Head of Product Development Dorota Tsatsaris and Web Test Analyst Bhagya Mudiyanselage.
Last year Caitlin Moran (author and journalist) highlighted that “if 90% of coders are men, developing and owning the language of the future, women won’t be part of the conversation”. With this front of mind, and mindful of the looming digital skills gap, Monster.co.uk launched its Girls in Coding campaign earlier this year which consisted of a series of initiatives and events aimed at raising awareness of the low ratio of females in the tech workforce and encouraging females to aspire to work in technology related roles.
From this initiative, and inspired by conversations with leading organisations, the Tech Talent Charter was born, bringing together numerous key figures within the industry to support and form the working groups of a charter that encourages businesses to sign up to actions which aim to increase the amount of diverse talent within their organisations.
Jo Portlock, RBI Senior HR Business Partner, explained: “The Tech Talent Charter is a great initiative to help improve the representation of females in technology.
“RBI has taken a lead role in helping create the recruitment and retention guidelines that support the charter, utilising the experience and expertise of our many men and women in Technology.
“24% of technology roles at RBI are held by women which is better than Apple, Twitter and Facebook. Whilst we still have some way to go we have a great starting point and are delighted to keep supporting the Tech Talent Charter’.”
Terry Tomecek, RBI Business Change Manager, added: “RBI signing up to the Charter demonstrates our continued focus on diversity and equality within the organisation and being one of the founding members shows we want to have a place at the table in determining the charter principles.
“The Charter guidelines will help us and many other companies adopt best practice and ultimately recruit a more diverse technology workforce, which research has shown results in companies being more successful.”
