Diverse by nature. Inclusive by choice.
I believe everyone has the right to feel safe, accepted and heard. Since I opened the doors of Signify in 2016, diversity has been the core of our vision, mission and values. It’s been a factor in every single decision. It’s been a factor in every single success. Diversity made us.
Now, in 2022...
…40% of our leadership team are female. 50% of our leadership team are non-white. 48% of our entire business are working or lower class.
When we talk about diversity, we mean it. We’re committed to an inclusive workforce that represents different cultures, backgrounds, perspectives and social classes. We encourage diverse thinking, and we thrive because of it.
You have to be able to bring your entire self to work.
I’m a black man from South London, and when I started in technology recruitment, an industry dominated by white men, I was always one of the few black people in the room.
I understood the internal conflict of bringing your ‘whole self’ to work when that ‘self’ is different from anyone else in the room. I can’t speak for women, or for those from different sexualities or abilities, and nor can I speak for every person of color, but I can speak about exclusion and what that feels like. And I can also do everything in my power to change that, which is exactly where Signify comes in.
The diversity built internally at Signify has naturally reflected out into the communities that we work within. As a recruitment company, we know that we are positioned in the perfect place to help make positive changes with all the amazing companies we partner with. We also know we have a responsibility to open doors for diverse candidates, to send the elevator back down, to pull up a chair at the table.
Our work
We don’t want to just talk about the problem, instead, we’re committed to making changes. Over the past year, we have hosted three global conferences, free to attend, for the Scala community; giving developers from lower socio-economic backgrounds, who would usually struggle to access tech talks like the ones we shared, the opportunity to learn from industry experts.
We are also partnered with two not-for-profit companies. Blacks in Technology, a US-based organisation who are helping to accelerate Black people in the US tech industry and Coding Black Females, an organisation helping Black Women consolidate their space in the UK tech industry.
We have recently joined forces with other leading recruitment agencies with the same ideals and values as us to create, Programme One; an initiative with the aim of improving diversity in the recruitment space.
Black people comprise only 3% of employees in the top 75 Silicon Valley tech companies. Around 8% of people working in tech in the UK are of Indian ethnicity, only 2% are Black and only 2% from Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds. Only 17% of all people working in tech in the UK are women and that hasn’t changed in five years. Let’s change this together. I hope you join us.
Ryan Adams, on behalf of the whole Signify team.