THE KEY TO DESIGNING
INCLUSIVE TECH:
Creating diverse andinclusive tech teams

Diverse and inclusive tech teams lead to more inclusive
tech design
Organizations with advanced inclusive practices are four times more likely to create
inclusive products% of organizations following inclusive design practices, based on responses from womenand ethnic minorities
39%
34%

32%

30%

11%

10%

Inclusive design is welldeﬁned in my organization
and we have inclusive designprinciples that govern ourdevelopment processes

11%

10%

8%

Our digital products
are inclusive ofgender, race, andethnicity-based
considerations

29%

There is a high level ofawareness of inclusive
design in myorganization

My organization isinterested in making
our digital products
more inclusive

Organizations with an inclusive culture

Inclusive design ofdigital tech is an
importantconsideration for myorganization

The Rest

Source: Capgemini Research Institute, Inclusive workforce, and inclusive technologies survey, March–April 2021; N=418 ethnic–minority andwomen employees in tech functions from N=418 organizations under consideration with N=102 organizations with an inclusive culture.

“Building inclusive technologies and solutions has an intrinsic relationship with how people from diverse backgrounds
within the tech team feel in the workplace. An improved sense of belonging and community for teams of people will lead
to better technological outcomes and solutions.”
Dr. Matteo Zallio
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Senior Research Fellow in Inclusive Design at the University of Cambridge

However, current inclusion and diversity practices are broken
Leadership perceives processes and practices to be inclusive; diverse employees intech teams disagree
To what extent do you agree with the following statements - leadership executives vs women andethnic-minority employees
My organization provides equitable opportunities to careerdevelopment and promotions to every employee.

85%
18%

My organization has a holistic talent strategy that utilizes data to help
employees mitigate implicit biases at employee touch-point.

82%
20%

Leadership, managers, recruiters, and supervisors undergo
rigorous and periodic bias training and are assigned personalaccountability systematically reducing microinequities andpromoting inclusive leadership.

81%
27%

There is a robust grievance redressal mechanism forcomplaints pertaining to gender, race or ethnicity-based
discrimination or harassment.

81%
18%

My organization conducts regular and eﬀective training programs thatare aimed at promoting inclusion and diversity.

77%
14%

Employees from diverse backgrounds intermingle freely within
the organization.

77%
22%

Discriminatory comments or jokes are not tolerated at the workplace.

72%
38%

Leadership executives

Women and ethnic-minority employees in tech functions

Source: Capgemini Research Institute, Inclusive workforce, and inclusive technologies survey, March-April 2021, N = 500 organizations,with 500 leadership executives; N=418 women and ethnic-minority employees in tech functions.

Woman application architect and manager
from a multinational consumer-goods corporation

Woman software engineer
from a large high-tech organization“When our leadership network follows up withethnic-minority employees who are leaving, theyrealize that most of them believe that they are
not gettin promoted on time or being valued”“Salary discrimination is a huge problem in Europeand Germany, in my company as well. Some of myco-workers, mostly guys, have a higher salarythan me just because I am a woman”

The perception gap between leadership and women and ethnic minorities
regarding various inclusion processes and measures is narrower fororganizations with an inclusive culture
Perception gap on inclusive practices in the organization(% points)
57%

55%

54%

44%
38%

37%

33%

31%

21%

8%

Work-life balance,
ﬂexibility in work
timings, and remote
working is actively
promoted

Feedback isfrequently collectedfrom women andethnic minorities
employees andacted upon

Women and ethnic
minorities have equal
access tocareer-enhancing
network andmentorship as therest of the employees

Inclusive culture practices

Women and ethnic
minorities beneﬁtequally frominterventions toincrease career capitalas the rest of theemployees

Women and ethnic
minorities have equal
access to employee
resources groups andhuman resources as
the rest of theemployees

Career growth measures

Perception gap, leadership executives vs women and ethic minorities, Organizations with an inclusive culture
Perception gap, leadership executives vs women and ethic minorities, The Rest
Source: Capgemini Research Institute, Inclusive workforce, and inclusive technologies survey, March–April 2021; N=418 ethnic-minority andwomen employees in tech functions from N=102 organizations with an inclusive culture.

Consumers are aware of tech-based discrimination – and mosthave experienced it
More than six in 10 ethnic-minority and women consumers feel that certain ﬁltersand photo-editing apps work better for speciﬁc skin tones% of consumers concerned about discrimination due to the use of digital technologies
Full body scanners at airports more frequently ﬂagging women ofcolour based on their hairstyles like afros, braids

74%
69%

Forms being auto populated with a speciﬁc gender

73%
63%

Voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana having default female names
and female voices

61%
58%

Certain ﬁlters and photo editing apps working better for
speciﬁc skin tones

63%
60%

Image searches on browsers like Google having an ethnic bias (e.g.
search for black teenagers mostly results in mugshots)

60%
56%

Social media and content platforms not ﬁltering out false information
or misinformation by users targeted at minority communities

57%
53%

Social media platforms like Facebook limiting certain advertisements(e.g. housing based on race and jobs based on gender)

Ethnic minorities and women

56%
52%
Other consumers

Source: Capgemini Research Institute, inclusive design of technologies consumer survey, March–April 2021; N=5,000 consumers including4000 women and ethnic-minority consumers.
26-year-old Asian woman, US

32-year-old middle Eastern man, UK“Since I am from China, every time my parents orI use an Alexa or Google voice search, itinterprets incorrectly. It discourages me fromusing this technology; i would rather type.”“Minorities such as me, with beards and facialhair, had problems with biometric scanning andfacial-recognition software at airport stores. It
wasn’t designed to pick up people with facial hair.
It is being rectiﬁed now ”

How can organizations move towards greater inclusion in techteams and tech products?
Building an eﬀective inclusion and inclusive design strategy• Design inclusive sourcing andhiring practices• Ensure women andethnic-minority employees aregiven equal opportunity forcareer growth and progression• Enable dialog and create
healthy environments

Develop robust
processes, practices
and value systems
that enable inclusion

Drive fairness in AI
systems and work
towards reducing
algorithmic biases• Conduct an impact-assessment
analysis for algorithms andautomated decisions• Screen datasets used to train AI
systems for bias and audit them
regularly

Leading with inclusion• Ensure women and ethnic
minorities play a critical role inthe design and development ofdigital technologies• Incorporate checks andbalances to ensure tech design
and tech infrastructure areinclusive

Keep diverse users at
the heart of designinginclusive tech/digitalproducts and services

Lay down thetechnological anddata foundations forfostering inclusion• Use tools and tech eﬀectively
to build greater inclusion• Enhance data-collection andmanagement practices forbetter tracking of DEI

Build tech leadership accountability and ownership for inclusion and diversity
1. Awareness and education
3. Accountability

2. Authentic leadership for hybrid tech teams
4. Specific focus on diversity segments

Source: Capgemini Research Institute Analysis.

Download Report
Subscribe to the latest research from the Capgemini Research Institute by visiting
https://www.capgemini.com/capgemini-research-institute-subscription/
This message contains information that may be privileged or conﬁdential and is theproperty of the Capgemini Group. Copyright © 2021 Capgemini. All rights reserved.