Recruiting and retaining female digital talent

In a survey of over 1000 women in the UK who have career changed into a digital role or are considering doing so, over 70% are actively reskilling and applying for digital roles and nearly 90% would reskill if training opportunities are offered by their employer.

“Recruiting and Retaining Female Digital Talent: Insights for Employers” provides insight into the barriers and enablers shaping women’s digital career journeys.

Insights from this report should be used to better advertise digital roles and shape reskilling programmes to attract more talented women, while also strengthening career pathways to retain those already in these roles.

Key findings:

46% of these women were already in digital roles. They told us: 

• 53% have experienced gender bias, ageism, racism or harassment within their roles. 
• 98% said that the pathway to promotion is unclear, despite more than 40% of these women having more than 10 years’ digital experience 

39% of women surveyed were interested in career changing or have already tried to do so. They told us: 

• 89% of women interested in a digital career are willing to reskill if it is offered by their employer. However, only 32% have been given the opportunity by their employer to reskill or transition into digital roles within their organisation. 
• 59% of women who want to career change report that it is not clear what steps they need to take to land a digital role due to restrictive job requirements. 

The remaining 15% of women weren’t interested in a career in digital due to misalignment between how digital roles are presented and how women view their skillsets and interests.