As the proportion of women working in the IT sector continues to drop, IT services and support company Connect has introduced a programme aimed at increasing the number of female IT engineers employed at the organisation.

According to research published last year by IT trade association Intellect, women account for only 16 per cent of the UK’s IT workforce. The same study also revealed that half of female IT workers felt their pay was not comparable to male colleagues performing a similar role - and over a third had evidence of this pay discrepancy.

With 110 employees, Connect does not have the hiring power of industry giants such as IBM and Microsoft, which already have extensive employee and recruitment diversity programmes in place. However, chief executive Mark MacGregor was keen to address the gender imbalance within his organisation by setting gender recruitment targets and establishing an internal company group dubbed “Google Girls” to attract and retain more female employees.

The group was launched on the back of feedback from a focus group of female engineers at the firm, and mixes social events such as film nights with formal training sessions. A mentoring scheme has also been introduced for new starters, while the firm offers a flexible working scheme, including job sharing and flexible hours.

“We wanted to give our female staff the sense that they’re part of a group with its own identity, not just one person out of 40 staff,” MacGregor added.

Outside of the organisation, Connect supports schemes such as Computer Club for Girls and Women in Technology, while MacGregor visits local schools and colleges to promote the IT sector to both girls and boys.

MacGregor said that the steps taken by the firm were essentially in response to business requirements. “For us, it was a practical thing. We wanted to retain and recruit the best people,” he explained. “IT skills shortages are a massive issue, and if you’re ignoring 50 per cent of the population who have all the skills you might need, you’ll continue to see that problem.”

Only 15 per cent of current Connect employees are female - a number that MacGregor hopes to grow to 50 per cent over the next two years. “We’ve had noticeably more female applicants since starting the initiative last September. Of the six new recruits we’ve taken on since then, two are female, so we’re setting the target high."

Other IT firms do not have such an enlightened attitude, according to MacGregor. “Many still have quite a patronising attitude towards women, and hold outdated prejudices about IT staff needing to be able to lift heavy equipment or be a gaming nerd,” he said. “Twenty years ago, the same prejudices and male dominance were evident in the legal and medical sectors but those professions have taken positive steps to overcome the gender imbalance. In 10 to 15 years, I think the IT industry will have reached the same gender balance as seen in law and medicine today as IT is now such an important part of the British economy.”

Hayley Davis, a first line support engineer at Connect, thinks school and college visits from female IT workers could help encourage more women to consider IT careers

"I’ve worked in the IT industry for three years, and have only recently joined Connect. In fact, the Google Girls scheme was one of the things that drew me to the organisation. It’s a good mix of social events such as wine tasting and sessions with IT speakers.

In my previous roles in the technology sector, I’d worked with all men. It seems ridiculous we’re not doing more to get more women into IT as there’s such a low percentage of females working in the industry. One thing that would be a real help would be going into schools and colleges more frequently to offer positive female role models. I did a talk at my old school, and I’m planning on doing more of these types of sessions."

Kashi Abu, a programme developer at Connect, believes that the perception of computing as “nerdy” coupled with a lack of flexible working programmes are key reasons for the low number of females in the IT industry

"I was interested in IT from school age, and did a data processing course when I left. I didn’t find being a woman a barrier to my learning, but lots of women do. I’ve worked in the industry for 10 years, four of those at Connect. It would be nice to have a lot more female faces around.

We had a brainstorming session and came up with a number of ideas on why women are not coming into the IT industry and what needed to be done to address this problem. Part of the problem, especially for returning mothers, was a lack of opportunities for job sharing, teleworking and flexible hours. Women also think of IT as very nerdy and being about crawling around on the floor. But areas such as IT project management are very good options for women.

Within a couple of weeks of our focus group session, the Connect Women scheme was launched. It’s difficult to tell if there will be enough female applicants to achieve the 50/50 target set by the company - among the women I know, there’s a feeling that they don’t get a chance with IT roles even when they send out their CVs. But it’s a very laudable initiative and there is a good chance of a significant increase of female workers at Connect very soon."