Monday Interview: Rachel McElroy, of Solutionize Global

The tech sector is still struggling to diversify its workforce despite widespread awareness of the problem, according to a West Yorkshire-based industry professional.

Rachel McElroy is chief marketing officer for Wakefield-based Solutionize Global, a managed service provider business supplying people skills and hardware for technology focused companies.

She cited figures from the most recent Tech nation report, which show that just 19% of UK tech workers are female and 15% of tech workers are from BAME (Black, Asian, and minority ethnic) backgrounds.

The Tech nation Diversity and Inclusion report looked at UK Companies and analysed data from 12.5m UK companies which are registered with Companies House.

McElroy pointed out: “In leadership roles 77% of tech director roles are fulfilled by men, and 23% women. In the wider business economy, 71% of directors are men, and 29% are women.

“Data from the last two decades shows the proportion of women on tech boards has remained the same, despite many high profile campaigns and a renewed awareness of how a diverse board has a direct impact on the bottom line.

“Companies that have diversity in their leadership teams have been shown to be more profitable, because they benefit from receiving lots of different perspectives.”

She said Leeds has a thriving tech eco system, which features events that promote diversity.

But she warned that in spite of this, people still assume working in an IT department involves being shut away in a back office.

“There are a lack of role models for people coming up through the ranks who might want to consider a career in the tech sector,” she said.

“Back when I was at school I didn’t think girls did computer science. Today, my own daughter is in year 10 and there is just one girl in her entire year of 220 pupils who has chosen to do computer science.”

She said she feared the full range of opportunities in technology was not being explained properly in schools, with youngsters being given the impression that this job is simply about coding.

“If you don’t have a diverse mix in your team you end up with skewed data,” she said. “You get inherent bias and everything is developed with only one end user in mind.

“AI and machine learning are increasing in importance and there are going to be issues with if we don’t have a more balanced workforce in the industry.”

She said correcting perceptions among young people must begin at school rather than university level, though added she appreciated the rapidly changing nature of the technology sector makes it difficult to keep the education curriculum up-to-date.

“There needs to be more engagement and everybody has to get behind it and bang the drum about how important this is,” she said.

McElroy previously ran a marketing and support company for seven years, working heavily with clients from the tech and digital sector.

She began working full-time for Solutionize Global in January of this year and said the firm had doubled its headcount in the last few months.

It now employs 16 full-time staff as well as a large base of contractors.

“In August we moved into new offices in Wakefield and have made some key appointments to strengthen our leadership team,” McElroy added.

“One of the things I like is that we’re an agile company with a very flat hierarchy. It’s a family-run business and it has managed to keep that feel even as it has grown larger.

“We’ve always been receptive to change and are good at spotting trends and working out what our customers are likely to need from us in six months time.

“We can pivot quickly, whereas a lot of large companies take a long time to get changes signed off.”

She said it was an exciting time to be working for the business, noting it was likely to double in size within the next 12 months.