A parliamentary inquiry into diverse representation in STEM employers found the sector could be missing out on vital talent. Challenging biases about returners in the industry could help, writes Natalie Desty.
Everyone who works in a STEM (science, technology, engineering or mathematics) role knows one simple fact – there are not enough of us.
The Royal Academy of Engineering has estimated that UK engineering employers need to recruit 182,000 engineers annually to keep up with demand and suggested that firms need to double its recruitment of graduates and apprentices to meet the shortfall.
We also know that there is a distinct lack of diversity and inclusion across STEM industries. Currently, just one in 10 engineers are female and BAME engineers make up just 7% of the workforce, despite making up 27% of graduates.
To recruit thousands of new engineers every year and improve the diversity of those recruits seems like an uphill task, but there is a hidden workforce with thousands of talented professionals who could help solve these issues but are being overlooked every day.
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This hidden workforce are the thousands of engineering and STEM professionals who have had a career break.
Shut out
These talented, educated and dedicated people find it incredibly difficult to get a job and are the victims of outdated recruitment methods that prevent them from getting an interview, let alone being offered the role.
Our annual STEM Returners Index polls a nationally representative group of over 750 STEM professionals who are on a career break and attempting to return to work or have recently returned.
The latest index shows how unconscious bias during the recruitment process was one of the main barriers preventing them from gaining employment.
Respondents felt they experienced bias in recruitment processes due to a number of reasons. Forty percent said they experienced bias due to lack of recent experience, while 37% felt they experienced bias due to their age.
Gender and ethnicity bias
Sadly, gender and ethnicity were also perceived as a barrier. In the survey, 43% of people who identified as being from a black or ethnic minority background said they had experienced bias due to race or ethnicity, while 27% of female respondents said they felt they have personally experienced bias due to their gender compared with 8% of men.
Additionally, 66% of black and ethnic minority respondents said they were finding it difficult or very difficult to return to work, compared with 57% white British respondents.
STEM organisations are clearly missing a major opportunity to get highly skilled, talented people – particularly women and ethnic minority groups – back into the industry.
But welcoming back mid-career professionals requires challenging the unconscious bias of the hiring community and recruitment supply chain, as well as changing internal culture to provide a more inclusive environment.
Refreshing skills
There is a perception that a career break automatically leads to a deterioration of skills. But the reality is, that many people on a career break keep themselves up to date with their industry, are able to refresh their skills easily when back in work and have developed new transferable skills that would actually benefit their employers.
Forty percent [of returners] said they experienced bias due to lack of recent experience, while 37% felt they experienced bias due to their age.
By updating traditional standardised recruitment methods that search for the “unicorn” candidate and challenging unconscious biases, the UK engineering sector could become the example for others to follow in the search for diversity and inclusion.
Change is happening, but slowly. We are proud to be making a difference and working with some leading engineering and STEM organisations to implement returner programmes.
We have now successfully placed more than 200 professionals in a variety of areas including aerospace, defence and energy – and the feedback we receive is always very positive.
Candidates tell us of the support they receive and how they feel they are contributing to the firm’s vision, while recruiters and managers tell us about the expertise the candidate has brought to the project.
This is positive but more needs to be done to change a wider culture that still views career breaks negatively instead of a completely normal part of many people’s working life.
Missing out
A report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) inquiry into diversity and inclusion in STEM said the sector could not reach its full potential without greater equity in the workplace. A lack of representation of black people, women, disabled people and those from the LGBTQ+ community means the sector is losing valuable skills, it found.
The report said the Covid-19 pandemic had made the situation worse. So, as we begin to return to “normal”, surely now is the perfect time to start anew?
We all need to do more to improve inclusion and diversity across the sector and it starts by looking inward at our own recruitment processes and challenging outdated practices.
STEM leaders need to do more help their own organisations become more inclusive and actively seek out diversity, which is proven to increase business success.
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Collectively we should not stop until we’ve created a level playing field for returners, put an end to unconscious bias in recruitment processes, and removed the hidden barriers returners face today.
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