Liaise with RSE leaders on EDIA-focused matters

[martintoreilly]

leaders survey - was shared at RSECon, should have a look to see what results have come in. Would be useful to see what we can help support

[twinkarma]

• Survey migrated to the interest group's google drive - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pEoHryEG0B9si7B5HsPKzWk_puZXh6iOVIHcmrt2BEs/edit#responses

[twinkarma]

@mchesterkadwell to post the survey again to the RSE leaders group

• Thank you for responding to the survey
• We've had limited response, please help us get a better understanding of EDIA in your institution!

[mchesterkadwell]

I've posted it to the RSELeaders Slack channel ✅

[twinkarma]

Thanks @mchesterkadwell!

[sjmf]

@sjmf to start discussion in the rse-leaders slack channel on whether this being a closed group is gatekeeping people who self-identify as RSE leaders from full participation in the community.

[sjmf]

Notes 4/12 – we have now had 7 responses to the RSE Leaders' EDIA survey from engaging through the #rseleaders slack channel. We discussed changing tack and targeting leaders directly via email. TODO:

• [x] Collect a list of RSE groups and heads of groups in a spreadsheet
• [x] Email out to targeted groups to ask them to fill in the survey
• [x] This allows us to chase people who haven't yet responded!

[stefpiatek]

Created a List of RSE groups and heads from data in public rse groups and updated with what I could find from the survey responses

[twinkarma]

Let's wait until next meeting check on this, possibly have another round of chasing up the RSE heads.

[stefpiatek]

@twinkarma very kindly offered to have a look at the survey to summarise responses and bring back for discussion

[twinkarma]

How do you feel about the diversity of your team(s)?

• 10/21 groups are ok or better !
• Male dominated, 7/21 explicitly mentions lack of gender diversity
• A group noticed a difference in gender roles:
  • UI/UX and project management team is mostly female
  • Dev and sysadmin is mostly male
• In the future it might be good to split questions for each type of diversity: gender, LGBTQ+, educational background, ethnicity etc.

How is this spread across seniority?

• 3/21 groups are ok or better:
  • One team has more woman than Men
  • One team where everyone is the same grade
• Similarly male dominated environment
• Ethnic minorities are more at non-senior level
• A few responded with their team structure rather than the diversity, possible need to clarify the question

What steps are you taking to improve EDIA within and across your team(s)?

3 Groups mentioned being actively involved in a scheme:

• 10000 Black interns scheme
• EDI Working group
• Internship program

15 Groups mentioned recruitment

• EDIA Vetting through the university
• Writing inclusive job advertisements
• Advertising jobs through specific groups, e.g. women in HPC, R-Ladies, etc.

Ensure female members in the interview panels

What have you found to be effective in improving EDIA in your team(s)

• Choosing candidates with complimentary skillset to the team rather than the best skillsets
• Not sure, as the group is small, recruitment opportunities are limited in small teams
  • Small numbers of female applicants
• Effective approaches
  • Changing of job spec (no details given)
  • Word of mouth recommendation
  • Internships found to be effective
  • Advertising in a diverse domain

What have you found to be ineffectual in improving EDIA in your team(s)?

• A few groups not sure because of the small sample size
• EDIA Statement in job adverts, or just saying that they want to be diverse

How do you feel about the diversity of those involved in your hiring process?

5 groups were ok or happy with hiring diversity

• Having head of dept/group be woman helps with the interview panel
• Existing team composition helps, lower diversity team has a harder time putting together a balanced panel

What do you feel could be improved about the diversity of those involved in your hiring process?

• Most raised similar issues as the last two questions
• Having non-RSE (e.g. reserachers) on interview panels
• Requesting HR to create more diverse panels and advertise more widely

What support if any could the RSE Society provide?

• Promotion of RSE jobs page
• Provide channels for advertising to underrepresented groups
• Help review job adverts and give advice on EDIA aspects
• Linked in presence? Expensive to list jobs for small groups
• 6x Provide information about best practices, what's been effective, what's not
  • Where to advertise jobs
  • How to form diverse panels panels
  • Guidance on interviews and mock interviews
  • etc.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

• I am a dinosaur and my early engineering career was male dominated (1-5% women). i was pleasantly surprised to find this university department has a good number of women in senior positions. and in general closer to national gender demographic (but still fewer women than that)
• It can be difficult to make assessments at the scale of an individual RSE team - trying to gauge what has or hasn't been effective with a small number of examples is difficult, giving the confounding element of chance. Gathering information about best practice, sector diversity as a whole, and other information specifically within RSE would be very helpful in guiding practice and benchmarking.
• Women still don't apply to my posts in general and it makes me sad.
• Currently as a team of 1 central RSE, 2 embedded RSEs and 2 RIEs it has been difficult to answer these questions with as much detail as I would like to be able to apply to an important knowledge gathering exercise. Also, given the quantity of available RSE roles across the country, often you end up with a cross section of locality, interest in the institution itself and right time and place for applicants for any individual role, which might skew the diversity in any individual hiring process. I would be interested to see more documentation about how to appeal to a wider audience and make the hiring process more accesible for applicants for if we get to a stage where we are able to expand the team.

[stefpiatek]

Suggested next steps

• [ ] Worth having a chat with some HR professionals for what we advise
• [ ] Talk with some of the groups like women in HPC, to combine with their existing work and document it
• [ ] Send out summary to RSE leaders and thank them
• [ ] Publish list of resources online and advice
• [ ] Look at if women RSEs have a higher turnover, and why. Longitudinal across teams on exit interviews. Where do people leave to.
• [ ] RSECon
  • [ ] experience of being hired - people sharing their stories, what would you like hiring managers to know. BoF session or join in with practical EDIA
  • [x] practical EDIA session

[stefpiatek]

Women in HPC have great resources