How a DevOps culture can thrive with diversity

DevOps has allowed businesses both small and large to become inherently more productive in their deployment and delivery, which, in today’s market of being able to innovate – and do so quickly – is irreplaceable.

However, it encompasses a greater purpose; at its core, DevOps is a methodology. How Diversity and Inclusion Drives Innovation and Growth is evident in its role as a cultural solution to organizing that is based on experimentation and innovation.

Coming up with new solutions to problems is challenging, and is even more difficult without any fresh or new perspectives. Diversity and inclusion bring unique and versatile perspectives to a team, and, when focused on a clear goal, ‌can be instrumental in fostering a strong workplace culture.

In this article, Dakota Murphey takes a look at the importance of diversity and how the culture within the DevOps industry can thrive with it.

Dakota is a freelance writer who specialises in Digital Trends in Business, Marketing, PR, Branding, Cybersecurity, Entrepreneurial Skills and Business Growth.  You can find her on Twitter: @Dakota_Murphey

THE STATE OF WOMEN IN DEVOPS

A successful DevOps culture embraces collaboration, shared responsibility and complete transparency. Women are naturally more predisposed to this mindset than men, and as we know, within the expanding and evolving tech sector, women still make up the overwhelming minority. Not only that, but they continue to face biases, stereotypes and barriers to breaking into technical DevOps job roles, ranging from programming and engineering to management and freelancing.

For a DevOps culture to thrive, not only do organisations need to prioritise creating a diverse hiring strategy, but they also need to position more strategic-thinking women at the heart of their companies.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN DEVOPS

Diversity, and more specifically, adding more creative and technical women to the DevOps fold, can present a company with many tangible advantages. 

Diverse DevOps can:

• Demonstrate a company’s diligence and commitment to creating opportunities for a broader range of people, with different backgrounds and experiences
• Expand the talent pool, particularly in fields in which there lies a persistent underlying skills shortage
• Drive innovation within the company, thriving off a wide variety of diverse and interesting perspectives, strategies and thought processes
• Aid employee retention and engagement significantly, keeping integral staff closer to the organisation as it grows and scales 

HOW TO IMPROVE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION WITHIN DEVOPS

At SheCanCode, we are dedicated to helping women enter, remain, and thrive in the tech industry. We are committed to closing the gender pay gap within tech as a whole, an industry in which women are vastly underpaid and under-represented. 

We also strive to help recruiters and hiring managers ‌‌towards fostering a more inclusive and diverse culture and spectrum of talent in their workplaces. According to McKinsey’s recent Delivering Through Diversity report, companies with a more culturally and ethnically diverse board are 43% more likely to experience greater profits, which, in these financially testing times, would be most welcome. 

Diverse DevOps and broader technical teams offer helpful and insightful cultural perspectives on different problems, and they can also inspire new innovative and creative ideas. 

Consider the following starting points towards fostering a more inclusive and diverse tech team. 

PRIORITISE ESTABLISHING AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE

Your company culture is integral to attracting and retaining the best talent. You must actively cultivate a safe, empathetic and understanding environment to attract more diverse talent to your company, and proudly and publicly demonstrate this.

But don’t let this just be ‘all talk’ – recognise more international holidays like Hanukkah, Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Chinese New Year, Passover, Diwali, and Kwanzaa (among others), as well as Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year and Easter. 

Your company can also demonstrate inclusivity by recognising observance months in a calendar year like Black History Month, LGBTQ Pride Month, Gender Equality Month, Women’s History Month and many more.