'Twenty-six per cent of our workforce is female, but that's not enough'

Pure COO Cliff Fox on how the firm plans to boost its female ratio of employees to 40 per cent in the next three years

We're at 26 per cent and it's not enough.

That's the ratio of females to males in Pure Technology Group right now, and whilst it's significantly better than the 17 per cent sector average, there's still some way to go to achieve a balanced environment - which is where we want to be. Whilst this may seem altruistic, or like campaigning on a trend, it isn't; it makes sound business sense to address the increasing skills shortage in the IT sector.

We've thought hard about how we address this and positive discrimination isn't right. No one here likes bias in any form. We have a wonderfully diverse business and adding barriers to that growth and success simply isn't right. It also contradicts our policy to recruit the best person for each role and develop from within wherever possible.

As a private limited company, we have no directives to follow other than those we set ourselves, but we do see this as the right thing to do. So, we've set ourselves a target of 40 per cent [female employee base] within the next three years, leading to 50 per cent ultimately. The focus is sharpened by active encouragement of hiring more women in technical engineer roles and career development within our existing attract/retain/develop routines.

This can't be achieved without a plan, so we've decided on the following methods:

• Further education engagement - active demonstrations of what working in IT is like, with an emphasis on female role models.
• Parent shifts - to encourage those wishing to re-join the workforce and balance work with family commitments.
• #GIRLTECHLCR - in conjunction with our customers; The Big Word, Sumo Digital, Wakefield Council and in association with Ahead Partnership we contributed to the recent inaugural interactive ‘tech for girls' event, exploring tech careers. We plan to do more of this in 2020 and beyond.

We already have pay equality for roles, regardless of gender. In fact, some of our top earners are women and we're blessed with some fantastic female talent at all levels of the business; from the boardroom to first-line service.

Cliff Fox is COO at Pure Technology Group.This article first appeared on LinkedIn.