A slew of landmark rulings are poised to improve gender representation across the EU, but are Switzerland’s tech leaders equipped to embed sustainable change?

Whilst representation has improved in many areas over the last few years (2023 saw an average share of women on boards reach 34.4% at the 100 largest listed companies), broad salary gaps persist. The Swiss DevOps space is a prime example.

When the team Trust in SODA founded the Women in DevOps community back in 2017, we set out with a clear goal: to help close the gender pay gap in DevOps and inspire the future leaders of the tech world. We’ve come a long way since then, but our mission has remained the same. Now, as we expand our diversity-focused recruitment services further across Switzerland, we have an opportunity to explore new avenues of impact.

According to our LinkedIn Talent Insights, women make up just 11% of DevOps professionals across Switzerland. The hiring demand remains very high, with hidden gem locations for talent including the Greater Bern Area, Lucerne Metropolitan Area, and Basel Metropolitan Area.

The data covers the 2,200 DevOps professionals in Switzerland on the LinkedIn platform with the following job titles:

• DevOps Engineer

• DevOps Manager

• Head of DevOps

• DevOps Specialist

• DevOps Architect

• Director of DevOps

Navigating the Talent Landscape Through Diverse Hiring

Despite high demand, a culture of innovation, a shallow talent pool, and world-leading educational institutes, many Swiss businesses are still failing to leverage diverse hiring techniques to close the gaps.

A space like DevOps (an inherently intersectional discipline), thrives on the diversity of thought and experience represented by a heterogeneous team.

Whether it’s unconscious bias from hiring managers, hostile company cultures, societal pressures, systemic barriers to education, or all of the above and more, plenty of factors count towards inequitable working conditions.

Leaders will need to recognise and proactively commit to making behavioural changes if they want to create access to a larger talent pool – meeting the incoming regulatory requirements (e.g., the EU’s Pay Transparency and Gender Balanced Boards Directives) will depend on it.

What Can Hiring Managers Do?

Aside from the regulatory pressures, diverse teams have long been known to outperform their homogenised counterparts. For fast-moving industries (and disciplines like DevOps), the scope and adaptability that a diverse workforce represents can be a strong competitive advantage. 

Hiring managers are in a unique position to capitalise on top talent by enhancing their recruitment, whilst at the same time, contributing towards closing skill gaps in the wider tech space. This requires an ongoing commitment to improve equitable access at every touchstone of the recruitment process – from attraction to offboarding and everything in between.

Knowing where to start is tough, particularly if you’ve only ever used one method to hire your DevOps talent. Every company is different, but we’ve found that many of the fundamentals (when it comes to authentic diverse hiring) remain the same. These include:

• Unbiased, Accessible Job Descriptions – removing gendered language in job adverts and clearly stating your organisation’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging is a good place to start extending your reach and improving your employer value proposition.

• Extend Your Search Parameters – limiting your search parameters (i.e., only targeting specific qualifications) won’t necessarily help you identify the best candidates, but it will limit your talent pool. Extending your parameters by shifting your hiring focus to skills over experience can be a great place to start widening your reach.

• Deliver Unconscious Bias Training – Regular unconscious bias training can help reduce invisible barriers and increase accessibility for candidates from diverse backgrounds.

• Diversify the Hiring Team – Diverse hiring teams/assessment staff not only bring a range of perspectives and experiences to the process, but they provide proof of your commitment to inclusion. The old, ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ sentiment has stuck around for a valid reason.

• Create a Standardised Hiring Process – Standardised hiring processes (with room for reasonable adjustments) can help further mitigate bias and ensure that your candidates get the chance to compete on an equal playing field.

Trust in SODA and Women in DevOps

If you’re hoping to build inclusive working environments that empower diverse teams, we’d love to help. Backed by our international Women in DevOps community (find out more here), our contract and permanent Swiss recruiters are equipped to help you identify, attract, and retain your top tech talent, even in a candidate-short space. Contact us to find out more about our bespoke recruitment services: https://www.trustinsoda.com/get-in-touch.

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