The global skills and competency framework for the digital world

#63 Include responsibilities for Diversity and Inclusion change request deferred

Promoting and supporting diversity in the workplace is an important aspect of good people management - it’s about valuing everyone in the organisation as an individual. To realise the benefits of a diverse workforce it’s vital to have an inclusive environment where everyone feels able to participate and achieve their potential regardless of age, disability, race, religion, gender and sexual orientation among others.

In the world of IT - this is relevant far beyond the "moral" case. It includes closing both industry skills gaps and organisational skills gaps, understanding diverse customer needs and requirements, creating a highly engaged and productive workforce, effective collaboration and teamwork, good practice (e.g. eliminating unintentional bias) when recruiting, resourcing, performing skills assessment, user experience etc

Suggest some wording added to the Business Skills generic responsibilities - definitely at the higher end but possible at lower levels as well.

Definitions (from CIPD)

Diversity is where difference is recognised and emphasised, but not actively leveraged to drive organisational success. There is acknowledgement of the benefit of having a range of perspectives in decision-making and the workforce being representative of the organisation’s customers.

Inclusion is where difference is seen as a benefit to use, and where perspectives and differences are shared, leading to better decisions. An inclusive working environment is one in which everyone feels valued, that their contribution matters and they are able to perform to their potential, no matter their background, identity or circumstances. Essentially it enables a diverse range of people to work together effectively.

Current status of this request: deferred

What we decided

Deferred. Additions made to generic business skills level 6 & 7. There maybe more to be done.

 Will be kept in the backlog of change requests and considered during continuous consultation.

See also change request #49.

What we changed

Additions made to generic business skills level 6 & 7.

Ian Seward
Nov 21, 2017 01:14 PM

Yep this makes sense. The BCS Digital Accessibility Specialist Group are going to provide some input in this too. Current thoughts?
- Are there Diversity and Inclusion skills missing?
- Possibly not as attributes of the system
- We can't list every possible attribute to be considered
- But lets have the discussion and see what DASG comes up with
- Are Digital and Inclusion aspects of 'soft skills'?
- Possibly be included in the Generics - Sounds reasonable
- We need to consider the website presentation
- Outside of Framework update but within scope of Website

More from DASG on request.

SFIA Updates Manager
Nov 29, 2017 12:23 PM

The correlation between creativity, diversity and the future tech workforce

www.computerweekly.com/feature/The-correlation-between-creativity-diversity-and-the-future-tech-workforce

Sunit Prakash
Dec 05, 2017 08:16 PM

Excellent suggestion and compelling argument.

Related to this and perhaps as a separate skill, there is also a need for managing across (global) cultures.

With outsourcing and distributed teams, timezone differences, language & culture - the skills to effectively manage such outsourced or internal teams needs to be recognised as an attribute.

SFIA Updates Manager
Dec 11, 2017 07:12 PM

'Sobering' diversity figures in IT must improve, says BCS

http://www.itpro.co.uk/chief-information-officer-cio/30087/sobering-diversity-figures-in-it-must-improve-says-bcs

Shane Radford
Nov 14, 2023 06:26 PM

This is an incredibly important issue and needs to deal with both physical and mental (so called invisible) disabilities.

I would propose that there should be a formal assessment for disabilities for practitioners/professionals working in the digital/ICT sector such that they can be formally identified, known, and catered for within the workplace.

Secondly, the specific skills needed to design, develop and support digital/IT solutions that are accessible and cater for end users of digital/IT solutions with disabilities should be a core set of skills defined within the framework. There are obviously numerous statistics related to disabilities however based on a view that approximately 15% of the world's population have some form of disability, with 4% experiencing significant difficulties, there should be explicit skills defined to address these needs and related neurodivergent users.

SFIA Updates Manager
Nov 20, 2023 09:06 AM

"the specific skills needed to design, develop and support digital/IT solutions that are accessible and cater for end users of digital/IT solutions with disabilities" are
User experience analysis
User experience design
User experience evaluation.

Also - partly , in Content authoring and Content publishing.
These were re-written for SFIA version 8 and the addition of Guidance note to support use and application of these skills.
Suggestions for other specific changes are very welcome.