Best Practices for Recruiting & Retaining Women in Security>
Dark Reading – Kelly Jackson Higgins
The ongoing challenge to fill mass cybersecurity job vacancies amid the backdrop of a lack of diversity continues to haunt one of the world’s hottest industries. Forrester analyst Stephanie Balaouras, who co-authored the report with fellow analyst Claire O’Malley, says there are a couple of best practices for recruiting and retention that are fairly simple to adopt right away. “I definitely think recruiting beyond traditional security conferences and [job] fairs ⦠is an easy step” to broaden recruitment, she says. “And looking at internal [employees who are] career-changers is a really easy one to take on, too.” On the retention side, Balaouras recommends security mentoring programs for women on staff and advocating for cybersecurity events to become more inclusive and welcoming to women. “I myself personally benefited from mentoring, and a lot of people we interviewed for the report had mentors, [including] vendors outside of their job as part of their network, too,” she says. “And being a part of cultural change at cybersecurity events” is another initial first step to help in the retention equation, she says. Forrester’s report cites the widely reported 11% statistic that quantifies women’s representation in the security industry worldwide, and the projected 1.8 million empty security positions worldwide by 2020, according to the Frost & Sullivan report from last year. But initial data from an as-yet unpublished study by Cybersecurity Ventures shows the 11% number may be a bit on the low side. Steve Morgan, CEO and founder of Cybersecurity Ventures, says his firm’s research finds the number of women in cybersecurity jobs worldwide is actually over 20%. That number takes into account security vendors, security service providers, small-to midsized enterprises, and security startups in Israel that include women in their ranks. “Companies in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to see returns above the industry mean,” Forrester said, citing data from a Harvard Business Review report. Here are Forrester’s Best Practices for recruiting women in security: Connect women with cybersecurity early on Recruit from academic institutions with a higher enrollment of women Look to internal career-changers Look beyond STEM backgrounds Join forces with HR Sponsor, recruit from diverse security events Mentoring programs Track data on your diversity in hiring, promotions Provide training to deal with internal unconscious bias issues Offer family-friendly benefits for all employees Formal mentoring programs Culture improvements as a performance metric Foster cultural change at cybersecurity events
Link: https://www.darkreading.com/careers-and-people/best-practices-for-recruiting-and-retaining-women-in-security/d/d-id/1331114