On Diversity as a Capability - An Assessment Template for Hiring Managers
Cybersecurity talent scarcity is not only a hiring problem. Bobbert, Djotaroeno, and Van Gils show how diversity, inclusion, neurodiversity, and learning capacity strengthen security teams.
Cybersecurity teams face rising demand, broader scope, and a narrow talent funnel. Y = Why: why climb higher with a team built from one perspective when the threat landscape changes shape?
Bobbert will argue that people must come first in digital security. Cybersecurity now spans risk management, assurance, auditing, compliance, and technical defence, yet hiring still favours narrow backgrounds, traditional certificates, and familiar profiles.
The expert panel identifies neurodiversity as the strongest diversity factor contributing to cybersecurity, followed by Big Five personality traits, thinking style, gender diversity, and age diversity. The finding is practical: different ways of thinking improve problem solving, especially where attackers also think differently.
The authors also expose a tension. When discussing team effectiveness, experts value internal diversity. When discussing hiring, they return to technical skills, continuous learning, and adaptability. The lesson is not to lower standards. It is to widen the route into the profession while protecting learning quality, psychological safety, and security focus.
Three learnings and methodological approaches.
- Broaden hiring criteria beyond certificates by assessing learning capacity, security mindset, thinking style, and functional background.
- Design inclusive team conditions so neurodiverse and differently skilled professionals can contribute without being forced into one working norm.
- Measure diversity deliberately, using factors such as age, gender, neurodiversity, personality, education, and functional background as capability inputs.
The route. The route matters because plurality was not only the subject of the research; it was built into how evidence was gathered. The result is an assessment of questions any hiring manager can use in the recruiting, onboarding and appraisals.
Via the download button you can use the template yourself.
Read the original — https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/issues/2024/volume-4/the-value-of-diversity-and-inclusion-in-cybersecurity