By Katrina Schollum, People Partner, Endace
We have been progressively working on a culture of belonging through building awareness of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in our organization. Led by our D&I Committee, our series of initiatives in our four focus areas of gender, ability, ethnicity and generational diversity have been implemented over time and we are proud of what we have achieved.
As part of our ongoing commitment to continuous improvement, we have taken steps to measure and report on what we have accomplished so far. As part of the measurement, we conduct online surveys to ensure we are delivering initiatives that have a positive and constructive impact at Endace. We recently completed a short survey that was sent to all of our team members and completed anonymously. The results were collated and shared internally.
What was measured?
We asked about past initiatives and their efficacy to identify what changes, if any, were observed – from the level of understanding of D&I issues, to increased discussion about D&I. We also wanted to gauge the feeling of comfort and belonging at Endace and measure whether there was any change since introducing our D&I initiatives.
One of the sets of questions was the same as a previous survey conducted 18 months ago. These questions had a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. This meant we could compare and contrast results and see what, if any, shift had occurred.
What did we find?
We found that interactive and personal initiatives have been the most popular with our team. Our most popular activity was our Diwali Decoration Competition, followed by our name pronunciation video featuring members of our global team. At Endace, we like to learn by doing. So having interactive initiatives is a great way for us to build awareness.
A majority of our participants felt they have a greater understanding of D&I at Endace and have seen positive change, with 66% being able to say a definitive yes a fantastic result! Participants also agreed that our initiatives broke down barriers to creating a stronger feeling of belonging. The majority of our people at 74% feel comfortable openly talking about diversity at Endace. More conversation on the topic outside of direct communication and activities from the D&I Committee will enhance our progress so we continue to track and measure change on this point.
From our comparison questions, there was a higher percentage of ‘strongly agree’ answers for all questions in this set and 91% of respondents felt Endace respects its individuals and values their differences. The results overall showed a positive trend in feelings on managerial commitment, fair treatment and a level of comfort speaking up – a great result! This is shown through a positive uplift in results moving from agree to strongly agree from 18-23%.
While we are delighted with the results, we always can do more with our initiatives to build awareness and break down barriers. We have a lot in plan at Endace for the coming months and we look forward to sharing in our next update.
