By Sasha Blair, VP, People and Legal, Endace
People are at the heart of what makes the Endace vision come to life. Our team applies their knowledge and skills to continually innovate with fast-paced advances in technology. It is imperative that our people grow within their roles and become drivers of innovation themselves.
People development is key to Endace’s success, and we invest heavily in continuously developing team members’ skills and expertise.
At Endace we have an annual development process that is voluntary and open to all. Our people are in the driving seat. They steer their own learning goals since they are the experts in their own career aspirations and motivations. It’s not about past performance – in fact the development planning is completed prior to our annual achievement review process. The aim of the development planning process is to align individual goals and enhance current roles in preparation for future opportunities and to build new skills. With input and guidance from business leaders, alignment with the broader business context is considered in the process.
Future career aspirations, capability development and learning opportunities are discussed, and a plan is developed in collaboration with each individual and their manager. Managers will talk about the evolving needs of the business and how team members might contribute, build on their strengths and develop applicable skills. The result is a documented action plan in which team members can follow and track their success.
Usama’s Experience
One of our staff Engineers, Usama Malik, spoke about his experience with the development program.
“Endace has always encouraged and supported my personal learning goals, and over the years I’ve had opportunities to explore both technical and managerial development paths. These included training courses (online, in-group and one-to-one), formal assignments and informal tasks within my role.
Unlike many other companies, at Endace I can set the pace myself depending on my day-to-day schedule and other urgent duties. I’ve found this flexibility very appealing, especially with learning outcomes and their business impact being evaluated during annual achievement reviews.
My 2021-2022 development plan was particularly rewarding for me. In previous years I chose development projects within my specific technical domain. However, last year I was able to step out of my comfort zone and work with the wider systems team on projects focused on continuously improving product reliability and performance. Endace bought new equipment to enable me to analyze hardware at the electrical level and I learned new protocols and broadened my understanding of how state-of-the-art devices work. I collaborated with people from multiple teams – including software, production, operations and customer support. This cross-functional teamwork yielded excellent results. It has been a win-win situation for everyone, including our customers who reap the benefits of these product improvements.”
Endace’s people development process offers our team members the structure to plan, discuss and execute growth opportunities that build their potential. We have seen excellent commitment, high interest in the program and strong support from managers leading to fantastic results in preparing our people and securing our future.