Encouraging Women in Tech

Original Entry by : Endace

For the past two years, Endace has proudly offered two Women in Tech Scholarships per year to outstanding University of Waikato students,  supporting the future of our industry by encouraging more women to pursue careers in technology.

“Endace is proud to empower young women to succeed in tech,” says Endace CEO, Stuart Wilson.  Two of our past winners (shown in the image ) have participated in our internship program and continue to contribute at Endace while pursuing their studies.  It’s inspiring to see what they’ve accomplished.

 Words from our Winners

Our scholarship recipients have shared their gratitude and experiences:

    • “I’m incredibly grateful for this scholarship. It’s amazing to see a company like Endace committed to supporting women in tech. I’m honoured to have been chosen.” – Emily (Year 1 Winner)
    • “This scholarship has significantly supported my studies, allowing me to graduate without financial worries. Endace’s initiatives are making a real difference in encouraging women to pursue degrees in technology.” – Rafeea (Year 2 Winner)

The four winners have excelled academically and are active, positive members of their student communities.

Looking Ahead

Our winners are excited about their future careers.  Rafeea is passionate about embedded systems and 3D web and VR development.  Year 2 winner, Hannah is heading to Melbourne, Australia to compete in the Formula-SAE Australasia for her honours project, saying, “Winning the Endace Woman in Tech scholarship has been a great opportunity that is allowing me to further my technical ability and life experiences.”

Year 1 scholarship winner Abbie remarked, “Support like this will go a long way to encouraging more women to enter technology.” We look forward to seeing our winners thrive in their careers and are committed to continuing our support for women in tech.

Continuing the Journey

At Endace, we’re passionate about creating opportunities and are committed to helping the next generation of women succeed in tech. We’re excited to keep supporting talented women through our scholarship program and look forward to seeing them make a real impact in the industry.


Winners of the inaugural Endace Women in Tech Scholarship

Original Entry by : Endace

The inaugural Endace Women in Technology Scholarship has been awarded to two University of Waikato students: software engineering student Abbie Reid and computer science student Emily McCullagh.

This scholarship, established by Endace in 2022, is part of ongoing efforts to encourage women in the tech industry, with recipients chosen based on their outstanding grades and commitment to supporting future generations of women in technology.

“Endace recognises the need to help empower under-represented groups through education, we are proud to be working with Waikato University to help these talented young women to succeed” says Endace CEO, Stuart Wilson.

Abbie, a third-year Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) student, eagerly embraced the role of lab assistant to foster an inclusive environment and expresses gratitude for the scholarship’s potential, saying, “Support like this will go a long way to encouraging more women in technology.”

Emily, also in her third year, previously worked in administration, supporting departments like Finance, Marketing, and Retail. Her fascination with systems and problem-solving led her to choose to study at Waikato. As a lab demonstrator, she is passionate about supporting women in technology, mentoring younger students, and showcasing their potential. Emily expresses gratitude to Endace for their support: “Scholarships like this help financially but it also helps encourage students to stick out their degrees.”

Stephen Donnelly, Endace CTO was very impressed with the number and high calibre of all the applicants for this scholarship. “Abbie and Emily especially stood out with both their academic excellence and their dedication to furthering Women in Technology.”

As part of the scholarship, Abbie and Emily have the opportunity to secure a work placement with Endace.


Dressing for Success

Original Entry by : Katrina Schollum

By Katrina Schollum, People Partner, Endace


Endace has partnered with Dress for Success, a nonprofit organization that empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire, and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

Our own views are absolutely in line with Dress for Success’ worldwide mission for self-determination and raising women’s confidence in themselves,” said Stuart Wilson, CEO Endace. “We support Dress for Success through annual financial and clothes contributions.

To commemorate International Women’s Day 2023, Endace donated $15,000 to Dress for Success Auckland, and a clothes drive organized by Endace was provided to Dress for Success Hamilton.

Our role at Dress for Success is to help break down significant barriers for women, through our collective vision of providing workforce development services to our clients; this includes appropriate interview attire, career coaching and job readiness skills, upskilling and reskilling in technical and soft skills, and creating networks and communities where our women can connect and thrive,” said Andrea Hardy, Dress for Success Auckland. “Thank you, Endace, for your contributions to help us empower women towards self-sufficiency.


Women in technology: Empowering the future

Original Entry by : Marjo Montejo

By Marjo Montejo, Staff Software Engineer, Endace

Women have had a significant role in the growth of technology over time. For example, Ada Lovelace created an algorithm for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine which is considered to be one of history’s first computers ever made-and she did this back when women weren’t even allowed into engineering school! Women are also underrepresented today as well; only 27% work within tech fields related jobs – a problem that needs solving.

Growing up, I never really considered a career in technology. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized the impact that technology has on our world. From the way we communicate to the way we live and work, technology is everywhere. And it’s only going to become more and more integral to our lives in the future.

I’m grateful that I ended up working in the technology industry. It’s been a great way to grow and develop professionally. And I love the work flexibility that allows me to have a healthy work-life balance. This flexibility allows me to pursue my hobbies and personal interests, such as enjoying New Zealand’s great outdoors and spending time with my family.

I appreciate the fact that Endace is a company that is doing its bit to promote gender diversity in the workplace. And I think the Endace Scholarship for Women in Technology is certainly pointing in the right direction. By empowering women to enter into and succeed in tech careers, we’re helping to build a brighter future for us all.

So, if you’re considering a career in technology, don’t be afraid to go for it. With hard work and dedication, you can achieve anything you set your mind to. And who knows? You might just end up changing the world.

The Scholarship consists of two $10,000 scholarships per year, for three years, for women enrolled full-time in specific technology degree programs: B CompSc, B CompSc (Honours), or BE (Honours) Software Engineering.

The scholarships also offer the potential for work placement.

Applications are opening on 15 November 2022 and can be made via the University of Waikato, MyWaikato portal. Full eligibility requirements can be found at Waikato.ac.nz

The closing date for applications is February 15th, 2023.


Diversity and Inclusion at Endace

Original Entry by : Katrina Schollum

By Katrina Schollum, People Partner, Endace


Since we established our Diversity and Inclusion Committee earlier this year, we have been busy working to cement the importance of our Diversity and Inclusion program at Endace.

As a group, we have held regular discussions across our four focus areas; gender, ethnicity, generations and people with different abilities, to establish how we can achieve positive outcomes for people and the business, increase awareness and break down barriers. We are committed to community-led objectives that support and celebrate individuality and foster a sense of belonging for everyone. In this blog post we are pleased to share some of our progress.

Establishing Who We Are

It was important to us to understand who we are at Endace, and what is important to us as we shape our path forward.

We created anonymous reporting on gender, nationality and cultural ethnicity and were able to share the statistical data visually with the whole organisation, which we will continue to do as we track our changes over time. We can report we have at least 24 different nationalities within Endace and we are extremely proud of our very culturally diverse workplace.
One of our biggest pieces of work was an internal survey that sought specific input across our four key areas. The Committee invested a lot of effort into asking the right questions so we could understand where there was lack of clarity, what areas we are doing well and what areas need improvement to focus on. As a result, we were able to clarify our key messages and share these across the organization via various channels including workshops, promotional activity such as email newsletters and posters, and team meetings.

Diwali Decoration Competition - Endace
Winning Diwali entry

We were also able to meet a popular requests to celebrate key cultural celebrations throughout the year – such as sharing Māori themed food at our New Zealand offices to celebrate Matariki (which marks the beginning of the new year in the Māori lunar calendar). In addition, we celebrated Diwali with a global team competition to learn more about this festival of lights. We plan to promote and celebrate many more of these occasions on an ongoing basis – giving everyone at Endace an opportunity to learn more about other cultures represented in the team.

These activities are all great examples of the success of our community-led approach. By seeking input from the entire team we better understand what’s important and where we can add value to our diversity and inclusion initiatives. Sometimes it is relatively simple things that can make a big difference.

Community Led Initiatives
Marjo Montejo - Endace - reflects on Women in Technology Day
Marjo Montejo reflects on women in technology on International Women’s Day

Our Committee has put together a plan of strategic, measurable objectives from our group discussions. Some of the activities that have already been delivered including calendar events such as World Autism Awareness Day. We also highlighted International Women’s Day by sharing photos and personal stories about what the day meant to our team, and about what it means to be a woman in the tech industry.

We also recently held Cultural Intelligence workshops that were attended by 79.5% of our organisation. The workshops gave us tools to improve on the understanding of cultures other than our own and break down barriers to support greater participation, integration and increase the sense of belonging.

Recently, for Transgender Awareness Week, a member of our transgender community at Endace shared his story in a powerful interview with Sasha Blair, VP People & Legal, to answer some questions about the trans community and his experiences. The recording was shared internally and some fantastic feedback was received. Our ongoing conversations around gender have made a noticeable difference in using gender-neutral and inclusive language.

What’s Next?

Looking ahead, we have planned some thought-provoking activities to celebrate and support individuals. The immediate focus will be educating ourselves on Neurodiversity and understanding how it adds value to our business.

Neurodiversity in the tech sector has at times been overlooked but major tech organisations are making great strides in this area and we are keen to see how we can contribute to these initiatives too.

While change takes time, we will continue to celebrate what makes Endace unique and keep taking steps to ensure our team can strengthen their feeling of belonging, and feel their individual voices are heard, valued and respected. We anticipate the more initiatives we implement in our organisation, the more positive outcomes we will observe. Our agenda will support our achieving an increasingly inclusive environment and we look forward to sharing our progress.


Diversity and Inclusion at Endace

Original Entry by : Endace

By Garima Bhatia, Test Manager – Appliance QA, Endace


Endace has recently started an exciting initiative which we wanted to share.

We have always been a culturally diverse workplace with people from all over the world representing many different nationalities and cultures. We are proud of this and want to recognize and celebrate the diversity we already have at Endace.  Each of our individuals has unique perspectives, skills, experiences and backgrounds that bring valuable contributions to the organization.

Supporting this diverse set of individuals to feel included is important; so people feel they truly belong to the organization they are working at and can achieve their maximum potential.  For Endace as an innovative organization, this means reaping the rewards of diverse thinking, and a stimulating work environment that leads to a satisfied team with strong collaboration and teamwork.

It is important that diversity is not only accepted, but celebrated, in ways that gives this diverse group of people a strong sense of worth and belonging. Everyone should feel accepted and valued for who they are in order for Endace to build a corporate culture that demonstrably supports and celebrates every individual’s self-expression.

What are we Doing?

Our approach to making diversity at Endace inclusive, by embracing our different mix of people, is a bottom-up approach. Our People team conducted an internal survey, and a series of discussions and presentations, to encourage input from people across the organization. In these sessions, we examined and discussed what diversity means and how acceptance and celebration of diversity go hand-in-hand with inclusion. We discussed how this benefits the business by allowing it to tap into the potential a diverse workforce has to offer, and how it benefits individuals by encouraging their individuality in a productive way.

This process was widely supported across the organization and led to agreement across the board that an active focus on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) was an important initiative for everyone at Endace.

As our CEO Stuart Wilson said “this initiative is to ensure everyone has an equal voice so the business benefits from the best of the abilities that we have as a diverse team at Endace. I am motivated to give a voice to those who may be reluctant to step forward and I am looking forward to seeing what we achieve together.

The D&I Committee: and Our Voices

D&I can be “in the eye of the beholder”. So our challenge was to gain an organization-wide perspective of what diversity means to everyone at Endace. We needed to understand where we are now and what we want to focus on improving.

We established a community-led group, by calling for volunteers from across Endace, to collect input and ideas from across the organization, that could be implemented in conjunction with the People team. We found we had many people that are enthusiastic about this initiative and who wanted to be part of the group proactively taking steps to better understand and support our team members.

As Sam from the Software team says, “the differences that exist between us all are a strength, not a weakness. The D&I Committee provides a platform for us to celebrate and better understand this.

We had people who wanted to voice opinions on many different issues and were willing to dedicate time and ideas.

As Michael in the Support team said, “being part of Endace’s Diversity & Inclusion team resonates strongly with my personal commitment to breaking down barriers for marginalized and vulnerable communities.  I am passionate about making a positive difference, whether it’s in relation to gender, age, ability, sexuality, or cultural diversity.”

 

One very motivated volunteer, Kate, provided a very perceptive insight; “I believe acceptance of difference makes us stronger and smarter. It is not the diversity that is key, it is the openness to it.

 

We were also fortunate to have a senior leadership team member, John Attala, Endace’s VP of Worldwide Sales, sponsor the initiative as the D&I group leader. John said,

As the son of a first-generation immigrant, our family’s diversity stood out. My parents became leaders in their careers and community and I believe our cultural differences educated our community in a small way. Diversity and inclusion are important to me and I’m excited to be part of the first Endace D&I Committee. I hope together we can help facilitate a workplace that is safe, welcoming and where ideas are freely shared because I believe diversity is the one true thing we all have in common”.

Once assembled, the group was trained by the people team on D&I fundamentals and tasked with identifying focus areas and specific objectives Endace could undertake to ensure D&I are embedded across the organization.

So Far: and What’s Next?

The experience of being in the D&I committee so far has been a unique one. We have identified the focus areas we collectively agreed to work on and identified teams to work on each of these focus areas. These teams are responsible for ensuring the overall group makes progress by firstly building awareness of issues in their specific focus areas and then by identifying actions that will address those issues and ensure diversity is not only accepted but overtly celebrated across the organization.

We have taken our first steps – including having all managers participate in an “unconscious bias” workshop. This workshop helped attendees to understand that biases do exist, how they can identify and become conscious of them, and how to be mindful that these biases don’t get in the way of everyone being treated fairly.

As we move forward, we are driven to actively support our organization becoming a place where individuality is celebrated and everyone has a sense of belonging, of having a valued voice, is accepted and respected, and has opportunities to develop.  Change happens over time, but we know this can be achieved through our commitment to community-led initiatives and the hard work of our D&I Committee.