Developing diversity, equity, and inclusion at Eficode

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), has been a topic of interest for us at Eficode for some time. We’ve seen a lot of discussions recently on social media around the benefits and challenges. But why?

The reasons are mixed, ranging from more compliance and reporting needs due to legislation to the different drivers related to making workplaces aligned with those practices. One aspect is certain, there is a real need to create workplaces that attract, develop, and retain talent.

People nowadays look for employers that live and breathe good values. They want to work for businesses that respect the environment and prioritize a healthy work-life balance to accommodate their lifestyles.

DEI is a continuous journey that must be embedded into our processes and ways of working to establish a workplace where everyone can thrive. This blog post shares our journey at Eficode in navigating diversity, equity, and inclusion, how we define those terms in our culture, and the initiatives we have driven most recently.

A bit about our journey and culture

Eficode was founded in 2005 in Finland. Due to our continuous growth journey, we have since expanded our business around the world and are present in 10 countries with over 600 employees (Eficodeans) as a result of mergers and acquisitions and recruiting new talent. Since the beginning, one of our core values has been culture, welcoming people as they are because we believe that everyone has something to contribute.

There are different aspects to the Eficode employee experience that facilitate DEI in practice, such as flexibility in how to balance your work and personal life through hybrid working. We practice knowledge sharing across the business on a weekly basis, welcoming Eficodeans to exchange insights, regardless of the department they’re in. Additionally, collaborative tools like Slack are used to help each other across different locations.

Personal development is part of our people process, meaning that each employee's desire to grow is discussed regularly. To support continuous learning, Eficode runs an internal academy where the trainers are your colleagues, and people decide what they would like to learn.

More than a year ago, we decided to give diversity, equity, and inclusion a closer look and formalize it as an area that we dedicate our time and resources to. Our “why” for believing in DEI was recently published in a policy:

“Eficode recognizes that by embracing diversity, we create better solutions for our customers, driving innovation, better problem-solving, and knowledge sharing. Beyond that, embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion contributes to our satisfaction and happiness as individuals. It is the right thing to do—for people, businesses, and our societies.”

Defining DEI

Everything comes from a decision. We started by educating ourselves on the matter, discussing what DEI means in the workplace, and closely examining some of our people processes and initiatives. We realized that the priority is to build the foundation, which is currently underway at the time of writing.

At Eficode, DEI is defined as follows:

• Diversity: We welcome people as they are and strive for diversity. We do not discriminate against any individual on any grounds, including any legally protected status.

Diversity is visible in our people who come from different countries and contribute to the various knowledge sharing that goes on within Eficode. There is room for different ways of thinking, and we value honesty, respect, and open communication.

• Equity: We treat all employees equitably. We recognize individual needs and provide equitable opportunities to fulfill those needs in our people practices and processes.

Equity means treating people fairly and recognizing that we all have individual needs. One example is that even though we have a global process for personal development, discussions take into account individual interests and desires for growth. Eficodeans can take training courses based on their interests and upskill via our internal academy.

• Inclusion: We embrace a work environment that includes everyone. We aim to foster an environment where people can express themselves, are respected, and contribute to our community. We value people for their unique qualities, uniting different backgrounds, beliefs, abilities, and experiences.

We strive to build an inclusive environment in the initiatives we run. Internal surveys are aimed at collecting feedback on different areas of the employee experience, giving people a platform to express themselves and contribute to improving the organization as a whole.

There are always opportunities to attend conferences and workshops. Experts are encouraged to write or contribute to blog posts and other forms of content and can even become trainers in an area of interest.

We believe that everyone has a role to play in building the environment we want to work in.

Taking action

It’s essential that we have concrete initiatives driving the change we want to see. Over the last year, we have incorporated DEI elements into some of our people processes. We have established a global DEI champions group—an initiative that promotes a two-way dialogue.

We have also started creating awareness for DEI with sessions centered around important topics like International Women’s Day. More recently, we celebrated Pride Awareness Month with educational material shared throughout, local office celebrations, and a panel discussion with Eficodeans.

Additionally, we ran the first DEI survey, created the first global DEI policy, conducted training on relevant topics, and are currently formalizing which KPIs and metrics we should follow.

We are also focusing on inclusive communication in our job ads and have implemented a DEI statement for this, as well as a new guide for employer branding.

To ensure action is always taken, we include DEI in our yearly planning and choose initiatives to drive forward.

DEI is a continuous improvement journey

DEI follows a different pace of business and is not just a box-ticking exercise. It requires conscious effort, dialogue, and time. It is about continuously analyzing how we do things to improve and make concrete changes.

Moving forward

As we continue to develop our DEI work, we have more to share with the community. We intend to focus on building the foundation and running initiatives related to creating awareness and including DEI in our people processes.

The ultimate goal is to focus on building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture—a place where people can do their best work, be themselves, develop, and grow.