Inclusion & Diversity at Codurance

2020 has been a strange year to say the least. Here at Codurance, we have had to adapt our processes, systems and ways of working to ensure our staff are able to work remotely, maintain their health and wellbeing, and service our clients without disruption. It hasn’t always been easy but we continue to thrive with the support of our fantastic people, great tools, and a culture of learning. It’s this great culture that first attracted our Head of Talent & People to Codurance as she explains below:

I joined Codurance in January 2019. Surrounded by technical craftspeople in the office, I wondered what it would be like for me having  a solo internal recruiter role among a team of people who were part of the same ‘tech club’. I’m pleased to say I had nothing to worry about! That was my first experience of the inclusive environment at Codurance. 

Everyone was welcoming and curious to find out more about my role, and how they could help and support me. (My technical knowledge as a result is better than I could have dreamed of - I know more about Test-driven development than I thought possible!). I witnessed that support and inclusivity first-hand, and have enjoyed seeing other people here, both current employees and new joiners, experience it too.

Anne-Marie Mendonça, Head of People & Talent

This year has also seen us grow our team across all roles and locations and we continue to recruit for a range of positions. We know the importance of fostering an inclusive workplace, both to ensure staff retention and to attract the best talent in the industry. This is why we are working harder than ever to make Codurance the best and most inclusive place to work.

Some of the Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) initiatives we have kicked off this year include:

• Supporting communities our people care about - many of our people are involved in communities, groups and initiatives that drive greater inclusion & diversity in tech. 

For example, earlier this year we hosted a 6-week TDD workshop for Coding Black Females, through an introduction from one of our software craftspeople. Many of our people also volunteer by speaking at or organising events to promote women and underrepresented groups in technology.  

• Improving our policies - we are constantly evolving our benefits with the goal of creating the best and most equitable offering possible so all our staff can be supported throughout their time at Codurance. We’re also reviewing and implementing improvements to our recruitment process and job descriptions.

Our key value of transparency will continue to ensure everyone is treated equally and fairly - for example, we share company financials and salary bandings with our staff.

• Inclusion & Diversity Surveys - the only way we can succeed in fostering an inclusive environment is by listening to our people to hear their opinions and feedback on what we’re doing well, and where we can improve. Consequently, this year we started asking our people their views on I&D and how we can improve via our anonymous internal feedback platform OfficeVibe. 

We are also planning a company wide survey in early 2021 which will inform our priorities for our ongoing I&D initiatives as an organisation.  

• Joining the Tech Talent Charter (TTC) - this year we become a signatory of the TTC - a not-for-profit organisation driving greater equity in tech. Codurance now uses resources like the Open Playbook, Directory and Events to improve its expertise and our people regularly facilitate and speak at TTC events. 
• Workshops and talks - we host regular internal workshops and talks for our people covering a range of topics; recent sessions have covered wellbeing, mental health and microaggressions. We have more planned in 2021 to further increase our understanding across the organisation.

What’s on the agenda for 2021?

More of the above! Inclusion & Diversity is never ‘done’.  It's an ongoing commitment to continual improvement of the workplace to be as fair and equal for all and to support people in the wider tech community to help further their careers and opportunities.

We will be carrying on with the initiatives that we kicked off in 2020, and looking at new ideas too. One of these will be unconscious bias training. We plan to put all staff through training to ensure both our interview process is as fair as possible, and that our people are fully aware of unconscious bias and know how to deal with this.

“Inclusion & Diversity is, and will always be, a continuous initiative for us. We’re excited to be working on it at Codurance, and proud of the inclusive culture that already exists for us to build on.”

Mash Badar, Co-Founder at Codurance

We are looking forward to building on our solid foundations to create an even better experience for our current team and for our future colleagues at Codurance.