This is our Diversity and Inclusion Journey

&‌amp is committed to developing and fostering a culture of diversity within an unbiased and equitable workplace where everyone is respected and valued. We know we must do better to make &‌amp a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Before we dive deeper into our observations, here are some thoughts and facts about diversity and inclusion.

DEI is vital to us because it's our responsibility as entrepreneurs and leaders to create an environment that is safe, empowering, and inspiring for everyone around us. Promoting diversity, equality, and inclusion is the ethical path to take in an unjust world - so we do it.

Moreover, diverse teams create innovative solutions, such as software solutions to complex business problems. That's how we at &‌amp add meaning to our customers' everyday lives—through our teams that focus on developing and implementing high-quality software products tailored to every customer's specific needs.

But although it is clear that DEI is an instrument that serves the business interest of companies, there is still a lot of catching up to do. Despite mounting evidence of the benefits of having diverse perspectives in leadership positions, organizations still need to recruit and retain people with diverse backgrounds in technical fields. Research has linked greater diversity at these levels to enhanced financial performance [1], improved stock market returns [2], and higher hedge fund gains [3]. Furthermore, an investigation by Woolley and Malone revealed that teams composed more heavily of people with diverse backgrounds tended to display increased collective intelligence compared with those less balanced on this scale [4].

While research suggests equal STEM aptitude between men and women, it's been hypothesized that the lack of diversity within this field might be attributed to a societal belief that some males have an intrinsic talent for technical work. This idea has far-reaching implications for how we perceive technological expertise across genders.

Our society's pervasive beliefs have created a climate driving women out of the tech industry at an alarming rate – 45% higher than men [5]. This trend, unfortunately, also affects underrepresented minorities. Reports suggest they face harassment, microaggressions, and unequal pay [6].

Even before andamp GmbH was founded, initial thoughts were given on diversity. While some service companies use the first weeks and months exclusively to acquire customers and employees, we sought advice from an external expert and tried to lay various foundations right from the start.

The discussion with Anna resulted in the first version of our skill levels and salary band. Important key takeaways that led to this were:

So, we started to write down what we expected for each skill level and tried to define a market-compliant salary for each skill level.

Having breakfast together has been a tradition from day one. Even before our monthly amptalks with breakfast, we took a few hours every four weeks to start the day together and work on our Code of Conduct. In changing constellations, we discussed what kind of behavior we expect and do not expect from our colleagues and what kind of behavior can lead to exclusion. Since drawing up our Code of Conduct, we have regularly reminded, revised, and detailed it at our offsites.

Having a Code of Conduct is all good. Talking about it every few months is also essential to living it! However, we realize that it often fades into the background of everyday working life. We are working on integrating the most essential content into various processes and everyday working life. If we don't do this better, the Code of Conduct risks becoming nothing more than a piece of paper.

Since the initial launch, our skill levels have been revised and developed. Not just the founding members but various employees are involved in this process. Different focus areas, more precise formulations, and comprehensive descriptions have emerged. While the skill levels are constantly evolving, they have provided a very frequently used and good anchor for fair job interviews, salary grading, and career development since our second year.

Expectations are no longer written between the lines; they are written down and help promote the best employees rather than the most bullish ones.

We have realized how difficult it is to get to know people in a short space of time and to check and assess both cultural fit and skills. Likeability and factors like a similar history or experience, language, and daily state of mind can significantly influence questions and skills assessment. That's why we have started developing various questions and test cases. To ensure all interviews are similar, we have them prepared with different parameters and variations and put them together individually for each candidate. For each question we ask during interviews we know the expected answer in advance. This helps the interviewer to evaluate the answers with as little bias as possible.

The revised interviews should be the best trade-off between an individual approach to the candidate's previous CV and an unbiased assessment of skills without bias.

Results matter! It doesn't matter how great you can talk or what you do; the results count. The path to results is as individual as our employees. But the results are subject to precise requirements.

Our results could be better when talking about deeds, attempts, or not. The proportion of non-male employees has fluctuated between 8-18% in the first two years. The high fluctuation is because one non-male employee has a high impact on a team with a small number of employees. However, this is a miserable result compared to the overall population and when TU Wien graduates are taken as a reference value. After all, 18.6% of women graduate with computer science degrees. So, we have enlisted the help of professionals!

factor-D Diversity Consulting is a leading consulting and training agency focused on DEI, Unconscious Bias, and Inclusive Leadership.

We invited Dr. Hamscha and Mr. Wondrak from factor-D to work with us. The kick-off was an amptalk, during which Dr. Hamscha explained the terminology and current state of the science regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. A campus talk focused specifically on women in technology and why society fails to produce a balanced proportion of female software developers. The most formative event, however, was a workshop with the two managing directors of factor-D. We worked on our unconscious bias and strategies to avoid it and improved our interview process.

A lot is expected of our employees. &‌amp offers interesting projects, plenty of training, and career opportunities. However, we are not known for taking it easy or being home early every day. A particularly quiet and non-time-consuming job must be separate from the demands we place on our work and our further training. However, we understand nobody can give 110% every day for many years or decades. Different aspects of life are important at different stages of life.

Discussions around the input of factor-D have also raised the question of how we deal with the different phases of life of different employees. While parents have a legal right to part-time [7] work and parental leave [8], an increasing number of people in the workforce do not want to or cannot aspire to a “traditional view of life and family”. We actively advise and support parents in reconciling work and family life within the scope of what is legally possible. In addition, we are committed to offering the same opportunities to everyone who works for us, whether they need a few months for themselves, are building a house, or have something completely different in mind. The following text from the Hans Böckler Foundation [9] explains why we do this:

“The growing plurality of working, living, and employment relationships makes it necessary to make working hours more flexible in the interests of employees, not just in terms of duration and location. The distribution of working hours over the year is also becoming increasingly important. Sabbaticals or short-term sabbaticals are worthwhile and, at the same time, practical everyday instruments for employees to distribute working hours based on their life phases and needs. H. Sabbatical variants with a shorter or medium term. A few years ago, it was almost exclusively teachers or university professors who were able to take advantage of the opportunity to take professional breaks - within the framework of a school year or semester - but many employees are increasingly interested in occasional breaks in the middle of their lives, which give them more should provide freedom than just a few free days or weeks at a time (cf. Klenner et al. 2003). There is the father who wants to accompany his child as he gets used to daycare or the employee whose parents have become in need of care and for whom the statutory care leave is insufficient. In addition, countless parents are familiar with the problem of school vacation periods that are far too long compared to their own vacation entitlements and that have to be compensated for somehow. However, the desire for longer training or a longer stay abroad is also causing more and more employees to express the need for a temporary exit from their professional lives. Here, sabbaticals could help to solve compatibility problems and alleviate time constraints.”

We aim to offer a workplace that challenges, encourages, and supports employees over many years or even decades.