Workforce Diversity Avanade wants to be one of the best places to work for all of its employees. We believe that working in an open and diverse environment offers our employees variety and an opportunity to team up with a talented community. We want our thinking and behaviors to be more inclusive and we strive to value and respect our employees’ differences, including a person’s race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or any other diversity factor.
Avanade Americas Diversity Initiative In 2005, Avanade recognized the need to build a more diverse workforce and embarked on a diversity initiative in North America in an effort to accelerate the development of our employees and increase diversity across our workforce and leadership teams. The initiative emphasizes our belief that diversity has evolved from sound public policy to a strategic business imperative. Avanade recognizes that increasing the diversity of our workforce is critical to our business success because:
- Customers expect our people to reflect their diversity
- We value all talent and we are committed to finding the best talent by attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse workforce
- A diverse and inclusive workplace increases team innovation and job satisfaction
- A successful organization creates positive energy when it values different perspectives and points of view, in short creating a fun place to be
We're also working hard to build initiatives, processes, best practices and programs to ensure that each and every employee has the tools, and more importantly, the opportunity to contribute fully to the success of the company. And we're investing for the long term to help our people realize their full potential.
HOWARD KILMAN - VP and GM of Avanade Americas As Vice President and General Manager for Avanade Americas, which includes the U.S. and Canada, I believe our goal is to make Avanade a magnet for the best talent. I want it to be a place where all people can accelerate their professional development, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or any other diversity factor. To achieve this, our Americas Diversity and Inclusion committee makes ongoing recommendations that provide a backbone for Avanade’s continuing growth and success.
The mission of the Avanade Americas Diversity and Inclusion Team is:
- To raise awareness, provide education, and foster a culture of inclusion and accountability to achieve the highest level of excellence in our shared value
- Treat People with Dignity and Respect
- The Team will provide thought leadership and representation of our peers and will create initiatives and communications to be delivered within Avanade.
RICH STERN - Executive Sponsor, GM, America’s East Region At Avanade, we actively work to adjust our thinking and behaviors to be increasingly more inclusive and to value and respect our employees’ differences. We build initiatives, processes, best practices and programs to ensure that each and every employee has the tools, and more importantly, the opportunity to contribute fully to the success of the company. We're investing for the long term to help our people realize their full potential.
As Executive Sponsor of the Diversity and Inclusion initiative, I oversee the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and guide them in their pursuit of creating a more diverse environment at Avanade. Our goals are:
- To establish, discover, create, and promote best practices and set measurable goals around the development of our diversity initiative
- Significantly increase the number of diversity applicants in the Americas
- Raise awareness by engaging in diversity discussions with all employees
- Provide diversity education to our employees
By accomplishing our goals, we are on the road to thinking and acting globally, which translates into value and innovation for our diverse customers and an inclusive workplace for our employees.