Sync NI Magazine Winter 2021/22: Diversity, Equality & Inclusiveness - Why it matters

www.syncni.com Winter 2021/22 Citi 20 PEAK6 26 Version 1 36

magazine

 To drive change, companies need

to invest deeply in all aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion  Nuala Murphy

Interim Head of Business at Diversity Mark

Diversity, Equality & Inclusiveness Why it matters 22 PwC - “We don’t just need diversity in the workplace, we depend on it”

40 Civica - Building to belong: diversity and inclusion in the workplace empowers us to...

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Welcome to the winter edition of the Sync NI magazine Foreword

Nuala Murphy

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Interim Head of Business at Diversity Mark

s interim head of business for Diversity Mark, I’m delighted to introduce this edition of SyncNI. Thanks to the team for bringing Diversity and Inclusion, such an important topic to the forefront of their publication. As guest editor I am hoping to inspire the tech sector with examples of plans, policies and initiatives as they embed diversity and inclusion as an operating standard.

Gender Equality and supporting women in work to achieve their ambitions, whatever they may be, has been a focus of mine over the past 7 years in my role as a Lean In Network leader across the island of Ireland. I have seen thousands of women from across all industries benefit from being part of the Lean In Circle program(me) in their communities, businesses and organizations. When the opportunity came for me to transfer my skills, experience, and leadership to Diversity Mark for a maternity cover, I was excited to work with the team and industry in this period of rapid growth as we expand and grow across Ireland and UK. Commitment to building more inclusive workplaces is no longer seen as just the right thing to do; it’s good for business. This is most definitely apparent in my day to day dealing with organizations interested in and committing to their journey with Diversity Mark. Every organization no matter how big or small starts their “mark of progress” with an application for the Bronze Diversity Mark. This stage focuses around three gender goals adding a further two goals at the Silver level of accreditation. We do encourage all signatories to consider the intersectionality of diversity at all stages of the process.

The reality is - Companies with more women on their boards, perform better. Mixed gender startups raise more money and build more inclusive products. More diverse teams are

more creative and productive.

There is no doubt the pandemic shone a light on the disproportioned work women do at home and in work compared to male colleagues and partners and as such, leaders have had to take heed and find ways to better support and enable their employees.

Key findings I will explore in this edition.

It’s no surprise that 40% of our signatories are from the STEM sector. Allstate, Learning Pool, Liberty IT and Outsource – have been accredited through Diversity Mark for over 2 years, and in that time have jointly increased their female workforce by 27% overall and by 30% specifically in senior management positions. All four companies have grown collectively by 401 employees since they joined Diversity Mark with 47% of all new hires being female, tipping the overall gender balance collectively in favour of women by 3%.

To drive change, companies need to invest deeply in all aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion. To improve representation of all women across the pipeline, companies need to double down on reducing bias in reviews and promotions, and they need to hold leaders and managers accountable for progress. But diversity in numbers isn’t enough. Companies also need to create a culture that fully leverages the benefits of diversity—one in which women, and all employees, feel comfortable bringing their unique ideas, perspectives, and experiences to the table.

Launched in 2017 by Women in Business, Diversity Mark are the leading authority in Diversity in the UK & Ireland and the accreditation recognises an organisation’s commitment to embracing diversity and creating an inclusive culture for all staff.

About Sync NI Sync NI is proud to be the voice of Northern Ireland’s vibrant technology and business sector.

The Sync NI website and magazine brings readers the latest tech and business news, views, jobs and events in Belfast and beyond.

Sync NI Contacts Editorial Phone: 028 9082 0944 Email: team@syncni.com Advertising & Partnerships Phone: 028 9082 0947 Email: louis@syncni.com General Enquiries Sync NI Rochester Building 28 Adelaide street Belfast BT2 8GD Phone: 028 9082 0944 Email: team@syncni.com Online: www.syncni.com Copyright No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyholder and publisher. Sync NI accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of contributed articles or statements appearing in this magazine and any views or opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Sync NI, unless otherwise indicated.

No responsibility for loss or distress associated to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of the material in this magazine can be accepted by the authors, contributors, editors or publishers. Sync NI does not endorse any goods or services advertised, nor any claims or representations made in any advertisement in this magazine.

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Inside this edition 06 Diversity and inclusion at Expleo by Hannah McAteer

33 Bring on the next generation of I.T. talent!

08 Cathy Donnelly: Liberty IT - Leading the way in DEI in the workplace

34 Dr Kristel Miller: Ulster University - Fostering greater diversity and equality of women in tech: What can we learn from intersectionality?

10 Nuala Murphy: Diversity Mark - “To drive change, companies need to invest deeply in all aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion”

36 “Richer, rounder and of value”: Why diversity is so important at Version 1 with Lorna McAdoo

13 Collaboration is key with PEAK6 NI's Lisa Stevenson 14 Diversity at Allstate NI: “By promoting an inclusive environment, you get the best out of people” by Martina Donaghy 18 Gareth Dunlop: Fathom – ‘Time for software designers to step up to the plate’ 20 Embracing diverse teams, ideas and possibilities from the ground up are key to success of Citi Bank Belfast 22 “We don’t just need diversity in the workplace, we depend on it” Lynne Rainey: PWC 24 “At Proofpoint we believe that cultivating a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment is the right thing to do” with Tom Keating 26 Defining diversity at PEAK6 with Clark Lister 28 Liam Curran: Danske Bank - Transformational period for banking creates exciting opportunities for diverse tech talent 32 The tech sector’s responsibility for greater diversity: Tory Kerley on the values needed to improve equality in Northern Ireland’s technology industry

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38 Stephen Murphy: Applied Systems - Fostering diversity in the tech world 40 Andrea Rowe: Civica - Building to belong: diversity and inclusion in the workplace empowers us to deliver better for customers and the communities they serve 42 How Puppet is creating a global roadmap for diversity, equity and inclusion with Christine Schmitt 44 Fiona Bennington: Catalyst - Inclusive innovation in Northern Ireland 46 Recruiting for gender equality in cyber security: opportunities from COVID-19 Elizabeth Mackay PA Consulting 48 Carole Callendar: ESO - “Having a diverse and inclusive work environment has huge benefits” 50 Jonathan Sinclair: Highroads - Diversity: The catalyst for culture, collaboration and creativity 52 Making the world of tech more inclusive at Queen’s University Belfast by Professor Karen Rafferty

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Diversity and inclusion at Expleo Sync NI caught up with Hannah McAteer, Senior People Services Manager at Expleo NI to discuss how the company is working to promote diversity and inclusion q How did you start out in Expleo?

higher male headcount than females overall, but this is something that we are actively working to improve on through a number of diversity programmes. So far, through gender-focused initiatives, we have successfully increased our female representation to 28%. As an organisation we are moving in the right direction, but as an industry, we have a long way to go.

The role of Senior Consultant in People Services therefore seemed like a perfect opportunity: supporting the business with engagement and retention, including facilitating initiatives to improve employee wellbeing and job satisfaction, as well as fostering an environment of trust and innovation. I was referred by a good friend who has worked for Expleo for more than three years. She had nothing but great things to say about Expleo as an organisation, including the magnitude of employee benefits and the opportunity for career progression. It was a natural fit.

q Why do you think diversity and inclusion is so important within a company like Expleo?

I first joined Expleo in August after finishing my MSc in Psychological Science at Queens University Belfast.

Having completed a HR Management degree and over six years’ post graduate experience, I developed a passion for organisational culture and employee motivation. My MSc, meanwhile, gave me a greater understanding of human behaviours.

q What attracted you to your current role?

The first thing that caught my eye was the diversity of the role. Given the nature of a consultancy business, Expleo works with a range of clients and employees across different sectors. Our employees have diverse skillsets ranging from software development and business analysis, to quality assurance and RPA roles.

For me, this means that no two days are the same.

One day I could be working on operational employee matters, the next day I could be working on regional projects across the UK and Ireland. This could include compensation and benefits reviews, wellbeing initiatives, or engaging in diversity and inclusion projects.

q Do you think that there are particular groups that need more representation within the tech sector?

It's no surprise that women are still underrepresented in the technology sector. One of Expleo's biggest challenges as a STEM organisation is attracting female talent in a male-dominated industry. We still have a

We operate in increasingly diverse and competitive communities internationally. We recognise the value of a diverse workforce in helping us to understand the needs of our large and diverse customer base. This can help to ensure we tailor our products and services accordingly, as well as support sales growth and customer retention.

Any drive towards greater diversity must be supported by meaningful inclusion initiatives and policies. At Expleo, we have a strong focus on our community and employee wellbeing. We want our team members to feel respected and recognised. We want them to enjoy their work, but also to enjoy their time with each other. It is so important to us that our work environment is a positive one and that is why we put such an emphasis on inclusion.

q Can you tell me about some of the initiatives Expleo has in place to promote diversity and inclusion within the company?

In 2019, we revised our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy for the UK and Ireland. The policy outlines our commitment to ensuring equality at work; that no one receives less favourable treatment on any discriminatory grounds. One of our key people priorities has been to focus on diversity and inclusion locally. Expleo's UK and Ireland Managing Directors drive diversity and inclusion and champion the diversity and inclusion agenda to ensure that it is heard and addressed at the most senior levels within the organisation.

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sector.

And our STEM Ambassador programme recruited nine female ambassadors across our UK and Ireland offices to take time to visit schools to educate young women on careers in technology. They also offer advice and support to women internally to progress their careers.

These are just some of the initiatives that we have put in place in the last 12 months. We are relentlessly working to ensure that Expleo provides an inclusive environment that is enjoyable for everyone and that helps people to fulfil their potential.

q Outside of these initiatives how does Expleo work to encourage diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

We have an established Diversity and Inclusion Committee and seven Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): multiculturalism, gender balance, neurodiversity, parents and carers, LGBTQ+, sustainability and wellbeing. The purpose of these groups is to help strengthen communities across Expleo and ensure a strong employee voice in future diversity and inclusion initiatives. The members are given supports by senior leadership such as time off work to dedicate to the groups and they are assigned budgets for events and activities. Each group has a senior-level sponsor, and all initiatives are endorsed publicly and attended

by Expleo's Managing Director, Phil Codd and Head of Expleo NI, Rob McConnell.

We have also launched a number of

initiatives to help to promote gender balance, such as a virtual book club focusing on educational books such as "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", "Women Don't Owe You Pretty" and "Non-Binary Lives".

Our new Mentorship Programme called ‘A Bolder You’ aims to advance individual career progression and increase diversity at senior management level.

Our Returners Programme helps women who have been out of full-time employment for 12+ months to come back into the workforce. Meanwhile, our 'Women in Tech' campaign invited the women in our business to share their stories about how they became a 'woman in tech' and to highlight the many roles that exist in the technology

We are proud to have strong processes and policies in place that protect and support diversity. These include enhanced leave entitlements for a range of personal and family matters.

We also have an Expleo fusion policy, offering a blended working model to facilitate working parents.

We have removed any gender-biased language from our job ads and offer recruitment and diversity training for all career managers. Since 2017, we have created an annual Gender Pay Gap Report to ensure pay equality in our organisation.

q What do you think are some of the benefits of promoting an inclusive environment and having people from diverse backgrounds working together across Expleo?

Our diversity and inclusion strategy was rated 91% overall in the Best Place to Work annual survey. Promoting inclusivity has a positive impact on our employer and brand reputation.

This helps us to attract and retain talent, ensuring greater innovation and job satisfaction. In turn, we hope to foster an environment of trust within the organisation and improve overall employee wellbeing and engagement.

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Liberty IT - Leading the way in DEI in the workplace The Sync NI team sat down with Cathy Donnelly, Senior Director of Talent at Liberty IT to discuss how diversity, equity and inclusion are at the heart of the company

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he industry leader in digital innovation aspires to be a workplace where everyone feels included and that they belong, one that values diversity, not only in its words but its actions and brings its values to life every day.

focus at Liberty IT for several years. From launching its Global Guidelines for Inclusion in 2017, to now co-creating localised plans with key stakeholders and employee resource groups, DEI is truly embedded across Liberty IT.

The company’s dedication to this can be seen through the number of prestigious accolades it continues to win for its efforts, most recently a Silver Diversity Mark, one of only seven organisations in Northern Ireland to achieve the accreditation for its commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and ranked third in the ‘Best Workplaces for Women 2021’ listing by Great Place to Work UK.

Its DEI Strategy and Action Plan focuses on gender, race, LGBTQ+ and disability. As part of this there are Mentoring programmes for new and developing engineers, a Maternity Engagement Programme, an Allyship Programme, the creation of a DEI calendar where employees have the opportunity to celebrate aspects of diversity throughout the year and currently in development is a programme called ‘8 weeks of Awareness’ to educate and stimulate DEI conversations in safe environments.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has been a core business

The organisation is committed to empowering equal

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conversations and education. We have a culture of togetherness and we employ people who want to help make a difference to the organisation, their colleagues and externally in their communities and we have created an environment where people have a deep connection to the people they work with.”

Since March 2020, whilst Liberty IT continued its focus and commitment on DEI, the company also led continued focus on employee wellbeing during the global pandemic. With over 600 employees in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland working from home, the mantra was, ‘Family First, Work Second.’ And 20 months later, this is still very much the case.

opportunities for females in tech to ensure they excel at every step of their journey. The Women in Tech group have been heavily involved in making this a reality with the creation of mentoring circles last year. The company has also introduced ‘The Power in Me’ workshops, offered initially to females only, and due to be rolled out org-wide this year; these were designed to build confidence and encourage more females to take the next step in their careers and focus on building their personal brand. Every programme so far has been at full capacity and the feedback has been extremely positive with female engineers creating their own networks across the organisation to keep the conversations going and ensure they follow up on actions they committed to in the workshops.

Cathy Donnelly, Senior Director of Talent for Liberty IT said: “At Liberty IT we are committed to promoting an all-inclusive work place for all our employees. We are helping to raise awareness and breaking down barriers through inclusive

“Throughout the pandemic, we made it our priority to make sure that all our employees had the reassurance and security that they needed. It was a difficult time for everyone - those living alone, families with children, families without children and those with caring responsibilities. We wanted to make sure everyone felt supported by us and we rose to the challenge by creating an extensive virtual programme to keep everyone connected with everything from tech talks, social events and well-being webinars – combining fun, education and company updates.

“Our Employee Resource Groups collaborated more than ever before, creating initiatives that engaged many employee audiences. For example, the Wellbeing, Pride and Environment groups worked closely on a range of mental health events and initiatives including our popular LIT Gets Moving fitness challenge. In January and February of this year, based on the steps logged, our teams covered an astounding 19,400 miles. Pride and Charity worked closely on our Walk With Pride fundraising event, while Women in Tech set up new mentoring circles and STEM created our first ever virtual work experience programme. We

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received really positive feedback from our colleagues and the regular interaction and engagement kept us close as a company when the pandemic kept us apart physically,” Cathy continued.

“Covid has changed a lot of things for everyone around the world. One of the most obvious changes for businesses and their employees is that the standard 9am – 5pm is gone. At Liberty IT we have welcomed this and created an environment where people’s work and home life can coexist and benefit each other. We have embraced tech to support this more inclusive way of working for our employees and to create space for thinking and allow projects to continue at a time that works for our teams, the business and our customers.

We consider what work can be done asynchronously and what work requires us to come together and we build our working week out with that in mind.”

Another example of Liberty IT’s inclusivity in the workplace is the empowerment of its employees to decide their preferred working style.

“We understand that the needs of our employees have changed over the last 22 months and together we have developed a range of working styles that will support their lives and that of our customers. There are three workstyles and each employee can decide what works best for them, office working, hybrid working or remote working. What feels right for each person is paramount and we have asked our people to ‘test and learn’ – they can spend time working in one of our offices and spend time working from home and when the time is right next year, they will select their preferred workstyle.

“We are driven by our employees, their feedback, needs and requirements and we are confident that the new working styles will ensure we help people’s work and home life to thrive for the good of the individual, our customers and Liberty IT,” Cathy added.

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“To drive change, companies need to invest deeply in all aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion” Nuala Murphy is interim head of business at Diversity Mark. We chat to Nuala about her journey, the organisation and the importance of diversity and inclusion in business Nuala tell us about Diversity Mark and your role with the organisation?

Diversity Mark is the leading authority on Diversity and Inclusion. The Diversity Mark accreditation is awarded to companies following an independent assessment process which ensures they have reached the required standard of commitment to advancing Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace. The independent assessment panel is led by co-chair Judith Gillespie CBE former Deputy Chief Constable and Deborah Lange Board Member INI and Harbour Commission - alongside Kieran Harding Managing Director BITCNI, Fergal McFerran Stonewall UK, Deborah Donnelly Commissioner for The Equality Commission and Dr Joanne Stuart Chief Executive, Northern Ireland Tourist Alliance.

For Companies from all sectors the Diversity Mark is a ‘Mark of Progress’ that publicly declares commitment to building more diverse and inclusive workplaces to benefit all employees. There are three stages of accreditation: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

At Bronze we ask companies to commit to three gender goals, at Silver we ask for another two goals from the broader diversity spectrum. At Gold level, and subject to interview with our independent assessment panel, there will be an independent audit and staff survey carried out with all members of staff before an accreditation is awarded.

My role as Interim head of business is to help organisations understand how they can start their journey to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace. When a company signs up to Diversity Mark they automatically get access to a range of resources helping them to get started. We have our monthly newsletter bringing news from a global and local perspective, we have a series of industry and community events where we bring together existing signatories at the different stages of accreditation to share their journey with us and with the D&I agenda. We also love to connect organisations doing great work up with our signatories who are focusing on their different goals. This is the part of my role I enjoy the most – collaboration.

When did you first get interested in diversity and inclusion?

For years I have been an impassioned advocate for women’s equality and have a deep commitment to creating workplaces where every person has a seat at the table and a chance to be heard. For more than 7 years, I have led a network of thousands of women through Lean In Belfast / Ireland—a grassroots community that supports women to achieve their ambitions.

What started as a few friends meeting up at a cafe in Belfast grew to a nationwide community that supported women through mentorship, skills-building, and trainings that helped members to achieve

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promotions, take on leadership opportunities, and accomplish their goals. Through this experience, I became part of a global community of women who led grassroots groups in countries like Iraq, India, and the United States, which has bolstered my ability to work across cultures and race.

I led conversations with Sheryl Sandberg in London and then Dublin in front of an audience of thousands, and I was selected by Lean In to come to Silicon Valley as a leader who had shown outstanding promise and commitment to women. Through this experience, I gained insights into the working culture of companies rooted in Silicon Valley and developed my D&I skillset on a global scale. In this role I’ve led corporate partnerships with companies to enhance the private sector’s support for women leaders.

Having lived and worked in many countries I am very aware of cultural differences to consider when rolling out any product, service, and initiative and count myself very fortunate to be able to support leaders and companies wanting to do the same. So that is where it all began.

What have you seen the biggest challenges for companies are to start their diversity and inclusion agenda?

Getting started is hard. What I have noticed is that some companies are afraid to make mistakes, because they don’t know how or where to start. This is totally normal. It is also important to highlight that everyone’s starting point is different. My main message is to encourage companies and leaders to do what they can with what they have. We, myself and Emma Lyttle Diversity Mark’s Engagement Manager, are here to walk companies through how to get started. It’s a pretty simple onboarding via our website.

Signing up and subscribing to the journey, you choose when you want to submit your first application, with four submission points throughout the

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year, you could sign up in November and start working on your submission for January or March. We don’t want to rush you, we want to support each company with a flow that works for them. Our community events are great opportunities for new signatories to see how others have started, goals they set, action plans they have put in place, impact and challenges.

Do you have any key insights you can share with us from a global and local perspective?

The McKinsey LeanIn.org Women In The Workplace study 2021 revealed that at a time when the stakes have never been higher, women are showing up as better people-focused leaders and stronger advocates for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) They are more likely, than men at their levels, to take consistent steps to promote employee well-being, such as checking in on their team members and helping them manage their workloads.

They are also more likely to support DEI initiatives and to be active allies to women of colour. But although this work drives better outcomes for all employees, it is going largely overlooked by companies. There’s a risk that it will be relegated to a new form of “office housework”—work that is critical to the business but not compensated— and in most organizations, what gets rewarded is what gets prioritised.

Senior-level women are twice as likely as senior-level men to spend substantial time on DEI work that falls outside their formal job responsibilities.

Eighty-six percent of companies say it’s “very or extremely” critical that managers support their team members’ well-being, but only twenty-five percent formally recognise those who do this— and a similar trend holds for DEI work.

When managers take action to promote employee well-being and companies prioritize DEI, employees are happier, less burned out, and less likely to

consider leaving their company.

To drive change, companies need to invest deeply in all aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

To improve representation of all women across the pipeline, companies need to double down on reducing bias in reviews and promotions, and they need to hold leaders and managers accountable for progress. But diversity in numbers isn’t enough. Companies also need to create a culture that fully leverages the benefits of diversity— one in which women, and all employees, feel comfortable bringing their unique ideas, perspectives, and experiences to the table.

Key findings

More than 90 percent of companies track women’s overall representation, but only 65 percent track gender differences in promotion rates.

Almost 70 percent of companies hold senior leaders accountable for progress on diversity goals—but only 30 percent hold managers, who play a critical role in hiring and promotion decisions, accountable.

Only 34 percent of employees have participated in anti-racism training in the past year, and just 14 percent have received allyship training.

Why should organisations commit to a public accreditation?

More and more I am hearing from organisations how at interview stage they are being asked about their diverse and inclusive policies and initiatives.

It is very much an employee market right now where commitment to and evidence of policy and practice has never been higher up the agenda for candidates. Speaking recently to a large business network it was shared that the EDI agenda along with the green agenda is where their members want to be better equipped. This is and will affect change across the board and

Author Nuala Murphy

Interim Head of Business, Diversity Mark About Diversity Mark Diversity Mark is a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on enabling and supporting companies of all sizes across the UK & Ireland in achieving an Accreditation to recognise commitment to diversity and inclusion. The Accreditation follows a methodology of selfassessment and prioritises continuous progression, with goals set by and appropriate to each individual organisation.

The Accreditation commits organisations to support the progression of women (or men, if underrepresented) into senior roles by focusing on the executive pipeline and the mid-tier level. It recognises that organisations are diverse and the starting points for each may differ, and thus each organisation will set its own targets, strategy and implementation plan.

I encourage leaders to get on board before they are left behind.

What advice do you have for organisations wanting to get started but don’t know where to begin?

If you are a business leader, a HR manager or someone who wants to drive change in your organisation, you can start your own journey by joining the rapidly growing Diversity Mark community of signatories and commit to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees can feel valued and supported to do their best work. We want to support you and enable your success in this area. Not only will it help your attract and retain staff, but it will contribute to building a more equal, representative and inclusive society that at the end of the day is good for our economy.

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Collaboration is key with PEAK6 NI's Lisa Stevenson PEAK6’s Lisa Stevenson sits down with Sync NI to discuss her journey into technology and her role in promoting diversity and inclusion at PEAK6

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isa Stevenson has never been one to shy away from a challenge.

as well as being able to work from anywhere and still remain an engaged, productive team."

Whether it was starting the new Belfast office of PEAK6 Investments (PEAK6) amid a global pandemic or being only one of three women in her software engineering program at university, Stevenson brings her keen interest and agile mindset to everything she does.

"I have always been interested in STEM subjects," she says. "In learning how things work, especially gadgets, and using technology to solve problems."

As much as Stevenson loves technology, after completing her software engineering degree, she realised coding was not something she really loved as much as seeing the product being delivered. She had the opportunity to help manage a desktop rollout project, which utilised her organisation and teamwork skills, and embraced the shift into a software delivery manager role.

"It's gratifying to see change happen and being that change agent, whether it's with a product or a team, and to always strive for continuous improvement," says Stevenson.

Adopting Agile early on when she worked at Egg,

the UK's first internet-only bank, transformed how she viewed software delivery and teamwork. There was more collaboration, a quicker and more efficient release cadence, and heightened transparency. "There was an increase in flexibility between the business and the technology team," Stevenson says. "I have adopted an Agile approach ever since."

That willingness to partner carries over into the PEAK6 NI office, where, under Stevenson's guidance as the Site Lead, tech people for multiple industries work together under the same roof. PEAK6’s core brands include PEAK6 Capital Management, Apex Fintech Solutions, National Flood Services, and Evil Geniuses.

"PEAK6 is unique in that it's not just one company. It covers an array of industries.

We leverage our technical integrity and operational excellence across several investment areas, spanning

from early- to mid-growth capital, operational control, trading, cryptocurrency, and esports. You'll find a bit of everything here," Stevenson says. "For us, it means we have a variety of viewpoints and can share our knowledge on the quickest way to get an answer or tap into a different perspective."

Stevenson was hired to build the PEAK6 NI office from scratch, an opportunity she could not pass up.

Amazingly, she started in March 2020, right when the pandemic shutdowns began.

Throughout the lockdowns, she hired and onboarded the PEAK6 NI's first forty people.

They recently began working in-person together two days a week, which Stevenson calls a joy.

"We now have a shared space where we can collaborate, share knowledge, and work on problem-solving together," Stevenson says. "We enjoy the flexibility to be in-person for certain team activities,

Stevenson also is a part of PEAK6's Women in Tech Alliance, whose mission is to increase, retain, and promote more women in tech across the company. The group has hosted workshops, held coffee chats with senior management, and runs a mentorship program.

"With mentoring, we are able to have new and lessexperienced women tap into the existing knowledge, skills, and experience of senior leaders to help advance their careers," Stevenson says. "We want everyone to succeed in PEAK6."

She hopes to build on her core team and is looking to hire innovative, smart people who are looking to be empowered in their roles and have an eagerness to learn and grow.

"By joining PEAK6 NI, you'll collaborate with some of tech's sharpest minds to solve the firm's ever-changing and exciting challenges," says Stevenson.

"Working in tech at PEAK6 means you'll always be presented with a variety of new possibilities as you hone your skills. An eagerness to learn and grow isn't just part of the culture.

It is the culture."

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Diversity at Allstate NI: “By promoting an inclusive environment, you get the best out of people” Martina Donaghy is the HR COE for Allstate NI. The Sync NI team caught up with Martina to talk about all things diversity and inclusion at Allstate Northern Ireland

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artina started out in Allstate 7 years ago, however her role within the company has always included Diversity education for the entire Allstate NI organisation. In her current role, Martina oversees HR projects which includes Inclusion, Diversity & Equality.

Martina believes there are many different groups that are underrepresented within the tech sector and has worked

across a number of initiatives within Allstate to try and encourage a more inclusive workforce.

Martina tells us: “At Allstate our employees have been empowered to form Employee Resource Groups, known as ERG’s. These groups bring people and groups that need more representation together, within the workplace, so that they have support and community within work. They also help to shape the company strategy and give input to policies,

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Martina also believes that the aging workforce needs more representation in tech. She tells us: “Females going through the menopause should be supported in work. A female should never need to make the heartbreaking decision to give up work due to menopause. Our male colleagues nearing retirement age also need to feel included. Employers should be looking at the older demographic and tracking their career progression, aspirations, and attrition.”

Martina explains that: “people are naturally working longer now, some due to financial constraints and other just because they want to. Business In The Community research shows that half of all adults in the UK will be over 50 by 2030. Employers need to proactively look after their employees so that they can remain healthy, in work, after work and into retirement, whenever that may be. We spend so much of our lives in work so employers should naturally take more of an interest in not only employees general health, but their physical health, mental health, financial health & overall wellbeing to support them along this journey. Allstate is very good at this but I am unsure if that is across all parts of the tech sector.”

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procedures, and day to day activities within the workplace.”

Aoife McDowell Journalist, Sync NI

or judgement.”

Among the initiatives to help encourage underrepresented groups within Allstate there is Embrace, which is the company’s LGBTQ+ ERG that provides education and support to our LGBTQ+ colleagues.

Allstate also has the group Ausome which is an EGR related to Autism, with a mission to educate and raise awareness about the autistic spectrum.

The group offers support and inspiration to those affected by autism both internally and in their local communities.

Martina tells us that “from speaking with this group it is obvious that there is still work to do in society in relation to LGBTQ+ and encouraging young people to study STEM subjects and work in the tech sector without the fear of prejudice

In addition to this Martina tells us about the Mental Health First Aid group which supports colleagues with mental health issues, signposting them accordingly and offering a chat or advice whenever they need it.

Along with these initiatives, Martina also hopes the post pandemic world of work will “give those previously out of employment due to physical disabilities a real vision of what is possible and employers come along with them, to make sure all accommodations required are in place, all barriers removed and disabled people feel they have the same opportunities as others in all workplaces, not just in tech.”

Allstate is always working on a culture of diversity, frequently adding to their list of initiatives to promote a more inclusive working force.

A recent initiative for 2020 has been that of a group of 40+ Inclusion Champions came together to build this

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year's Diversity Education. This team of employees came together from all corners of Allstate as volunteers.

They built a series of workshops called “Inclusion to Belonging”, that are now being delivered in 3 bite sized workshops to all our 2400 employees.

Martina explains that these workshops “step through the importance of areas such as Cognitive Diversity, Empathy, Psychological Safety, Allies and how Diversity is infinite.” She tells us “the workshops explain how Diversity is not about tick boxes or only related to gender, race or ability, diversity goes much much further than that. These workshops explore the importance of inclusion for people such as introverts, or the single team member or perhaps the male parent seeking flexible working. The workshops are designed to challenge norms and provide gentle nudges that everyone can incorporate into their day to day lives to be more inclusive.”

Martina also adds: “these initiatives are supported by the Leadership Team and it reminds our employees that Inclusion, Diversity & Equity is not the role of HR, or Leaders. It is the role of every single person. With the support of our ERG’s, our Inclusion Champions and our Leaders we can ensure Inclusion Diversity & Equity is embedded in all our business decisions from the very beginning, not as an afterthought.

However, everyone has a role to play in this or inclusion is not possible.”

Many employees at Allstate take part in these inclusion groups not as part of their role but because “it's a passion they have” Martina explains. She continues: “It really does become your passion for what you love and things that mean something to you, you can’t leave at the door when you go to work.

It's part of you, so you're able to bring it with you and you're given the space to grow.”

Diversity and inclusion are a very high

Martina Donaghy, HR COE, Allstate NI

priority at Allstate. Martina believes that it is vital for any business because “if you ignore diversity & inclusion your company will not succeed in today’s competitive market.”

input rather than them leaving 30% of themselves at the door as they try to fit into a culture where everyone is the same, and being different is frowned upon.”

She also adds: “New hires look into a company to see if that employer reflects their values and beliefs. People want to look into an organisation and see people like them, people from all groups, all backgrounds, and all areas of society. An employer who ignores diversity and inclusion, a company that hires teams of individuals who look the same, think the same, have the same backgrounds, education & interests will not truly reflect society.”

Martina also notes that “by having an inclusive environment people will feel psychologically safe and will speak up & feel safe in challenging ideas. This is how great ideas happen, by exploring, sharing, challenging and listening.“

Martina believes that the benefits of promoting an inclusive environment within a company like Allstate are “too many to list.” She explains that “by promoting an inclusive environment, you get the best out of people, by enabling an individual to bring their whole selves to work you get 100%

In addition to this, by having an inclusive environment with people from diverse backgrounds employees “will form groups and teams of people with more empathy and will listen to each other and collaborate better” Martina explains.

Martina concludes by stating: “Diverse teams help a business grow. They in turn attract better people to the business. They make better products and services and in return make the business more successful, which means everyone succeeds.”

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Employees... you are a student considering a career  Are in tech, a graduate looking for an exciting new role or currently employed and seeking a new challenge? syncni.com to find out about the latest  Visit job openings, placements, internships or tech courses and apprenticeships available to help you develop an exciting new career with NI’s leading technology companies.

Contact the team today  

02890 820 944 team@syncni.com

 www.syncni.com/jobs

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Time for software designers to step up to the plate Gareth Dunlop CEO & Founder at Fathom sat down with the Sync NI team to discuss bias and discrimination in the design of current technologies

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hen we consider bias within the design of technology (and much else besides, as we’ll come to), we have no hiding place because technology by its nature is specific and binary, comprising 1s and 0s, literal with interfaces and unambiguous with functionality. This has an important and intractable impact on the fairness with which the users of software are treated.

It’s not that digital tech is any more or any less morally pure than the humans who design and build it, it is that what may be implicit and temporary in the behaviour of humans is explicit and permanent in the experience of technology.

The teenager who felt excluded from their peer group in the 1980s had to deal with insinuation, in-the-moment comments and social exclusion; the excluded teenager in the 2020s has to deal with the specifics of no likes on their social media posts, snide comments from peers which last indefinitely and a real-time count (with associated peer league table) of friends, connections and followers. That teenager can return to the digital footprints of their exclusion at any time and feel that rejection just as acutely as they did the first time they encountered it.

A UK visa applicant in the 1990s may have had a feeling that their application wasn’t being dealt with fairly as a

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result of the colour of their skin or their nationality, however such an applicant in 2020 doesn’t need to rely on their feelings as they can be objectively sure that nationalistic racism has been explicitly programmed into the online application process. Chai Patel, legal policy director of Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants summarised this state of affairs accurately "This streaming tool took decades of institutionally racist practices, such as targeting particular nationalities for immigration raids, and turned them into software".

Software therefore, replaces the ambiguity, innuendo and insinuation of human bias and makes it unequivocal, categorical and definitive. Left unchecked, this means that the prejudice and partiality of the humans who design and build software gets baked into the product by default.

q From a commercial perspective this makes software ineffective. q From an ethical perspective this makes software unfair. q And from a diversity, equity and inclusion perspective this makes software discriminatory.

Ultimately, biased design is bad design, predominantly because it commits the cardinal sin of designing for the designer and people like the designer, not the user. Unless they upset this status quo, the designer has no feedback loop to make them aware of this, because their peers like the design, their friends and family like the design and people within their demographic like the design. So, in their little cocoon, they think they’ve done a good job.

It’s only when they invest time in understanding people not like them that they can truly understand the effectiveness or otherwise of their work.

Examples of designers designing for people like them are legion:

Cities are (inadvertently) designed for six-foot tall men despite the fact that lots of people who aren’t six-foot tall men need to use them. This is great news if you are a six-foot man, but less good news if you are a child, a pregnant woman, infirm or have a disability. This focus on athletically-imagined and perfectly-sculpted men influenced the height of door handles, the scale of stairs and the size of blocks. The Matrix Feminist Design Cooperative launched in the 1980s to challenge city architects to consider the needs of those with prams and shopping trolleys and those who want to navigate underpasses and subways with a feeling of safety.

Crash test dummies are based on male physiology, meaning that for decades women are more likely to be killed in car crashes. Shamefully, female front passengers are 17% more likely to be killed in a car crash than a male occupant of the same age. Females wearing seatbelts have 73% greater chance of being seriously injured in a frontal car crash than a male equivalent.

Female crash test dummies were developed as far back as 1966, however they were just ‘scaled-down men’ and thus weren’t anatomically accurate.

Police stab vests and body-armour favour men, to the extent that some female police officers have had breastreduction surgery in order to wear them. When Jackie Smithies made her procedure public, 700 other officers contacted her within 6 months to seek guidance and support. They were concerned they were being bruised by their kit belts, having no space for their breasts and that the vests came up too short, leaving key parts of their bodies exposed. Anatomical differences in chests, hips and thighs were barely considered in the design and deployment of the kit.

Voice recognition devices understand white American males above all other categories. Its 92% accuracy rate for white American males falls to 79% for

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white American females and to 69% for mixed-race American females.

This happens because the product is designed predominantly by white American males who haven’t escaped their cocoon and even the 13.5% of female workers in the machine learning industry are swimming against the tide.

The COVID-necessitated A Level grading algorithm introduced by the UK government in 2020 effectively graded the school not the student, meaning that posh yet unintelligent Jemima got her marks increased whereas poor but smart James got his marks decreased. Some critical lobbying led by the excellent Foxglove, married with some common sense forced the UK to reconsider and scrap the algorithm.

One could go on, but you get the picture.

Left unchallenged, design can prop up privilege and reinforce discrimination.

We see that truth play out in physical products, in service-delivery, in algorithms and in software.

Those of us who make our living from software design need to do much much better.

q Average males are not average humans. q Average Caucasians are not average humans. q Average middle-class people are not average humans. q Average designers are not average humans. q Average programmers are not average humans.

It feels fitting that the last word should go to the Matrix Feminist Design Cooperative: “Consciously or otherwise, designers work in accordance with a set of ideas about how society operates, who or what is valued, who does what and who goes where. The question is who gets included, whose values we prioritise, and what kind of world we want to create.”

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Embracing diverse teams, ideas and possibilities from the ground up are key to success of Citi Belfast The Sync NI team speak to Citi about their commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion within the company

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ecently recognised in the Financial Times third annual Diversity Leaders Ranking, Citi employs over 3,100 people across its four locations in Belfast, which together support 21 different capabilities including legal, HR, compliance, audit, markets and tech.

Citi’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is focused on enabling an equitable and inclusive culture where individuals can reach their fullest potential.

Globally, Citi’s employees reflect the remarkable range of cultures and perspectives of their clients across the more than 160 countries and jurisdictions where they do business – a powerful advantage that combines global insights with deep local knowledge. The company actively seeks out diverse perspectives at all levels of the organisation.

Demonstrating Citi’s commitment to embracing diversity, Erika Irish Brown has recently joined the leadership team as the new Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer and Global Head of Talent. “Investing in our talent and culture is one of our top five priorities at Citi because we appreciate that Citi's competitive advantage is our people,” Erika says.

In addition to helping achieve Citi’s representation goals, Erika will drive Citi's agenda on talent planning, succession planning and leadership development while strengthening our diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) work across Citi with new ideas and approaches to challenge and help grow the organization.

The team at Citi Belfast closely follow Citi’s global attitude towards diversity and inclusivity and take pride in their DEI policies.

Presently there are five affinity networks in Belfast which Citi staff actively participate in including Women – which recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary - Pride, Families Matter, DisAbility and Multi-cultural.

Reflecting the strength of Citi Belfast’s efforts for LGBTQ+ inclusion, Peter Holden, Global Head of End User Services, has been the business sponsor of the Citi Belfast Pride Network for many years and has spearheaded numerous initiatives to foster LGBTQ+ inclusion. His role in driving diversity and inclusion in the business has recently been recognised through his place on Involve – The Inclusion People’s LGBT+ Role Models list for 2021 in the category of Top 50 Ally Executives. Prepared by diversity and inclusion membership organisation Involve, the list highlights role models for others to follow when it comes to being out and proud

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at work, driving positive change in the office, or supporting LGBTQ+ colleagues.

Commenting on the recognition, Peter commented “Thanks to the Pride Network in Belfast for putting me forward for this list, it is humbling to be recognised for something which put simply is the right thing to do. Hopefully, it inspires others to do more and helps in some way to move the broader Belfast community forward.”

Citi Belfast is also committed to changing attitudes towards women in technology. With a 44% female staff presence on site and 47% of senior roles held by women. The company actively work with schools, colleges, and universities locally to promote the inclusion of women in STEM subjects and encourage the next generation of female leadership within STEM disciplines.

Recognising that commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a longterm objective that requires buy-in from the full team, Citi Belfast holds itself to the highest standard, setting the tone from the top.

Leigh Meyer, Site Head of Citi Belfast commented, “We are all responsible for promoting inclusion and work to continually enhance our capabilities. Our most senior leaders view themselves and others as accountable for enabling an equitable and inclusive culture where we can all reach our fullest potential, and while senior accountability is critical to this effort, it won’t work without the involvement and support of our broader employee base. Our leaders, allies and affinity network colleagues work in tandem with Citi’s Employee Network Program and our employees globally where we have 175+ chapters with over 23,000 members to embrace diverse teams, ideas and possibilities to help us drive growth and progress.”

For info on career opportunities available at Citi Belfast check out: jobs.citi.com/belfast

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PwC’s Lynne Rainey speaks to Sync NI about why diversity in work is one of the company’s core values

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e don’t just need diversity in the workplace, we depend on it. It isn’t limited to gender, ethnicity, race or socioeconomic factors - it also includes neurodiversity - different types of learners and personality styles. This combination is invaluable to our organisation, our clients and our communities.

As a business, much of our client work focuses on transformation as the need for businesses to be able to adapt to shifting demands has become critical. The ones that do this best will be the ones that grow; and that includes us too. By embracing diversity, we’ve been able to build out different revenue streams. In this last year, rather than hunker down and do what we’ve always done for clients, we launched an entirely new unit in the firm - our £40m Advanced Research and Technology Centre (ARC) and began recruiting software engineers.

The work this team is doing is focused on solving problems businesses will face in the next decade and beyond, and places Belfast at the heart of the UK firm’s future technology plans. We will be recruiting 800 people over the next 4 years, and in the process forging stronger partnerships with academia and businesses through collaboration. It’s only made possible by looking beyond what we already knew and challenging ourselves to do more. ARC sits within the Belfast-based Operate business, which is itself a great example of our innovative thinking. It’s radically transformed how the firm has supported clients through major delivery projects, and it’s gone on to become the fastest growing business in the UK firm.

Our success in thinking differently is built on attracting a diversity of people and we do this

“We don’t just need diversity i the workplace, we depend on it

 Author

Lynne Rainey Partner, PwC

in

t”

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through a variety of channels. I’m extremely proud that over the past three years we’ve launched two degree apprenticeship programmes with both of our local universities and continued to fund the Assured Skills Academies with the Department for the Economy and Belfast Met. These not only expand our options for talent recruitment, but support people who might not have believed they had a chance to work for us traditionally, driving social mobility.

Diversity in work is one of PwC’s core values and it empowers us to be a stronger advocate for it outside our office. In addition to different types of experience, we also need different levels of experience. This is one of the reasons why we recently expanded the support we give to women experiencing menopause, to help them stay in work. According to a 2016 survey, menopause is the reason a quarter of women have considered leaving their jobs.

On our Business Management higher level apprenticeship which began in September, students include a former teacher, a mature psychology grad (who is a foster mum), and a school leaver. The diversity of thought, of background, of life experience in this one cohort is tremendous. Ultimately, when we combine different perspectives in the workplace, it fosters innovation, creates a progressive culture and enables us to bring better solutions to our clients.

Given that Northern Ireland has the lowest female labour force participation in the UK (70%) we can’t stand by and watch as experienced, talented, focused women feel they have no option but to quit work. I personally supported a colleague through the menopause and saw at first hand how our flexible approach meant she could work from home when she needed to, or take time off, without judgement. These simple allowances mean she’s still with us as a valued member of the team.

This whole issue about supporting women in work is something I’m passionate about and through it, I’ve established a group of stakeholders - in the third sector, business and government - who are collaborating to improve the reality for women in the workplace in the region. It’s difficult to quantify the benefits this brings the firm, but we know that we’re doing what’s right and living our purpose: to build trust in society and solve important problems.

We need people who bring different strengths to projects so, in some areas, we need people who’ve come up through the firm; and in others, we need people who join from elsewhere with different working experiences. And we know very well that far more people are choosing other ways of working.

This brings its own challenge as we work out what the role of the office is in the future of work. In a hybrid world, where some people find it easier to come back to the office than others, we’re aware that we need to make sure remote working is not a barrier to development.

Prior to the pandemic, we’d already introduced ways of eliminating unconscious bias to ensure everyone has equal access to opportunities and to support their career progression and we’re monitoring it closely now.

But diversity is also about things that can’t be measured as a KPI - like diversity of thought - and just last month, our firm was recognised for the diversity of thought that we bring to the work we do with charity partners. By changing our approach, supporting a theme rather than a single group,

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and combining charities together with a shared goal, we created Into Tomorrow - a sustainable initiative aimed at helping the most vulnerable people in our society to change their lives. It challenges everyone to think differently about a critical issue and as a result, it’s genuinely saving lives. We’re about to mark the graduation of our first cohort of young people who started the programme in 2019 - all homeless, many addicts, all feeling they’d missed their chance at a meaningful life. Each one now has a home of their own, is either in training or has a job. Our team which partners with Hummingbird NI, TAMHI and the Bytes Project - was given the BITC ‘Investing in your Community’ award, and they also won the PwC UK Care award in November.

It’s easy to say that increasing diversity is difficult. It isn’t. But it does require commitment. This year for the first time, we’ve collected and published our socioeconomic and our disability pay gaps, on top of our gender and ethnicity pay gaps. We have more work to do on our action plan but doing this helps us to shine a light on the areas on which to focus. Since we reported on the ethnicity pay gap last year, we’ve overturned it. This helps us to not only attract but also retain our talent, ensuring we create a sustainable future for our business.

If our goal is a vibrant and competitive economy, supporting a prosperous future, then we must all work towards developing a diverse, outward-looking and inclusive society. We’ve progressed a lot in recent times, and this year in our Future of Government report, Northern Ireland was named the best place in the UK to live, raise a family and start a business. Imagine how much more we can achieve by doing more.

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“At Proofpoint we believe that cultivating a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment is the right thing to do” The Sync NI team sat down with Tom Keating VP, Essentials and Belfast Site Leader at Proofpoint Northern Ireland to discuss the company's journey with diversity and inclusion and why it is now such a vital aspect of the organisation

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ver the last number of years Proofpoint has committed itself to demonstrating diversity and inclusion thoroughly within the company.

Since the company started its journey into diversity and inclusion Tom Keating says it “has become part of its DNA.”

Throughout Proofpoint there are currently a number of initiatives to ensure that it is a diverse and inclusive place to work. Firstly, Tom tells us about the NeuroLeadership Institute

which includes work on learning journeys, unconscious bias and inclusive teamwork and is offered company wide.

Tom doesn’t refer to these workshops as “training” because he believes “that gives the wrong message.” Instead, he prefers to call them “education.” He believes that prior to such education everyone has their own, individual interpretations of what they think diversity and inclusion is, however, by taking the time to dig deeper and learn more on the topic it can really open people’s eyes and improve understanding on how it

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operates in our day-to-day – and how they may have lacked understanding to begin with. This in turn helps people to be much more conscious of how they behave and how they operate.

Proofpoint has also enlisted external support with their diversity and inclusion journey by inviting featured speakers who have experience in the topic and relevant examples to speak directly to the team, which indeed helps with further reinforcing the education.

Diversity and inclusion education is an ‘ongoing journey’

Tom believes one of the most important aspects that have contributed to the company's increasingly diverse and inclusive environment has been the support and backing of initiatives at the top levels of the organisation.

Proofpoint’s leadership 100% supports the initiative, which helps all employees recognise the issue as an important thing, not just a classic, ticking the box training exercise.

Another key aspect to enable organisations to achieve greater diversity and inclusion is to see the initiatives as more of an “ongoing journey”. Tom believes this helps employees realise this is something to be taken seriously. Tom explains that having team members see these initiatives in their day to day will help them “be reminded about those areas” and that “diversity, inclusion, equality in everything that we’re doing will ensure that we make those right decisions throughout our business day and in our activities.”

Tom believes the benefits of implementing diversity and inclusion strategies within the company are endless and he has already begun to see the positive impact it has on the people who work there.

He tells us a lot of people have reached out and are very thankful that the organisation is doing this and that they

 Author

are incorporating this into personal experiences. Tom says these employees see that the challenges they may have faced in other organisations are not a challenge or an issue at Proofpoint.

Diverse teams can better solve problems

Aoife McDowell Journalist, Sync NI

encourages people to stay longer in the organisation. As a result of this, customers can also benefit because the team working for them solves problems more effectively, which really is a cycle security teams want to be a part of.

Tom believes that by encouraging diversity and inclusion within the company it becomes a place where people will want to work. Cybersecurity is a very challenging area, where employees are constantly looking to solve challenges and issues to help protect organisations, therefore there is no better workforce to have than one that is diverse and one that is inclusive, because then you're going to get all those different types of people involved, who are going to help you solve those issues with a varied background and knowledge base.

However, it is not just about the success of the company, Tom believes that diversity and inclusion at Proofpoint is really down to the fact that it is the right thing to do. He also adds that: “in the cybersecurity industry we have to stay ahead of these various and complex tasks that we have, you know, you need robust, flexible, highly skilled and diverse teams and in the many reports and studies that have been carried out companies that have a high volume, or high level of ethnic and cultural diversity, have actually outperformed their competitors. There's actual real tangible benefits to this.”

Tom explains that this acts as a “selffulfilling prophecy” because more people want to work within diverse groups as “they feel as if I can be myself here, I don't have to apologise for being myself, I want to be in here as a professional and I will be treated that way.” Tom believes this attitude sets the company up for success and

Tom concludes that: “At Proofpoint we believe that cultivating a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment is the right thing to do. Diversity ensures that we reflect the global population that we serve. Inclusion, for us, then means that everyone feels welcome and our approach to decision making and problem solving is more productive.”

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Defining diversity at PEAK6 The Sync NI team speak with PEAK6 to discuss the different initiatives they have in place to promote diversity and inclusion within the company

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EAK6 Investments (PEAK6) is built upon many crucial pillars that define and maintain its success across the corporation's international offices.

A commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is paramount to driving new ideas and ensuring a company culture where all team members feel safe and encouraged to be their authentic selves.

The firm's efforts go beyond the walls of PEAK6 offices, however. It also has established initiatives to develop and nurture talent to help people from all walks of life and enhance the industry.

This is a core part of its mission and of what defines PEAK6.

The DEI Council

To meet employee needs, PEAK6 feels strongly that corporations should turn to the employees themselves. That’s why it launched its DEI Council.

Clark Litster, Talent Acquisition Specialist, PEAK6 NI

By its nature, the DEI Council will always be a work in progress. Made up of diverse voices across multiple PEAK6 businesses, the team meets regularly and consults with leaders on vital, impactful decisions.

“As DEI Council Vice Chair, I think it's important that we speak to each other, share experiences, and create safe spaces for people from all walks of life,” says Clark Litster, Talent Acquisition Specialist at PEAK6 NI. “We accept the challenge of committing to diversity and inclusion because we are truly passionate about it and because it's the right thing to do.”

Additionally, the council aims to not shy away from difficult conversations, so as

to inspire a more productive and open work environment.

“If we can talk about race at work, then I’m pretty sure talking about business, however contentious the question or however divergent the opinions, is going to be easier,” says Sendhil Revuluri, Managing Director, Strategic Development at PEAK6, and a member of the DEI Council’s leadership team.

Resources and opportunities for PEAK6 employees

PEAK6 team members are encouraged to dedicate themselves to fostering growth and change in the workplace.

The company established voluntary Employee Resource Groups based

around ethnicity, gender, lifestyle, and interests. And the DEI Council General Assembly is open to all PEAK6 employees to provide feedback and suggestions to the council.

The most important thing employees can do, however, is to bring themselves authentically and completely to work each day. The PEAK6 team is composed of the brightest minds and most dedicated workers from all backgrounds.

The more companies embrace that, the better results everyone can achieve.

Check out open roles at the PEAK6 Belfast office to see where you can best bring your authentic self to the workplace.

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do you speak

<code?> / We’re recruiting for Backend Engineers, Data Engineers, // DevOps, Security Operations, and Support Engineers. // If a fun day at work includes Java, Python, AWS, GCP, // Docker, and Kubernetes, we want to hear from you if (you.want(“To do impactful work”) && you.want(“To be part of a great team”) && you.want(“To use the best technology”) && you.want(“To work with strong leadership”) && you.want(“To working in a diverse culture”)) {

you.apply(“PEAK6 NI”) }

Learn more about the firm, and the opportunities available to you: PEAK6.com

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Transformational period creates exciting opportun for diverse tech talent Sync NI speaks to Danske Bank’s Chief Information Officer Liam Curran about the emergence of a whole new raft of digital roles within the bank in response to increased digitalisation in banking, and hears how the bank is creating opportunities for existing colleagues to learn new skills and join its digital team

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hen it comes to digital banking the world moves fast.

Many of us have been using digital and mobile banking services for years, both at home and in business, and the use of those services has increased exponentially during the coronavirus pandemic.

And yet, when people think of banks – particularly banks with a long history like Danske Bank has in Northern Ireland – it can still come as something of a surprise to find out that making sure these apps and services run seamlessly takes an in-house team of software engineers, data scientists, robotics

developers and API architects working alongside colleagues in Copenhagen, Vilnius and Bangalore.

Danske Bank has had an in-house software and digital development team here in Belfast for several years, but as the digital world expands into every aspect of our lives, that team is growing – both through external recruitment and the upskilling of existing colleagues, says Liam Curran, Chief Information Officer at Danske.

“When we bring people into tech roles in Danske they love working here,” he says. “The challenge is sometimes that people don’t know about the variety of work we’re doing.

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When he took up his new role, Liam, who was formerly the bank’s Chief Operating Officer, immediately started bringing people who had been sitting in different teams and business units together into one team with the same goal. The Technology and Digital Development unit includes digital channels, robotics, automation, data analytics, IT infrastructure and security.

“What we’ve been getting people to understand is that it’s not just about pushing out new solutions for customers, it’s about transformation,” he explains.

for banking nities

“We are at a transformational stage in banking. Customers want to do things when and how it suits them. How they buy a house, buy a car, send kids to university, is all changing.

“My job is all about making banking easier and simplifying it for customers to enable them to engage with the bank the way they want to – which for most people is via technology.” he adds.

“People expect to be able to do their banking 24/7 and on the move, and we need to be able to meet that expectation.”

(L-R) Séamus Gallagher, Gerard McStravick, Liam Curran, Lyndsay Shields, Kris Thompson, Laurie Montgomery

If you are working in a traditional software company then the perception would always have been, why would I want to go and work in a bank? It’s an incredibly dynamic and fun environment to develop a tech career and create innovative services people use every day.”

Danske has had a strong digital offering for many years, across its mobile apps, eBanking for personal customers and District platform for businesses.

In its most recent results, the bank reported that Northern Ireland logons to Danske Bank’s digital channels had increased 10% year-on-year, with around 6 million logons per month. The bank has responded to those customer demands by continuing to invest in its digital capabilities.

One team

The role of Chief Information Officer was created in June to help accelerate the bank’s digital ambitions.

All that is not to say Danske Bank plans to replicate the business model of the likes of digital-only banks, whose transactional approach has appealed to a lot of young people. Liam says that when it comes to those big moments in life – family, buying a house, a mortgage –being able to provide the right lending solutions is more important and sometime this requires a human touch. To do this means getting to know the customer and what they need at different stages.

Investing in new skills

Doing this effectively has meant bringing in new skills sets to the bank – adding API architects, software engineers, data engineers, robotics and other specialists.

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Liam Curran, Danske Bank’s Chief Information Officer

The bank is now developing solutions in Belfast, often in partnership with fintech companies, which enables scalable and quicker solutions to customers.

The team is also working hand in glove with the business on market and customer data to get a better understanding of our customers, what their needs and expectations are so we can design solutions around that.

But to meet its needs the bank is also looking internally at its own people, taking people from non-tech backgrounds who have been on the frontline with customers and putting them through a degree course with Belfast Met to give them skills in IT security, software development and data analytics.

The bank is also running its own Digital Academy – where colleagues at a junior level across the business are being given a six-month secondment to work with digital development teams.

“We have people with deep technology experience but we’re also focused on developing our own teams. Some technology roles are “low code” which means we can train people who don’t need a computer science degree to undertake them,” says Liam.

“It’s important that we continue to provide opportunities for people to move across roles and a development pathway that enables them to have a fulfilling career within Danske Bank.”

Diversity and inclusion in tech

Danske is also working with a range of organisations to create more opportunities for people from alternative career pathways to come into the bank – for example providing work experience for people with autism who want careers in IT. The bank has a longstanding partnership with the NOW Group, which supports people with learning

difficulties and autism and helps them get into meaningful jobs and careers with a future. Having already worked with the NOW Group to become a JAM Card-friendly organisation, the bank is now playing a supporting role on its digital skills academy to help the people it supports transition into digital careers.

While the digital skills shortage and need for greater digital inclusion is a daily topic of conversation amongst employers, people with disabilities are rarely mentioned as part of the solution. Danske aims to play its part in changing that and bringing more diverse skills into the workplace and identifying suitable opportunities for work placements within the bank.

Liam himself is the executive sponsor for the bank’s racial equality network, Origins, and he believes there is huge advantage in further increasing diversity, not only in the technology team, but right across the bank’s

workforce.

“We have very strong employee networks which are driven by passionate volunteers with the focus and ambition to make Danske Bank a place of work where people feel they can be their true selves. The networks have been instrumental in opening up debate, introducing new initiatives and challenging for change. We believe this makes the bank very attractive to a much wider pool of talented people.”

Danske Bank has long recognised its role in society and Liam is quick to praise Danske’s colleagues for their passion for helping each other, their customers and society to thrive.

“A lot of what Danske Bank does is focused on making an impact, and I think that attitude is embedded in our culture and driven by our people. Being a great place to work is so important to people today and it’s one of our biggest strengths.”

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The tech sector’s responsibility for greater diversity: Tory Kerley on the values needed to improve equality in Northern Ireland’s technology industry

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he world has come a long way since Tory Kerley interviewed for a General Manager position at a County Antrim department store in 1994. During that interview, Tory was quizzed on both her religious denomination and her plans for starting a family before she was considered as suitable for the role.

Speaking now as Head of People at Synergy Learning, the provider of world-class learning technology to a global customer base, Tory tells Sync NI about the need for businesses to establish a strong set of shared values to ensure inclusion and diversity in the workplace. Tory also explains the importance of living out these values to drive change across the tech sector.

“At Synergy Learning, we focus on outcomes rather than pure process,” says Tory, “and while we proudly champion diversity, equity, and inclusion, we have always felt that our stance as a company is better reflected in our 1team culture than by tick box exercises or form filling. My role as Synergy Learning is, after all, Head of People not HR, teams, individuals or resources.

“1team is our key value at Synergy Learning, meaning

our sector.

Tory Kerley, Head of People at Synergy Learning

that our collective efforts are focused by a common mission and vision into which the rest of our values flow. Synergy Learning is a group of diverse and talented individuals that meld together to create a strong and purposeful workforce. We are all part of 1team regardless of background, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, or ability.”

“Sadly, our society in Northern Ireland hasn’t always been as inclusive as it is now. When I was told during a job interview in the early nineties that my potential employer ‘wouldn’t want me skipping off on maternity leave as soon as I was given the job’, that was just the norm in business at the time.”

“We might have come a long way since then, it would be naive to believe that Northern Ireland has made a

full transition from the toxic culture that was once more interested in community colours than the quality of CVs. Inequality wasn’t just confined to communities.

Not too long ago, females weren’t viewed as a good investment for businesses, and we still have a very long journey ahead of us to make Northern Irish businesses great places to work for every member of our society.

“Irrespective of our company culture, Synergy Learning’s workforce is currently predominantly white, without physical disability and male. We always employ the most appropriately qualified person for a job, but it is frustrating for us not to see that diversity amongst interviewees. However, until women and minority groups are being given equal access to engage with education and career opportunities in tech, this won’t change in

“To solve the issue of educational inequality, I believe the only answer is outreach. As businesses, we have a responsibility to act as role models and engage with education as early as possible. At Synergy Learning, we need to live out our internal values and shout loud and clear externally about tech being a sector where all are welcome and can thrive. The learning technologies we offer will undoubtedly widen educational landscapes too, offering new methods for individuals to engage with educational content in their own safe spaces.”

Tory concludes: “Synergy Learning has always employed people from across the UK and beyond, but we have recently adopted a remote-first working model. I see this as a golden opportunity to increase diversity in our team, given the flexibility this affords for individuals and geographical agnosticism removing all traditional barriers.

“Our focus is to bolster the values we hold internally with the actions that pour from them. We want to use our teamwork skills and learning technologies to remove barriers and make tech the most accessible sector it can be for the whole of society.”

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Bring on the next generation of I.T. talent!

Sync NI finds out more about the many initiatives Bring IT On are currently working on to address the skills shortage and employability issues within the IT sector in Northern Ireland

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he mission of Bring IT On is to ensure that IT companies have an ongoing pipeline of skilled talent fit for industry needs.

Bring IT On showcases the opportunities and benefits of careers in IT for students and new entrants by raising awareness of the diverse career options in this exciting and everchanging sector.

Bring IT On has a number of initiatives in place to help students into the IT sector. They deliver interactive workshops to students to raise awareness of career pathways and opportunities to work in IT. The programme also matches schools with a Bring IT On Ambassador from the industry who can support students, teachers, and parents to improve their understanding of the IT Sector in Northern Ireland. Aswell as this, Bring IT On joins schools’ careers events throughout the year, as well as support events with ideas, literature, merchandise, and prizes.

There are also a number of events throughout the year which students and teachers can attend, learn more about the IT sector and meet with leading employers, Colleges, and Universities.

However, it’s not all events, workshops and social media. Between March and July of 2021 the team at Bring IT On undertook a research project into the attractiveness of the IT sector and the supply and demand gap with a focus on developing a longer-term approach to raising the awareness of the IT sector as a career pathway.

The research involved undertaking an independent assessment of the demand and future supply of

skills for the IT sector, which would underpin activities required to enhance attractiveness of the sector.

The research also worked to review and update desk-based research of activities undertaken to promote the awareness of the IT of the sector as well as identifying gaps in provision and compiling recommendations for future delivery over the longer-term within a five-year programme of work and associated action plan.

The research was under consultation with a range of key stakeholders (Employers, DfE, FE Colleges, Universities, Invest NI, CCEA, School Students, Teachers, and Careers

Advisors) to identify priority activities which need to be undertaken to enhance the awareness of the pathways into the sector.

These activities include: Identification of potential barriers and challenges to progressing a career in IT and determining how a 5-year programme can work to address this, Utilising a Digital Marketing Agency to consider how our four key pillars (new entrants, parents, teachers/careers advisors and employers) can be better reached in order to promote the careers progression pathway and identification of the key outputs and impacts that would underpin a 5-year programme of work.

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Fostering greater diversity and equality of women in tech: What can we learn from intersectionality?

Dr Kristel Miller discusses the importance of addressing intersectionality when fostering greater diversity in tech

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echnological innovation is accelerating at an ever-increasing rate. Whilst this has the potential to help alleviate inequalities and foster greater inclusiveness in tech; the rapid growth of the technology sector outpaces policies, regulations and changing practices relating to diversity, inclusiveness and equality.

It is suggested that many initiatives aimed at supporting women in the tech sector or empowering women through tech often do not acknowledge or address the multifaceted, intersecting factors which many women face.

What is intersectionality?

The concept of an ‘intersectionality analysis’ was coined by leading thought leader and scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989. Whilst the analysis originally related to race, it can be used to understand how varying social categorisations can overlap, which may intensify disadvantages and discrimination.

These categorisations are reflected in someone’s identity, are attached to gender, race, nationality, socioeconomic background, disability and sexuality. It is suggested that when

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we think about inequality, there is a tendency to focus on one identity, such as being a woman or of a particular race. However, we are all individuals who span multiple identities and therefore may face inequalities in various ways. Dual identities would include a woman of colour or a woman who has a low socio-economic background.

However, someone may also have several identities such as a woman of colour, who has a disability and is from a low socio-economic background.

Raising cognisance of intersectionality within the tech sector

Looking at the tech sector generally, women of colour are heavily underrepresented. A report from the 2021 National Centre for Women and Information and Technology suggest that within professional computing occupations, 26% are women but only 9% are Asian, black or Hispanic women. It has been suggested that 57% of women working in tech have experienced gender discrimination relating to recruitment or promotion compared to just 10% of men (Dice,2021). It has also been reported that black employees reported the highest levels of racial discrimination in the technology sector (Pew Research, 2017).

Furthermore, individuals from lower social-economic backgrounds may encounter a ‘class ceiling’ in the tech sector. A State of the Nation Report by the Social Mobility Commission (2021) identifies that in the UK, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds earn 17% less than those from more privileged backgrounds. Furthermore, socioeconomic status can lead to a ‘digital divide’ in relation to access to digital technology and technology related education, which influences the future opportunities available

to enter the tech sector for these disadvantaged groups.

The business case for diversity

The overall business case for diversity in organisations is clear within research and practice. McKinsey and Company (2020) conducted research from over 1000 large companies across 15 countries and more than 1,000 large companies identified that firms who have embraced and implemented diversity outperform those who do not. In particular, they find that firms who rank in the top quartile for having gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have aboveaverage profitability. Furthermore, firms who rated in the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity reported 35% more profit than firms in the fourth quartile. However, the shift has been slow and it is only in the last five years have firms begun to report intersectionality data within diversity reports.

A lack of diversity in science and technology sectors may also impact upon innovation and technological advancements. For example, historically, a lack of females in science and technology has led to the suffering of the health of women, where for decades females were being misdiagnosed with heart disease due to a lack of acknowledgement that females can exhibit different symptoms.

Caroline Emma Criado Perez OBE who is an author, journalist and activist suggests that a ‘one size fits men’ approach often exists in scientific and technological innovations, where many cars were designed using a male body resulting in females being more likely to be hurt during a collision. Furthermore, a 2019 Harvard Business Review article identified that speech recognition has significant race and gender biases, where it performs worse for women and those from different races and minority groups (Bajorek, 2019).

Therefore, it is clear that there is a need to recruit under-represented groups in

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order to develop future innovations that are inclusive, and will help the lives of individuals with disabilities, of different races, gender and minoring groups.

Reducing inequality and embracing diversity: awareness of intersectionality is key

There has been a huge rise in the implementation of unconscious bias training, use of mentors and improving policies relating to recruitment and selection. These are all a good start for improving diversity, equality and inclusiveness in tech sectors, however, much more needs to be done to accelerate the pace of change. For example, Computer Weekly conducted a survey in the UK and Ireland in 2021 where 67% of IT workers reported that their companies are working to improve gender diversity in IT departments however, only 29% had a plan in place.

Tackling issues relating to diversity and equality in tech will not improve without collective action and strategies.

One strategy is to increase awareness amongst firms and employees that everyone is multidimensional. Greater cognisance is needed on how different combinations of social characteristics can limit access to opportunities and can also block individual’s ability to realise equal opportunities. Taking an intersectionality approach has however, met criticism, where there is fear that it accentuates differences by categorising individuals based on demographic factors. Although this is not how scholars intend it to be used. Instead I refer to it in the sense of developing intellectual empathy of different situations of individuals.

This will help realise the value that can come from having diversity in the tech sector from all angles which will lead to better innovations which can transform all parts of society. I believe that intersectionality is needed to take a systemic view and can help organisational and sector wide strategies relating to discrimination and equality in tech sectors.

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“Richer, rounder and of value”

Why diversity is so important at Version 1 The Sync NI team sat down with Version 1’s Lorna McAdoo to discuss all things diversity and inclusion within the company

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orna McAdoo has worked in Version 1 for just over eight years, she is now the Director of Operations & Business Development and has contributed to many of the diversity and inclusion projects across the company.

Lorna starts from the beginning, telling us: “I always had this passion to create a team and to lead and create a culture within an organisation that breeds success and support for each other.” Lorna also adds that she has “always wanted her team to feel like a second family to each other” and that creating this environment became her “passion.”

Lorna says this passion for diversity within Version 1 started when the company had a vast number of employees from

outside NI. Lorna explains that this created a very diverse team in Belfast and for her it was “really important that those people felt that they belong just as much as anybody who came out of one of the local universities or schools.”

Diversity in Version 1 is driven by diversity inclusion teams.

Lorna says she believes these teams have “really worked” and that they “have been able to get everybody fully engaged at a local level, along with making sure everybody has that sense of belonging.’’

Lorna also focuses on “unconscious bias” and says that it's something that the company is going to focus more on in 2022. Lorna says she wants to make sure that within the company everyone “can collectively address that

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To encourage this Lorna mentions that Version 1 is starting their second Assured Skills Academy.

She says: “this is another mechanism for making sure that we give people who may not have started out with an IT background the opportunity to actually join an IT organization and join the tech sector.”

She continues: “This next year is going to be very much looking at what are the other avenues that allow us to bring in people from deprived areas or people who potentially haven't completed the education system right through to university level.”

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unconscious bias” while also learning more about “the systems that we use''. For example, Lorna tells us “for recruitment, we want to make sure that the policies and processes around how we recruit and retain continues to address that unconscious bias throughout the recruitment and induction process.

There are several initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion at Version 1. Lorna tells us that the “focus areas for 2022 will be on

Aoife McDowell Journalist, Sync NI

Within Version 1 there is also an initiative called Education Collaboration, where employees go back into their old schools to talk about their careers. Lorna says this is all about “if you learn a new skill, then show it, teach it to someone else.”

women in Version 1, and also looking at a policy of ‘no one gets left behind’.” Lorna explains this means “looking at people that are not in employment, education or training and people with special employability needs.”

The aim of the initiative is to engage with pupils in school and universities and to tell them “you might not have considered a qualification or a job in IT, but here are some of the roles that you could potentially be doing in tech and it's not just about coding.’’

Lorna says she wants to take diversity within Version 1 “to a whole new level” as “lots of organisations do a lot of talking about promoting women within the organization but this has to be actioned and backed up with data.’’

Lorna says this initiative is also helpful to show the equal balance between men and women on the makeup of teams within Version 1. She tells us that it “gets the message back into the schools that girls are also very successful, they've got

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great roles and the tech sector is a great place for ladies to join.”

Lorna believes this kind of representation is important because there needs to be a “clear message for schools and careers rooms and, even our own living rooms that the tech sector isn't just about coding and you can play a really important role.”

The other message Lorna wants to focus on is that “it's never too late to join the tech sector, no matter your background or what university course you have completed.’’

Lorna believes that Diversity is “massively important for any organisation as it “drives the culture and helps to actually develop and mature the culture.’’

She tells us that “when you open the doors to diversity, what you're doing is actually opening the doors to lots of different experiences and people coming from different backgrounds, ways of life, thoughts, ways of working and ways of living.” Lorna believes that “when you bring that into your organisation, you'll make it much, much richer.”

She concludes that “as a tech organization, it’s really important for the advancement of AI and all those technologies that we know and talk a lot about” as having diversity within Version 1 will make “the products that we produce much richer, rounder, and of value, because you will have had it delivered by diverse teams.”

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Fostering diversity in the tech world Stephen Murphy, Director of Customer Success Europe at Applied Systems discusses fostering diversity in the tech world

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hat does diversity mean to you? Here at Applied, we believe it is a key differentiator for business success. Helping people feel comfortable within their working environment and allowing them to be truly themselves opens an abundance of opportunities for people and business to flourish.

Diversity is a necessity for future growth whether you are a small, medium or large-scale business, but, how and where do you start? Last year, Applied Systems drew up a Global Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIB) strategy to focus on our workforce, workplace and marketplace. This strategy was an important initiative within our overall business strategy, so our Executive Team was keen to ensure full participation.

First, we welcomed Tarra Seawright as our new Senior Manager of Diversity Program Management and created a Global DIB Council. The council, of which I am a European Co-Chair, has implemented and empowered diversity into our business through our hiring practices, training process and diversity celebrations in the marketplace.

Through our experience so far, we have seen how championing a diverse work culture has helped our colleagues and organisation succeed. For other businesses on this diversity journey, we want to offer advice how to begin this journey and explain how it’s helped us succeed.

Building and encouraging diversity

It’s one thing to talk about diversity, inclusion and belonging, but we must practice what we preach and so we created opportunities for our employees to learn and encourage our diverse work culture through a combination of learning modules, communities of interest and diversity celebrations.

Learning: With our Executive Team fully vested in this initiative, we kicked off with a top down approach and introduced Diversity Month at Applied with our executives sharing what inclusion meant to them. This companywide blog was a big hit with our employees, opening the conversation and encouraging intentional thinking to promote a more inclusive workplace. Following this, we launched a series of learning modules for our employees to learn about

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DIB and unconscious bias.

Having our executives be passionate and expressive about diversity was wonderful, but we also wanted to have participation opportunities for our employees. In 2020, my colleagues on the Global DIB Council and I, completed two days of training with The Leadership Academy for Enhancing DIB Impact, providing us with additional skills and tools to build momentum and sustain success.

Communities of Interest: As part of the council, we created our Community of Interests (COIs) to be safe spaces for our diverse employees, including communities such as LGBTQIA, Women in Tech and Black at Applied. We are particularly proud of these COIs offering supportive, inclusive networks of employees who share knowledge, celebrate culture and backgrounds, build meaningful relationships across our company, and contribute to a strong business.

Celebrating Diversity: To date, our Communities of Interest and DIB Council have created more than 40 activities and events for the greater Applied population. We found that providing a space for our colleagues to be celebrated and connect brought a sense of community, especially during the pandemic when we couldn’t be together in person.

Building a diverse team

When you hire people from diverse backgrounds, nationalities and cultures, you’re bringing a fresh array of perspectives to the table. Knowing this prompting us to update our hiring process.

Key changes in our job postings and applications to talk more openly about our culture resulted in more interest from candidates, seeing our culture as a differentiator from other businesses.

Some of these simple changes included: q Talking about culture in job postings

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and including meaningful diverse content onto job platforms, such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn. q Asking Communities of Interest to generate interest and engagement from prospective team members. q Updating applications to remove gender specific references.

Not only was there a need to incorporate diversity into our narrative online, including the importance of diversity in our hiring process as a whole was also crucial. During ongoing hiring training for our managers, we discuss unconscious bias, stereotypes and behavioral interviewing to help managers understand candidates on a more personal level. This helps potential candidates feel comfortable to be themselves in the hiring process, and our hiring managers are leading by example by promoting a more inclusive workplace.

External marketplace presence

As we build upon our foundation for diversity, inclusion and belonging internally, exuding our workplace culture externally also important, so we updated our email signatures and social media to reflect our company’s values. For example, we added the option to include pronouns in our email signatures. This was an important decision to support our LGBTQIA community and show we care about each individual’s preference.

Social media is a great channel for celebrating topics of diversity, inclusion, and belonging. We work with teams across Applied to share and celebrate diversity from all corners of our business, from celebrating Women’s History on International Women’s Day to Black History Month throughout the month of October.

This multi-channel approach and high level of employee participation helped Applied Europe achieve The Diversity Mark Bronze Award from Diversity Mark. The Diversity Mark recognises

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Stephen Murphy

Director of Customer Success Europe, Applied Systems

those companies that have reached a high standard of commitment to advancing Diversity and Inclusion. The Bronze Award is the first stage as we continue to build on our commitment to being a diverse and inclusive business.

We are encouraged to keep working harder towards our goals as this award solidifies that our company is heading in the right direction.

Taking the next step

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging is something that any small, medium or large business can achieve. It is an important ingredient for any business seeking to grow, and can propel them from good to great. A culture that allows individuals to be their true selves not only increases confidence and encourages them to be their best, it strengthens business performance and company ethos. With a few simple changes and greater understanding, businesses can incorporate a diverse and inclusive work culture from the hiring process to building teams to external communications.

Applied is committed to furthering diversity and inspiring other companies to write their own company’s diversity story. This is just the beginning of our journey. We are excited to increase awareness, engagement and understanding within Applied and throughout the broader business community.

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Building to belong: diversity and inclusion in the workplace empowers us to deliver better for customers and the communities they serve Civica’s Andrea Rowe explores how improved diversity, equity and inclusion will lead to better decision making and resilience in the marketplace and our communities

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here’s no doubt that more diverse teams of people will build better products and help improve outcomes for the communities our public sector customers serve. This diversity of thought and lived experience ensures we develop innovative products for people from all walks of life.

As someone who has always been passionate about building on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace, I strongly believe that equity and inclusion should be embedded in the employee lifecycle and at the heart of everything we do. Every organisation has a responsibility to improve representation and make everyone feel like they belong.

We must represent both our own wider organisation and our customers through having diverse leadership and teams. As a leading global software business and Investors in People Gold organisation, we know that it’s crucial to actively build on our DE&I policies. Future talent coming into the workforce today considers a diverse workforce as a key factor when considering job offers – we need to ensure we keep building on our progress.

The route to success

As with many global technology companies, we do have a diverse organisation and have made lots of progress in recent years – we’re proud to be a Financial Times Diversity Leader 2022 for the third year running. But we recognise

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Feel an affinity

Our DE&I strategy comes from the very top of our organisation with our CEO Wayne Story; all senior leaders attend diversity and inclusion awareness training – which has now been rolled out to the wider business. More recently, we’ve celebrated Pride Month and Black History Month: giving a voice to people to share their lived experiences and teach us what more we could be doing to help individuals feel an even stronger sense of belonging.

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Andrea Rowe

Global D&I Lead and Principal Consultant, Civica

that there’s still some way to go to help people feel they’re working in a truly inclusive organisation and are welcome regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, disability, or neurodiversity.

To do so, it’s crucial to look at the full employment cycle, starting with recruitment. How do we attract more diverse candidates to join us? We push to make sure adverts are placed where they’ll be seen by all, ensuring we have a mixed group of candidates for roles and actively challenging any lack of diversity we see.

Details such as the wording in adverts are checked to make sure they don’t discriminate. For example, we avoid phrases such as, ‘Hit the ground running’ as it’s been shown women are deterred from applying for jobs if they feel they don’t immediately meet 100% of the job description.

More recently, we’ve launched several Civica affinity groups. These are voluntary employee-led groups based on shared characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, or disability. They offer a safe space for everyone to hold discussions across a wide range of areas from menopause to the LGBTQIA community, accessibility, race and ethnicity, early careers and parents and guardians. These groups will be positive, future- and solution-focused and working towards making Civica an even better and inclusive place to work

Supporting Northern Ireland’s diverse future stars

One of the key things we’re passionate about is supporting young talent into the tech industry, such as running coding programmes in schools and partnering with organisations such as Young Enterprise and The Tech Talent Charter.

We want to show young people that you don’t necessarily need a degree in maths or a leading University degree to enjoy an amazing career in the tech sector.

Northern Ireland has a booming technology sector, but this will only continue if we can start with an early IT education for all our young people and get talent into tech earlier. As a diverse employer, we are also aiming to debunk stereotypes around a career in IT, showing that it is open to all.

Civica’s Coding for Kids programme aims to spark interest and awareness among children and young people about careers

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in the IT industry, run in partnership with schools across Northern Ireland.

To date, more than 400 pupils have taken part in these interactive sessions.

Our recent Northern Ireland Digital Awareness Week, launched by Education Minister Michelle McIlveen, gave 11-18 years olds the chance to try their hand at coding and hear first-hand from experts in the worlds of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity and emerging technologies. With both home-grown and global digital technology companies now accounting for one in every seven job vacancies in Northern Ireland, it’s vital we encourage a more diverse workforce for the future.

Inclusive tech for 2022 and beyond

As we build on our success as a leading diversity employer, we’re already seeing how our teams can innovate quickly and effectively to bring vital technology to market which works for everyone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we helped deliver both the COVIDCare NI app to provide people across Northern Ireland with immediate advice and links to vital trusted information and more recently, the COVIDCertNI app, to help people easily access vaccination certificates.

Our smart software innovation is improving outcomes for citizens both in Northern Ireland and all over the world. Whatever people’s background or job title, they all have a part to play in making that difference for wider society.

Through our Civica NorthStar innovation lab, we encourage big new concepts where everyone has a voice.

We empower everyone to share fresh perspectives for the better - for our customers, our business, and wider communities. It’s only by welcoming and including these diverse voices and ideas that we will continue to grow, innovate, and give back even more in the future.

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How Puppet is creating a global roadmap for diversity, equity and inclusion Christine Schmitt sat down with Sync NI to discuss her journey into diversity and inclusion at Puppet and what she has learned along the way

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hen I joined Puppet as the workplace manager for Belfast, I knew I was joining a company culture that was very friendly and collaborative but I could not have predicted just how singular my journey at Puppet would be.

Like many organisations, Puppet embraces the pillars of diversity, equity, and inclusion (often called DE&I) not only because they align with our company values, but because we truly believe that customers and innovation are better served when everyone’s voice is equally heard and valued. Puppet’s values — Be open; be transformational; be for each other — are rooted in a shared ethic instilled in our colleagues across the globe, and embody a collective movement towards continuous inclusion, equity, and accessibility.

But no matter how aligned our values and outlook may be, the truth is that it’s difficult to find practical ways to take action and ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion remain at the forefront of the business.

I began my journey at Puppet as workplace manager but my personal and professional investment in DE&I led me down a more specific path, and my title today includes “DE&I Program Manager.” Puppet is very much fostering autonomy and ownership of one’s career path by providing tools to shape your future role. I was already highly engaged in local

and global DE&I initiatives when I decided to try to change the direction of my career to reflect this.

Along my path to becoming DE&I Program Manager, I became an active member and eventual leader of our global IDEA Council. IDEA stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access, and is Puppet’s collective of individuals across the globe who have been nominated into the committee for their involvement in regional DE&I work. As I worked collaboratively with our global IDEA Council over the past few years, we all agreed on one thing: we wanted to elevate our DE&I initiatives in a far-reaching, but immediately impactful way.

We’re very fortunate that our CEO Yvonne Wassenaar is highly invested in DE&I and lent her support to our burgeoning roadmap. With the moral support of our leadership, the IDEA Council worked together to chart a new course that would facilitate meaningful action.

We’ve learned a few things along the way and I want to share our learnings in the hope that others may find this useful on their own journey to make an impact.

Charting a new DE&I course

When the global IDEA Council began discussing how we could address DE&I in a meaningful way, we knew that the only

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way to move forward was to face our unconscious bias. Despite the diversity on the IDEA Council, each of us brought our own preconceptions and personal experiences to the discussion. In fact, because of our diversity, we each had radically different experiences as employees at Puppet. So how could we come to an agreement on how to evolve?

We came to the realisation that we needed a level of objectivity that we could not find within the workplace, so we decided to hire an external consultant to help us collect data, conduct thorough analysis, and draw meaningful conclusions. After much research, we hired the external US-based consulting firm, Mosaic Consulting, to conduct an extensive workplace equity audit, including a belonging and demographics survey, listening sessions, and an HR lifecycle equity audit.

This process took more than a year.

While we were all eager to see immediate action, we came to the understanding that genuine change cannot happen overnight, especially when hundreds of people are involved.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the blueprint we sought to create could not be drafted overnight. This was all indicative of the intentional nature

Christine Schmitt

Workplace & DE&I Program Manager, Puppet

of charting a new DE&I course. We conceded that it would take time and resources to benchmark our new starting point.

Breaking it down into meaningful action

After a year of regular consultations with the IDEA Council and both qualitative and quantitative research, Mosaic Consulting delivered a substantial 24-month roadmap that gives Puppet a framework for radical evolution. This roadmap is akin to a guidebook, providing us direction on which initiatives to focus on in the coming months. It’s a living, changing document that we plan to review and update every six months.

The roadmap is focused on three key areas: workforce training and analysis; empowering communities and allies; and talent acquisition and branding. We broke the roadmap down into short term (6 months); medium term (12-18 months); and long term (18+ months), with actions to complete in each time period. The first direct action we took as a result of the roadmap was to hire an experienced DE&I director to lead this initiative as we move forward on our journey.

I’ve already mentioned the IDEA Council, which facilitates regional representation from the geographies where Puppet is located. A second direct action from our

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roadmap is that we are working with the Puppet community to encourage the creation of more ERGs (Employee Resource Groups), which are selfformed groups of employees open to anyone with shared characteristics or life experiences who identifies with a specific identity represented by an ERG. Previously these groups have included women, trans folks, and gender minorities, and people of color; now, new groups are being formed around the LGBTQIA+ community and people who identify as neurodivergent. The goal of ERGs and the more regional IDEA groups (smaller cohorts outside the IDEA Council) is to create an inclusive environment for all employees and foster community.

We’ve already seen strong interest among employees in fostering environments of equity and inclusion.

In Belfast, our local IDEA group has been working with partners such as Women Who Code Belfast, The Homeless Period, Specialisterne, and other organisations through meetups, collaborations, and events.

Shared values, shared actions

Every Puppet office has its own unique characteristics, but we all share an ethic around diversity, inclusivity, equity, and access. Each IDEA group is getting involved in their local communities in different ways, while the organisation as a whole is continuing to make strides.

In addition to hiring a new DEI Director and building more ERGs, we are doing deep work to ensure our hiring and retention practices continue to be equitable and inclusive. We are continuing to integrate the feedback from the qualitative and quantitative research Mosaic Consulting conducted.

We know this will take time, but with dedication and thoughtful implementation, we are confident that we are mapping a more diverse, more equitable, more inclusive workplace every day.

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Inclusive innovation in Northern Ireland

The Sync NI team catch up with Catalyst’s Fiona Bennington to discuss encouraging diversity and inclusion throughout Catalyst and the wider Northern Irish start-up community

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n May 2021, the Department for the Economy released the 10X Economy: An Economic Vision for a decade of innovation, which outlined steps the Department will take to ensure Northern Ireland is positioned amongst the elite small economies in the world.

This report was centred around the concept of ‘Inclusive Innovation’. But what does that mean, especially for the entrepreneur and start-up ecosystem in Northern Ireland, and what can we do today to transform this region into a global hub for Inclusive Innovation?

Diversity and Inclusion at Catalyst

At Catalyst, we’re taking steps to firstly uncover what Inclusive Innovation means for Northern Ireland, and how we can implement it to better serve our community. This begins with our own people and teams.

As a team, we are currently working on a range of internal diversity and inclusion initiatives: we recently created a ‘Diversity, Inclusion and Social Responsibility Team’ to explore and define areas where we can improve.

As a first action, we identified that rolling out unconscious bias training for all teams would generate positive

conversations, increase awareness, and accelerate perception changes.

In March 2020, we were awarded our first Diversity Charter Mark, the Bronze Charter Mark, the first step in our partnership with Diversity Mark NI as we work towards gold status, contributing to a culture and innovation ecosystem that empowers and welcomes all.

Recruitment plays a huge part too: we use an online gender decoder to ensure that the language we use is not favoured towards a particular gender, and this is bolstered in our process by having a diverse shortlisting and

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(L-R) Emma Green, HR Officer at Catalyst, and Fiona Bennington, Head of Entrepreneurship and Growth at Catalyst

currently stand from a diversity and inclusion perspective, enabling us to improve with measurable targets and move us closer to making innovation accessible to all.

Diversity, inclusion, and innovation: the bigger picture It’s important to place diversity and inclusion in a wider context – in 2020, the British Business Bank published a report, ‘Alone Together: Entrepreneurship and Diversity in the UK’, which looked at understanding the effects ethnic and economic background, gender and location have on entrepreneurial opportunities.  Author

Fiona Bennington Head of Entrepreneurship and Growth, Cataylst

interviewing panel. We recruit based solely on the individual’s ability to perform the role, which is why we scrutinise our selection criteria thoroughly to ensure that all criteria are strictly necessary and we’re not discriminating against potential candidates.

Inclusive Innovation is best lived and experienced, not only in our actions, but in the people we’re communicating and collaborating with on a regular basis. This extends beyond our own staff, out to our partnerships, initiatives, and programmes with the wider NI community. We have implemented new monitoring methods for the programmes we run, and use the data collected to determine where we

They found there are persistent disparities in outcomes for business owners from ethnic minority backgrounds, with female entrepreneurs from ethnic minority backgrounds facing the biggest disparities.

For example, 37% of Black female business owners and 36% of female business owners from Asian and Other Ethnic Minority backgrounds reported making no profit in 2019, compared to 16% of White male business owners.

Socio-economic background also has a huge impact – the report found that irrespective of gender or ethnicity, those with lower household income are less able to invest in their ideas, have fewer resources to develop their business, and struggle to access the

finance they need.

The data clearly shows that increasing an organisation’s diversity and inclusion also increases innovation.

Rocío Lorenzo and her team conducted a study with the Technical University of Munich in 2017, studying 171 companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

They found that where companies were more diverse, they were also more innovative (generating more innovation revenue, which is a share of revenues from new products or services in the last three years).

Critically, they also found that organisations with more than 20% women in leadership roles saw a clear jump in innovation revenue.

A 2019 analysis of more than 1,000 large organisations in 15 countries

by McKinsey & Company also found that companies in the top-quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity on executive teams outperformed bottomquartile companies by 36% in profitability.

Rethinking entrepreneurship

We know from the data that diversity and inclusion make organisations better and gives them a competitive edge – so, what does this mean for the future of entrepreneurship in Northern Ireland?

At Catalyst, we’ve realised that there are multiple types of entrepreneurs that need different levels of support

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and guidance on their entrepreneurial journey.

Zebras Unite, a foundercreated and founder-led movement, is a great example of a modern-day entrepreneur that doesn’t fit the standard mould. They use a collaborative and cooperative approach, one that’s focused on building a community and culture for people building businesses that are better for the world.

Going forward, it’s not just about encouraging a more diverse range of people onto our programmes (although that is key); it’s about reassessing if our efforts in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in Northern Ireland are encouraging diversity and inclusion in the first place, starting with our systems and processes. However, that’s only the starting point – these systems and processes must be adopted and integrated into the culture of the organisation.

We want to build a model of entrepreneurship that benefits and includes all sections of our community, so that everyone has an equal say at the table.

Moving the needle on diversity and inclusion can be difficult, but only by starting today and setting measurable targets can we begin to see real progress on the journey to transforming Northern Ireland into a global hub for inclusive innovation.

By doing so, we can become a magnet for investment and talent, and be internationally renowned for our clusters and technologies.

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Recruiting for gender equality in cyber security: opportunities from COVID-19 PA Consulting’s Elizabeth Mackay and Cat Eaton discuss recruiting for gender equality in cyber security

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he under-representation of women in cyber security is undeniable. Those working in cyber roles are more than twice as likely to be men than women. At the same time, nearly half of UK businesses lack the people and skills needed to protect their networks, digital services and data.

recruitment and roles, and to revise priorities, processes and structures so we can grow critical skills and the next generation of cyber professionals. Doing so will make the industry more inclusive, opening it to a wider pool of diverse talent and closing the gender imbalance.

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted how we work. It’s forced revolutionary change and, in part, accelerated many workforce trends. Organisations have had to adapt their working and recruitment practices to survive. For the cyber security industry, this presents an opportunity to redesign

The cyber industry moves swiftly, and COVID-19 challenged that flexibility further as it increased reliance on digital and connected networks. This has highlighted the need for organisations to prioritise adaptability in their cyber teams.

Successful cyber professionals need to be passionate about

Nurture adaptability

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through initiatives such as mid-career retraining, return-to-work initiatives, and looking at cyber aptitude rather than previous STEM experience, offers increased opportunities to redress gender imbalance.

Change recruitment to increase access

Recruitment practices have already changed in response to the pandemic.

For organisations still able to hire, technology has become integral to the process. Video interviews are now the norm. Onboarding via online inductions and virtual buddying programmes have superseded classroom days and workplace shadowing. And HR departments have had to work as virtual teams to plan and deliver recruitment campaigns.

 Elizabeth Mackay Authors

and Cat Eaton

Digital trust and cyber security experts, PA Consulting

continuous learning and enjoy problem solving – the pandemic has shown they need to be flexible, pragmatic and embrace lateral thinking.

Such qualities are, however, hard to learn through courses or qualifications. They’re the product of aptitude and experience, and not necessarily experience within the cyber sector. Currently, around half of people working in cyber previously held another cyber role. Improving access to the sector, such as through crosssector recruitment, training programmes or cyber apprenticeships, would allow organisations to tap different talent pools for transferable experience and aptitude.

Widening access to cyber jobs for people at different stages in their careers,

Some organisations have also taken this as an opportunity to redesign and speed up the recruitment process, update the questions they ask and understand the transferable skills and aspirations applicants come with. This has led to a team, largely recruited during lockdown, that is very diverse and trusts each other to work flexibly.

While accessibility wasn’t the primary goal of such changes through the pandemic, it has been a happy result.

Applicants who might not otherwise be able to attend an interview – whether due to childcare or caring responsibilities, disability or the cost involved in travel – can interview remotely without fear of prejudice.

One logistics firm has even gone so far as to offer internet connectivity to host remote interviews, so those with limited internet access can attend. It’s important to maintain such beneficial changes to recruitment, even when the opportunity for face-to-face interviews returns.

Adapt working practices

Women are four times more likely than men to work part time, and almost 30 per cent of women with a child under

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14 have reduced their hours due to childcare, compared with less than five per cent of fathers. Meanwhile, a 2018 study found that familial caring responsibilities, such as for elderly relatives, are rising in the UK, particularly amongst women. Notably, more women in professional and/or managerial roles are providing care to family members – 19 per cent had caring responsibilities in 2018.

During the pandemic, disruptions to schooling and childcare, and restrictions on movement, have blurred the line between people’s work and home lives. While this is likely to have impacted workplace equality (with many women bearing the brunt of home schooling responsibility), it’s also started to normalise the essential balance of work and personal lives – something that could play a significant role in redressing the gender imbalance in cyber security.

Evidence suggests access to flexible working enables parents to stay in work and retain higher paid jobs.

Providing employees with a choice of working location would have a similar effect as less frequent travel means they can spend more time at home and live further away, reducing childcare needs and improving housing affordability. We’ve already seen a shift to home working due to the pandemic, and organisations should retain that hybrid model where appropriate to create a more inclusive culture.

The pandemic can spur more equal working practices No-one would have chosen the pandemic as the means to enforce strategic change in the workplace.

But it represents an opportunity.

Many employees have been calling for the professional flexibility it has engendered for decades. Employers should seize the opportunity to retain at least some of this change and positively impact their diversity and inclusivity as a result.

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 Having a diverse and inclusive work environment has huge benefits  The Sync NI team chatted to Carole Callender, People Experience and Recruiting Manager at ESO’s hub in Belfast, to discuss why encouraging a diverse and inclusive workforce is pivotal when it comes to creating a successful company

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arole started her journey at ESO in August 2019 and says that from the beginning it was obvious that it wasn't just a faceless company driven only by profit, but one created by, and still led by, someone who was a first responder, knows the challenges the emergency sectors face and wanted to make a real difference.

ESO supports first responders to better collect, share and analyse information to improve community health and safety.

The Belfast office is home to 65 staff across engineering and operations, who support the ESO platform globally.

Carole, also based at the Belfast office, is part of the People Team who are focused on promoting diversity and inclusion company wide.

In the last 12-18 months, ESO has rolled out several initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion. The first point of contact most people have with ESO is when they are looking

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Company holiday policy recognises and embraces that employees have diverse personal needs, beliefs and interests. Carole explains: “When we looked at the days we designated to company holidays, the pattern told us we were focused on particular religious or cultural beliefs that may not be important to everyone.”

Instead of enforcing days off, ESO instead encouraged staff to take days that were meaningful to them. Carole also adds: “The new holiday policy is entirely inclusive so whether staff want to celebrate Easter, Diwali, Chinese New Year, Pride or Autism Awareness – the list goes on – they are encouraged to do so. We want our people to pick days that are significant to them and represent who they are as individuals.”

Carole also tells us that the company engaged a leading DIB (Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging) consultancy firm to gain additional qualitative and quantitative insight. She says: “We did this to better understand what our employees’ views and experiences are of diversity within ESO.” The team of consultants conducted a global survey and lead focus groups representative of the overall across the company to better inform diversity inclusion and belonging initiatives throughout ESO.

for a new job. Carole said: “It made sense to look at our hiring process first.

We want to ensure we are actively integrating diversity into our hiring process.”

Of late, ESO has created an unbiased job description toolkit for managers, taking a more proactive approach to diversity by sourcing and aiming to have diverse interview panels. Carole tells us that this is just the start and the Talent Acquisition Team has more ideas in the works.

Carole also adds: “While the findings were incredibly positive, the process certainly gave us lots of new ideas on how to make ESO an even more inclusive workplace to belong to and left the team excited about what we could achieve in 2022 and beyond.”

Carole explains that accessibility is another huge area of focus that the company is proactively transforming.

She tells us: “We want our products to be accessible to everybody, including users with both physical and mental disabilities. There are still a lot of barriers in making technology systems accessible across the board and we want to break through them.”

Carole Callender

People Experience and Recruiting Manager at ESO ESO has recently appointed a new Chief People Officer, Lorraine Vargas Townsend, who will focus on different aspects of diversity and inclusion within the company. Lorraine is from a Latino background and part of the LGBTQ+ community. Her experience growing up in a small town in America, and the prejudices she had to face, has directly impacted her drive to promote diversity and inclusion for all. Carole tells us that Lorraine is a dynamic speaker and thought leader on diversity, inclusion and culture, regularly appearing on podcasts to discuss these areas.

Carole feels strongly that: “Having a diverse and inclusive environment increases productivity and profits, while also improving creativity and employee engagement. All of this helps to reduce the turnover of staff, allowing us to invest in a wider range of skills. Our team benefit from gaining deeper cultural understandings, which is important when it comes to removing racism, homophobia and sexism in the workplace.”

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Diversity: The catalyst for culture, collaboration and creativity Sync NI caught up with Johnathan Sinclair, VP Engineering & Site Lead at HighRoads to discuss the issues and challenges of becoming a diverse workplace and the benefits attained from greater diversity

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iversity in all its forms; race, ethnicity, culture, gender, age, sexual orientation, education, to name but a few, each provide varying contextualising experiences that enable an individual to think, reflect, respond, and conceptualise ideas differently.

This differentiating advantage is often overlooked and can often be the defining factor of success for a lot of businesses rather than the domain or technical expertise of the team.

Below I will outline and reflect upon three core areas where HighRoads have benefitted from diversity as they have set up and expanded their engineering operations in the UK through

their Belfast office over the previous three years.

Culture

In 2019 HighRoads sought to expand their talent pool and wanted to gain advantage from a more geographic, cultural, and educational diversity by setting up a presence in the UK. HighRoads had always been invested in fostering a multicultural and inclusive environment, however as a growing start-up they wanted to broaden that cross-cultural diversity with globally minded ambitious candidates.

There have been numerous studies over the years highlighting diversity as being of key importance to job seekers when

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evaluating a job offer or company.

Furthermore, it has been noted in recent studies that respect for diverse values, culture, and perspectives has positive impact on employee turnover, improving retention, and reducing associated costs. An employee’s culture has an indirect influence on their personality and character two juxtaposed states of being; appearing to be vs actually being. The benefits and challenges of this have been seen in the inclusion of the Northern Irish culture into HighRoads which until then had been solely a US staffed company.

The technology passion of the team in NI along with our frank but polite confidence in speaking our mind has led to a more open adaptable approach to innovation and change. Balanced with a quieter and more conservative nature of existing folks has led to the execution of a game-changing roadmap of research and development that is bringing new business and client success.

Beyond the benefits to business and client, increasing diversity within the team has a direct impact on team and employee culture. At HighRoads the introduction of a new geographic office location improved video and messaging communication mediums, introduced travel and broadened social engagements adding new depths to team culture, improving employee satisfaction. However, these changes also come with challenges not to be overlooked; managing a balanced culture, productive engagement, and use of technology and geographic inclusion. This has never been more pertinent than it is now in the Covidera of business were maintaining an understanding of culture is made more difficult in a remote working society.

Collaboration

As the saying goes “Collaboration is King”. It has always been thought that to improve collaboration you had to introduce new tools and technologies or techniques such as whiteboarding and brainstorming. Other than the

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acknowledgment of the team and required traits such as trust, support, attitude etc. very seldom does diversity get recognition for being a pivotal success factor and necessary element to improving collaboration.

Equally collaboration is key for successful diversity. The ability to bring different cognitive diversity to the table when discussing business ideas and learn from the experiences and backgrounds of other industries, geographies, and cultures when solving a problem leads to better creativity.

However, in contrast a team with a more diverse makeup can find it more challenging to be decisive and agree on an outcome. Therefore, it is important that diversity in teams is well balanced to be efficient whilst considering more options and making better decisions.

At HighRoads we ensure all our Engineering teams have a blend of geographic, experience, and cultural diversity with all other aspects of diversity being naturally complimentary.

As a company we cannot just focus on internal collaboration but must consider external. To be a growing successful business we need to offer a product portfolio that caters for a continually wider audience’s need. This would not be possible without including those whom we are building for and considering their diversity.

Creativity

In terms of maturing as a team, focusing on inclusion offers the ability to reflect upon our own experiences and being open to the ideas of others. It lends to a more creative workforce, in terms of a wider pool of ideas. If ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ then ‘Homogeneity kills Creativity”. It is much thought and said that those in the technology sector have an introvert ‘geek like’ personality, however as most in the industry would know this couldn’t be further from the truth with many being keen musicians, amateur dramatists, or into outdoor pursuits

 Jonathan Sinclair Author

VP Engineering and Site Lead, HighRoads

etc. Diversity offers opportunity to learn from people from a range of backgrounds and lends itself to more empathetic leaders and teams. As HighRoads have grown over the past 3 years, we have sought to include more creative roles in UX Design and UI development. As a result of these new roles and diverse personalities and experiences we have rejuvenated the product usability and learnt more from our clients’ experience and perception enabling us to innovate, change, and become more successful.

It is the responsibility of us all in the wider tech community to stand up for tangible change in the standards of how industry operates. Society has dramatically changed, and some processes have yet to catch up. In most domains baseline stereotypes known as “Reference Man” and more recently “Reference Woman” outline the traits of so-called typical users that are used to profile and assess the building of products. Our technology reflects ourselves, as we progress, we need to adopt or evolve these standards and be dynamic and inclusive in how to profile and assess the impact of technology on users. At HighRoads we will continue to be proactive in our engagements on a broad range of diversity initiatives with various community groups and associations supporting the cause for a more inclusive technology sector.

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Making the world of tech more inclusive at Queen’s University Belfast Professor Karen Rafferty, Head of the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EEECS) at Queen’s University Belfast and the first female to be appointed in the role talks to Sync NI about how she’s championing diversity, equality, and inclusion across QUB q Karen, can you start by telling us a little about

yourself?

First and foremost, I am a proud mother of 3 young children who keep my feet firmly planted on the ground. After that I am a daughter, a wife, a friend, a colleague and, of course, an academic.

I was brought up in a traditional household, where the importance of a good education was instilled in me from an early age. I attended grammar school in Dungannon and had a largely uneventful educational experience; never imagining that I would go on to be Head of School of one of the biggest Schools in Queen’s University Belfast.

I studied an MEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Queen’s, before continuing my studies with a PhD in Computer Vision. After a period as Deputy Head of School, I became the Head of School of EEECS in 2018; a position I am extremely proud to hold.

As Head of School, I am responsible for its strategic direction and for planning our education and research portfolio. We have 200 staff members who teach, mentor, lead and conduct outstanding inter- and multi-disciplinary research to drive our future mission, which is to enhance the use of technology in communication, health services, data security and other related areas.

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In my career to date, I am proud to have published over 90 research papers and 2 subject textbooks. Alongside this I am an active researcher, focusing on the synergistic use of software and hardware to lead the way for the adoption of new tools and systems in different applications.

Currently, I am leading the creation of tri-partite agreement with PwC and Ulster University to develop an Advanced Research Centre within Northern Ireland. The research focus will be based on automation, digital empowerment, visualisation, and virtualisation. The centre will provide considerable opportunity for Queen’s University, and we are excited to work alongside PwC and Ulster University.

q How does your passion for

equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in tech stem shape your role at Queen’s?

On accepting my Head of School appointment, I made it clear that I am passionate about growing the community culture within Queen’s and ensuring EDI is embedded throughout.

I have led EEECS through our latest IIP and SWAN renewals which involved developing ambitious people action plans.

I am in the process of developing a Leadership Charter that is built upon a platform of a defined vision and preferred behaviours. The framework will set out the behavioural expectations of what good leadership looks like and develop commitment to a new approach which demonstrates how our leadership team will work together.

Several different programmes in place within the Queen’s, focus on enhancing the confidence and resilience of our female student and staff cohorts.

Research suggests that self-confidence, or a lack of it, is one of the most significant factors preventing females holding leadership positions within the sector. To address this, a leadership

development programme was created.

The main aim was to upskill female scientists and engineers with the skills to successfully navigate their future leadership journey. The initiative benefits the wider STEM community as participants have the confidence to take up leadership roles within organisations and become role models for other females. The programme has inspired our females to provide leadership and innovation on diversity issues when they have undertaken work placements and within our own School as part of our Athena SWAN work.

At Queen’s we understand that post primary education shapes young minds and in 2014 QUB delivered a teacher upskilling programme which was funded by Department of Education and Invest NI. This resulted in a growth of

236% in the number of pupils taking an A-level in Computing in Northern Ireland between 2015 and 2019 of which 24% of students are currently female.

Queen’s is a hugely diverse organisation and within our School alone we have staff from more than 30 nationalities.

A key focus is to promote and embed EDI into our culture, and we have introduced inclusion workshops, including unconscious bias training, into our mandatory induction programme for all students and staff. I have also recently completed a successful grant as a co-investigator called “Inclusion Really Does Matter: Improving Reactions to Gender Equality Initiatives Amongst Academics in Engineering and Physical Sciences”. This was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and allowed us to

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develop a range of resources which can help to improve reactions to gender initiatives.

q Could you tell us about what’s

next for the school of EEECS and how you hope to continue this success?

It is an immensely exciting time for Queen’s and EEECS. The technology sector in NI is thriving and has developed a global reputation for both fin-tech and cyber-security amongst other areas of inward investment. This growth has been underpinned through a strong graduate talent pool. However, the increased demand for professionals has not been met with a corresponding growth in the number of graduates with high-level digital skills, which has experienced a decline.

A 2019 NI CBI survey found 86% of software firms experienced significant difficulty in recruiting suitably skilled graduates with 95% expecting to increase their hiring in this area in the foreseeable future. As reported through the Department for Economy’s Skills

Barometer 2019, Computer Science is forecasted to have an undersupply against expected demand, this may become a constraint to economic growth within NI. The computing degree programmes and associated outreach and employability activities within Queen’s have supported the growth of the NI technology sector to date and provide a basis for future growth.

The past 2 years have been challenging for higher education, and during this time I have witnessed the transition from face-to-face teaching to a new online world of blended learning and a rapid growth in our student numbers at both undergraduate and post graduate level.

EEECS launched two new postgraduate certificates in Cyber Security and Software Development which were developed for individuals who lost employment or where furloughed during COVID-19. Furthermore, we had notable research successes in edge computing, computing systems and new generation wireless communications, and the long awaited and welcome appointment of several new academic, research

and professional services colleagues.

Despite the challenges, we continue to provide an excellent learning experience for our students. None of this would have been possible without the support and contribution of each one of my colleagues.

My focus for the remainder of my time as Head of EEECS at Queen’s will be to develop our community by encouraging, collegiality, diversity, and freedom of thought, and perhaps most importantly through the creation of a culture of respect where everyone’s views are valued and respected.

q What piece of advice would you offer to females who are hoping to enter the world of tech?

Always remember, that regardless of your gender, through hard work, diligence and focus, there are a multitude of opportunities for everyone in the world of technology. Always be true to yourself, never compromise your values and principles, and join me in to one of the most rewarding and challenging sectors of the economy!

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