The IT service provider adesso has received the TOTAL E-QUALITY award in recognition of its extensive commitment to creating equality for all in its HR and organisational policy and thus promoting diversity in the workplace.

Diversity, inclusion and equality are deeply ingrained in the adesso Group’s corporate culture and strategy. The company takes a broad range of measures to create an attractive working environment for all its employees – and that approach has now earned the IT service provider the TOTAL E-QUALITY award, which is presented by TOTAL E-QUALITY Deutschland e. V. for a three-year period. Established in 1996, the association counts the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth among its founding members and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Total E-Quality Deutschland e.V. honours organisations from the business world, the scientific community and public administration for successfully championing an equitable working environment in their HR and organisational policy.

The independent judging panel praised adesso’s extensive commitment to greater diversity and was won over in particular by the principle of showing appreciation to all employees, which has always been anchored in adesso’s corporate culture, as well as by the company’s awareness of the wide variety of personal circumstances within its workforce and by its programmes for breaking down unconscious stereotypes and increasing the proportion of women in management positions, including the option of working part-time.

In recent years, adesso has driven forward a very broad range of strategies to advance equality and diversity in the workplace. The company’s She for IT initiative, which includes the Female Talent programme and the Female adessi network (encompassing a series of live events entitled adesso women talks), accompanies women at every stage of their career – from attraction, recruitment and onboarding as well as continuing professional development through to support in specific phases of life such as parental leave, part-time work and career breaks with subsequent reintegration. With this in mind, the company launched the women’s employee journey @ adesso project in order to define milestones, develop personas, conduct a strengths-and-weaknesses analysis and develop goals and specific measures on the basis of the findings. adesso also plans to appoint women to a total of 40 management positions by the end of 2022.

Another of adesso’s focuses is the development of intercultural skills with the aim of raising awareness among managers and employees of the opportunities and tensions in diverse teams and of promoting openness and appreciation towards everyone. In this area, the IT service provider offers various training programmes, self-learning modules and events. For example, the Managing Unconscious Bias training helps managers develop an understanding of how unconscious thought patterns influence decisions and learn strategies for making future decisions more consciously and therefore more objectively.

adesso has demonstrated its commitment to these values by signing the Charta der Vielfalt, the German Diversity Charter, making it part of a network of over 4,000 companies and institutions.

“What kind of company do we want to work for? We asked ourselves this simple question and reflected very carefully on what we are doing with regard to diversity, equality and inclusion. Although these three things should be seen as a matter of fact, we found that in terms of diversity, just like our society, we are not yet where we would like to be. Too often we revert to established patterns of behaviour and, without wanting to, we reinforce the status quo,” adds Stephanie Degen, equality officer and diversity liaison at adesso. “But the greatest thing we have in common is that we are all different. And that is an asset: the more diverse our individual perspectives and experiences are, the greater the benefit to us at both a personal and professional level. I believe that taking a mindful approach to our daily interactions is essential.”

The awards ceremony took place in Erfurt on 25 October 2022.