Gapps
Transformative DEI Partnership
Management Consulting | DEI Approach | DEI Survey | DEI Learning & Development
Gapps is an IT consulting company whose services include technical implementation, migration, training, change management, software development, cloud architecture and support. As there is always a person behind every technology and software, Gapps believes DEI is a key factor in making digital work smart and enjoyable for global markets and broader user groups.
At Gapps, the idea of diving deeper into DEI with help from external DEI specialists rose among the employees in 2021. Gapps executive team embraced the idea, and decided to approach deidei. Fast forward to today, with deidei's support, Gapps has successfully transitioned to a data-driven and strategic approach in their DEI efforts.
From initial steps to strategic, data-driven DEI efforts:
Gapps is an excellent blueprint for organizations looking to kickstart their DEI journey from scratch. This is how our joint journey has looked like from the end of 2021 until today.
1. Starting at the top. As leadership buy-in and commitment is crucial for successful DEI development, our first step in the collaboration was organizing a DEI Onboarding for Leadership to Gapps leadership team. The goal was to equip their leadership team with better clarity on what value DEI brings to their organization from a business and people perspective, and together set a direction for the future DEI efforts.
2. Broadening the impact. The next milestone was the company-wide DEI training that aimed to increase the team's capabilities and competencies around DEI and bridge potential gaps in the level of DEI knowledge among Gappsians.
3. Charting the course. Together with key stakeholders from the Gapps' leadership team, we defined a DEI roadmap for 2022-2023. The roadmap redirected DEI efforts toward a data-driven and strategic direction with long-term ambitions.
4. Harnessing data. In 2023, we conducted a DEI Survey to gain a more profound understanding of Gapps' current situation, strengths, and areas for development. The data collected through this survey enabled Gapps to make more informed decisions about their future DEI efforts, define metrics to track progress, and create an actionable plan to achieve their DEI goals.
Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is ingrained in our daily work. As we scaled our operations, we recognized that to strategically drive DEI, we needed data-driven insights as well as a robust foundation and clarity about our DEI ambitions among our people.
The results from the DEI audit were reassuring and gave us the confidence that we were on the right path, doing the right things. By getting data to support the decision-making, we can now better choose our development areas, evaluate our actions and continuously develop our initiatives.
Our new DEI Approach has also helped everyone at Gapps see how DEI is intertwined in everything we do throughout the company, and how aligning the DEI approach to all of our objectives and development projects ensures our success.
Katja Järveläinen
Head of People and Culture
5. Defining Gapps’ approach to DEI. Based on the learnings from the past collaboration, survey and joint workshop, we co-created a DEI Approach for Gapps. A well-tailored and strategic DEI approach is a change management framework that helps drive DEI development by establishing clear company-wide alignment about the defined DEI target state, setting ambitions, outlining high-level objectives, and emphasizing the significance of DEI for both the business and its people.
6. Implementing the learnings. Equipped with the insights from the survey and the clarity provided by the DEI Approach, Gapps crafted an action plan and is now implementing it. The DEI work is led by Gapps leadership to ensure accountability and sustainability in the efforts.
deidei’s systematic way to develop DEI has really made a difference and supported our vision to be the best place for our employees.
While diversity, equity, and inclusion have been central to our daily lives, the partnership with deidei has brought these important topics into our leadership meetings, monthly all-hands meetings, and our supervisory work. Pinpointing the focus areas and collecting data for improvement has made DEI a concrete and measurable part of our culture.
Marc Josefsson
CEO
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