As we recently celebrated 21 years of Endava, Rohit Bhoothalingam, our General Counsel, sat down with John Cotterell, our CEO, and talked about how Endava makes a positive impact in the wider world.
John shared his thoughts on our ‘we care’ approach at Endava and the five areas of focus in terms of sustainability and ESG, our key achievements that make him proud as well as our ambitious roadmap for the future.
Rohit: What are some of the highlights in terms of how Endava has made a positive impact over the past 21 years?
John: Making a positive impact on the world around us has always been at the heart of our business and means a lot to me personally. When we looked at our core purpose and values, this is what we tried to capture, but it started by doing it before we wrote it down! What I mean by this is that we sought to make a positive impact for both our people, by creating great careers, and for our customers, by creating great systems and products, and this is visible in our core purpose.
It has always been our desire that Endava will make a positive impact on the cities we operate in, whether it be through teaching free courses in universities, leveraging our digital skills as a force for good, or supporting tree planting. We’ve always been committed to making a positive impact on the world around us – what we now call ‘we care’.
Rohit: Businesses are now being asked to demonstrate and make clear their commitments, as the world is getting more interested in how companies make a positive impact on the world around them beyond just making a profit and employing people. So, what are we doing to show that we care in terms of making a positive impact?
John: We’ve identified five key areas that we care deeply about: Our People as we enable them to be the best they can be; Social Impact and our contributions to the communities in which we operate; Operating Responsibly and everything that relates to our ethical approach to business; Innovation & Data Integrity as we continue to provide secure and smart solutions; and Environmental Impact as we play our part in protecting our planet. These are the areas of focus we now call ‘we care’.
Rohit: So, John, tell me more about our people ambitions and how we help our people to “be the best they can be”?
John: It’s all about our people.
We’ve always been focused on creating exciting career opportunities. Early on, we set up Endava University to help our people develop their technical and soft skills; through our challenge-support culture and our Endava Wellbeing programme we empower our people to grow both personally and professionally.
At Endava, we want all of our people to be the best they can be regardless of gender, age, race or beliefs - it’s explicit in our purpose. As you know, Women in Tech is a subject that’s close to my heart. We want to see more women in leadership and governance positions across Endava, so we’ve kicked off our Women in Tech focus which is about ensuring more Endava women rise in their careers.
We are committed to the highest standards of ethics and business conduct, and we recognise and reward our people for living up to our values and Code of Conduct.
We create opportunities for everyone to benefit from Endava’s success through our Sharesave Plan, and over 46% of our people are now participating, which is really superb.
Through YourZone awards, we also celebrate the Endavans who bring our values to life by caring for our colleagues, clients, and communities.
As a result, we’re an employer of choice in many of our locations, and we want to be an employer of choice in many more!
Rohit: Great! How about people outside Endava? What are some of the things you are particularly proud of in terms of Endava’s social impact?
John: We’re proud of our track record of making a positive and meaningful difference to the communities we are part of as well as wider society. This is particularly true in our Central European and LATAM locations, where we provide sustainable career opportunities and support local community projects.
I’d say we’ve also been instrumental in building the strength of the IT communities particularly in Chisinau and Cluj, where we first started and have had longer to make an impact. For example, our partnerships with colleges and universities in running IT programmes; and the technical communities that Endava has created such as Connect IT and TechFlow has made a real and positive difference.
For many years our people have enjoyed getting involved in local community projects, causes, and fundraising. We will continue to concentrate our efforts in the areas that will have the greatest impact which are Education, Health and the Environment.
Rohit: Our greatest joy comes from finding smart solutions for our clients. In terms of Innovation & Data Integrity, which of our key achievements would you call out?
John: For more than 20 years now, Endava has been reimagining the relationship between people and technology, helping our clients to accelerate transformation in their industries by leveraging digital capability.
By doing this, we are transforming the way people live and work, day by day, project by project. Whether it is moving payments towards frictionless transactions, helping the shift to autonomous vehicles, or to reimagining telehealth and remote care, we are driving change in the way we all live.
We have a number of success stories - from our work with Volkswagen, enabling them to host their first virtual motor show, to developing a smart platform to lead the way in the future of work. Alongside this, we’ve continued to work with NGOs and charities to get greater engagement through digital solutions and optimising the way they work.
At the same time, we adopt the highest standards of data security to give our clients confidence that we safeguard the assets they entrust to us. Our ISO 27001 certification and SOC2 accreditation confirm that we adhere to the highest industry standards.
As of March 2021, Endava has achieved a BitSight Security Rating which places us in the top ten percent of firms in the technology sector.
Rohit: And in terms of environmental impact, what are our ambitions?
John: Individually, we all have the power to help tackle climate change through our behaviour at work and at home.
As a digital company, we are committed to increase the use of renewable energy. For Endava, my hope is that we can go beyond carbon neutral to create an environmental benefit becoming carbon positive. We have work to do in demonstrating how this could be possible, but I think it’s an exciting ambition.
Rohit: Where would you say Endava is in its ESG and sustainability journey, and what lies ahead?
John: I believe we have solid foundations and an ambitious roadmap. We’ve now started telling our story on our new ‘we care’ section on endava.com, and we will continue to share more ‘we care’ updates. We’re inviting everyone to explore Endava’s ‘we care’ approach online and to reach out to us with any questions.
I’m really proud of what we’ve already achieved and excited about delivering on our ‘we care’ goals!
The Endava Experience
| John Cotterell |
14 April 2021