More recently, Avanade unveiled a new vision: To advance the world through the power of people and Microsoft. This vision captures the unique partnership we have with Microsoft and reinforces our purpose to make a genuine human impact .

As we prepare to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day this Friday, March 4, I am in awe of the many ways our people make the world better every day. This shows in the client work we do, from enabling a school in Japan to spend less time tracking temperatures and more time learning, to creating a smart grocery store in Sweden that alerts employees when shelves need to be stocked and helps customers find the items they need. Our work makes me #AvanadeProud, and the ways our people look out for each other makes me even #AvanadeProuder.

Whilst Inclusion & Diversity has been part of Avanade’s culture since our inception, the events of the last two years have made us more intentional and accelerated our efforts. Currently around 20% of our people participate in one of our 15+ active employee networks and more groups are being established. As many of us continue to work remotely, it has been important for employees to find new avenues of connection and community, such as LGBT+, women, Indigenous, Black, veterans, persons with disabilities, and more. We all benefit by learning about others' lived experiences, as evidenced by the comments to this blog about the founder of our DiversAbility Employee Network.

Avanade people also show tremendous capacity to care for each other and the world around them.  The pandemic underlined the importance of employee well-being and we have made great progress in this space – even small acts of kindness, compassion and appreciation can have a lasting and positive impact on well-being (for both the receiver and recipient!).

We began piloting an Alternative Work Week, where people can choose a flexible schedule for their working hours to fit their life outside of work. Many people participating in the program mentioned how supportive their colleagues and clients are in respecting those non-working periods. Inspiring stories I hear from colleagues such as Arianna Angaroni who is living and working with non-curable cancer, are great examples of the support Avanade people give when life throws in a challenge and people need a sense of normal and feeling valued. 

The combination of the work we do for clients and the care we demonstrate every day is what makes Avanade special. In both cases, credit goes to our employees, who come every day committed to making a genuine human impact. I am happy that we have Employee Appreciation Day to remind us of the power of our people, and to encourage us to express the gratitude we have for everyone who works here.

I’m going to spend some time this week sending out postcards letting people know how very much I appreciate them. I hope you will, too.