Embracing Diversity Leads to Success

by Jan Anderson

The Colas ISS Team is made up of a very diverse and talented group of individuals. Diversity comes in many forms (culture, age, gender, skill, ethnicity, diversity of thought) to name a few. Diversity allows our team to challenge each other and come up with the best ways to develop and support the technology that enables our business to be successful.

Our cultural diversity is one of our favorite things about Colas ISS. We value our differences and we seek ways to celebrate them. This gives us exposure to different cultures through celebrating holidays and food from around the world. Creating an atmosphere where everyone has a feeling of belonging is a pillar of our culture.

Another one of the great ways Colas celebrates people and diversity is through the global Colas Team Cup. This is a sports-based competition that involves participants from across the globe. It culminates with the finalists from all over the world competing in Paris, France. ISS always fields a great soccer team (football if you prefer) to compete in this amazing event.

At our annual kickoff meeting we bring everyone together from their homes around the continent to spend time together. During the kickoff we spend some time on the requisite speeches and slides detailing our plans for the year, but most importantly we get to see each other’s smiling faces and renew those relationships in person. You cannot underestimate the value of having a meal with someone that you normally only get to see via videoconference. We also make it a point to participate in some fun team building exercises, be it a funny game or a hackathon competition to design a new app.

Every couple of years ISS holds a conference for our customers called SUM. It’s a chance to not only give some demos and teach some classes but to get some face time with the people we serve. The event is hosted at a convention center and features plenty of opportunities for networking as well as a day of off-site activities. All of it is carefully designed to leverage our diversity and expertise to build connections with our customers that in turn help us to succeed.

At Colas ISS we like to work hard and play hard. Our Social Committee is actively involved in events throughout the year to support this philosophy. We enjoy holiday parties, picnics, sporting events, social hours, game nights and other events involving families. We like to bring our geeky side out with celebrations like “May the 4th Be With You” and you will likely experience Nerf gun fights in the office.

Recruiting is an ongoing mission at Colas ISS. We are always looking for the next super star team member and are working to build a pipeline of talent for future roles within our team. Check out the “Our Team” page to meet some of our incredible team.