Accurx Values: what they are and why they matter
One mission, five values, 160 people… and counting!
Working in Accurx’s Talent team, it’s so rewarding to see our company values brought to life by the incredible people here. For everyone, from me and my amazing team to our product designers, engineers and user researchers, Accurx’s five values underpin everything we do.
The challenge with company values is how to make them feel relevant and practicable rather than just empty words we stick up on a wall.
That was the guiding principle when our values were formed back in 2018. The small bunch of early accuFolk shared their ideas with sticky notes, painstakingly culling a long list of 15 potential values down to the five we know so well today. But before I talk about the role our values play and why they matter, what actually are our five company values?!
Accurx’s values
On a mission
We’re on a mission to connect everyone involved in a patient’s care so that healthcare teams can communicate more easily and reliably, ultimately helping them to deliver even better patient care. We’re out to make healthcare staff happier, and patients healthier, and use this mission to both drive us forward and guide our decisions.
Always collaborating
It’s pretty much impossible to go through a single day at Accurx without collaborating with others. We understand that nobody knows it all, and there’s always going to be someone that has more knowledge and understanding than what we do, so we work together to find the best outcomes.
This is something that happens on a regular basis in my team, (the Talent team)! We’re committed to understanding our domains like experts, but of course we’re aware we don’t know everything. Hiring managers regularly help us screen CVs for candidates, particularly for technical roles. We identify candidates through strong application questions alongside a great CV — and we do it all together!
Continuous Improvement (Kaizen)
Continuous improvement is something we index on highly at Accurx. We want to work with people who value giving and receiving constructive feedback and always look to better themselves with new skills and expertise. This comes through in everything we do, from our 360 performance reviews, to cycle planning weeks and check-ins. We offer everyone an annual learning and development budget, which gives employees a fantastic opportunity to learn something new or develop their existing skills.
We also have Accurx Academy, which is bi-weekly event, designed to showcase the different skill sets across the organisation and help people learn! We’re extremely lucky that we have a wide range of skills across our teams and give people the opportunity to teach and learn something new.
Responsible Ownership
As we’re a growing scale-up, no two days are the same! As a new starter, this means you’ll often find yourself doing things for the first time. We’ve hired you because we’re confident you know the ropes. But it’s also important that employees are able to reflect on decisions and be accountable for defining actions and next steps.
Balance
Balance is something we believe should be important for everyone. All people on our team should be able to maintain a healthy work-life balance. We do our best to support each other to establish as much balance as possible.
We have a hybrid work policy of 3–2, and core hours between 10am — 4pm and we’ve introduced Friday Society, which is a great opportunity to meet new people, relax and maybe even learn a new skill or hobby. At 2pm on the last Friday of the month, tools go down and the fun begins! You can expect activities such as board games, trips to the theatre, go-kart racing, rock climbing or flower club.
These are just a few of the ways we help manage work life balance — to find out more, check out our benefits, and working abroad policy.
Why our values matter
These five values were defined when Accurx was still a scrappy startup of just eight people, but have formed a foundational part of Accurx life as we’ve grown to over 160 people. Over that time, our culture has grown too, partly organically and partly by prioritising the team’s wellbeing. Throughout all these changes, our values haven’t changed.
It goes without saying — a diverse and inclusive environment doesn’t just appear overnight. It takes trust, transparency and strong commitments across the company. That’s why we have a dedicated Diversity & Inclusion group, why we recently hired a DIB consultant, and why we’re setting out to become a disability confident employer. Because all these things together help us create a workplace where accuFolk feel safe and heard.
So what does all that mean for newcomers to Accurx? Well, it’s super important to us that we not only hire great talent, but people who genuinely share and feel passionate about our values. After all, we’re a people driven company: all of our users are real human beings with real problems that need to be solved to improve patient care across the country.
That’s where values interviews come in…
When it comes to hiring new people onto the team, it’s hard to overstate how important it is that they align with the five values above and will enrich our work culture. That’s why we have a dedicated values interview stage, no matter what role someone is applying for or their seniority. It’s a nice opportunity for potential peers to get to know more about you. We encourage candidates to be as open as possible, sharing real stories as we want to get to know the real you.
We give everyone across Accurx the opportunity to get involved with values interviews, not only because it’s an extra skill set that we can help people to develop, but also because we really want the wider teams’ input into our hires.
We provide training for everyone who wants to be involved with our Values Interviews. These sessions are usually a mixture of role playing, sharing experiences and reviewing previous scorecards. Since we don’t believe that any one person can hold all of the ‘interview knowledge’, we don’t believe in having the same panel of interviewers. Having just one interview panel can introduce bias and wouldn’t be a true reflection of how we work at Accurx— collaboratively!
Think you’d be a good fit on our team? Check out our careers page for the latest job roles. You can help us to connect people across healthcare.
