People Experience Transforms Our Workspace
For Axiom Zen, our culture has always been about fostering a sense of family in the workplace.
Startup culture is usually associated with beer on tap, foosball and table tennis in the break room, and an overall sense of informality. At Axiom Zen, we’ve never been that kind of startup — well, we did have the foosball table, and beer in the fridge on Fridays. But for Axiom Zen our culture has always been about fostering a sense of family in the workplace. As we’ve begun to scale in size, questions and conversations about our culture have been at the forefront of our minds. How do we lay the foundation of a people experience that stays true to our core, one that feels familial, while enhancing it in a unique and innovative way?
Our People Experience and Talent team, starting with myself, will be sharing pieces about our success in this space. We’ll showcase our successes and the opportunities for growth around our unique Axiomatic People Experience.
Axiom Zen has always been innovative, pushing the boundaries of emerging technology with an incredibly diverse platform of products and partnerships. Our methodical approach to how we venture into the unknown is apparent from the first step: assessing prospective team members. We pride ourselves on working collaboratively and cross-functionally as we strive to find the perfect fit for our team. That means our newest team members join the family on day one with pre-established relationships, having met at least six team members(often across varying projects and disciplines) over the course of their interviews. Those familiar faces make all the difference on day one, and showcase how connected our people are. Plus, it makes Team Lunch less awkward when you don’t have to figure out which cool kids to sit next to.
Do the work before they start
It’s no secret that good things come in threes. Destiny’s Child. Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Ferris, Sloane, and Cameron. We’re all about learning from people who do it right, and that’s why we launched a brand new, three-phase onboarding program for our newest team members. It starts on their first day with our team and goes all the way through to the end of their third month. This program lets us establish strong connections between our newest team members and our People & Culture Team, while encouraging team members to get really immersed in their project and discipline teams. It’s also during an Axiom’s first month with the team that they sit down and connect with our CEO, Roham, for a conversation about our Mission, Vision, and Purpose. A big part of maintaining that strong “familial” bond, if you will, is ensuring connectivity at all levels, among all team members, openly and transparently (no, not the TV show). That regular connectivity can truly transform the experience for any team member, new or tenured, while also reaffirming just how important each and every Axiom is to our vision of building a sustainable home for brilliant people to build the future we want to live in.
If it’s family, act like it!
I might be an only child, which I’m sure my Mom is thankful for, but I joined Axiom Zen with an adoptive Big Sibling (Arthur Camara, founder of Toby). Big Sibs serve as one part mentor, one part sibling, and are often from a different project and discipline than their Little Sib.
While they’re here to help our newest team members immerse seamlessly into the team and can talk about things like, “How we use Slack”, Big Sib’s are more focused on our culture. They’re that nice older sibling that many of us have never had, even if we had an older sibling (think Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi). It’s about showing them what it means to be an Axiom. This includes taking them out for lunch on their first day at a favourite restaurant, giving them a tour of the neighbourhood and highlighting recommended spots to grab a coffee or catch a few minutes of sunlight (which can be hard in Vancouver), and helping to make the new team member’s very first equipment request for a brand new iPhone. The Big Sib relationship carries on beyond an Axiom’s first week — in fact, Big and Little Sibs come together to host a social activity for the team on a Friday afternoon, often a Happy Hour that brings our entire team together to celebrate the week’s end.
Beyond the work day
Our team is incredibly social, and our People & Culture Team has lots of fun crafting ways to help our team let loose and have some fun. While our annual summer BBQ and holiday parties are staples in our social calendar, we love peppering in social activities for the team, often with a focus on health and wellness. They work both as an opportunity to bring everyone together, and also to showcase our beautiful city. Especially when our newest team members are joining us from all around the globe, including San Francisco, Santiago, Hong Kong, and Reykjavik.
You can often find our team cycling over to Stanley Park for an evening bike ride around the seawall, or maybe down at English Bay for a few games of beach volleyball. Our team members love training collaboratively in preparation for our team’s entry into the Vancouver Sun Run or the gamut of triathlons that happen in Vancouver during the spring and summer. They also love stretching out with our in-house yogis as they start and end their day. To ensure our team members have the ability to refresh and renew, we’ve also partnered with a ton of local health and wellness providers to bring their services to our team. Axiom Zen team members can book in for their own private session with our in-house RMT. Or perhaps a quick deep-freeze with Vancouver Cryotherapy will help speed up recovery from all of that triathlon training. Some need complete silence to do their best thinking. Maybe a complimentary introduction to floating in an isolation tank with Float House will help you become one with yourself as you enter a state of Zen.
Food brings the family together
Our team likes to get fit together, but they also love to come together over great food. In fact, Guy Fieri said it best: “Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people get together to eat.” We partner with local Vancouver eateries to host a weekly family-style lunch every Friday. We love experiencing some of Vancouver’s newest and hottest dining venues through our Fancy Supper Club, a once monthly dine at one of any number of Vancouver’s exclusive restaurants.
We also love celebrating national “holidays” that are associated with food. I may have been rocking a “Chef Dustin” apron and spatula while we were celebrating National Pancake Day earlier this year. It’s also a guarantee that we’ll have a least a couple dozen donuts on hand for National Donut Day. I mean, if it’s a delicious food and it is recognized as a holiday, I can assure you that we’ll be celebrating. Also, as a tip from me to you, if you ever get a chance to hang out with us in the Den, come with an empty stomach. You’ll never go hungry here. We always have a stocked fridge, pantry, snack cupboard, and enough ripe avocado on-hand that has been known to magically turn into guacamole every now and then. If you could just bring a bag of tortilla chips with you on your way over, that would be great.
Grow with the flow
All joking aside, our culture is one that has been evolving and will continue to do so. This growth hasn’t been without its own unique challenges. I learned first hand how important it is to be sure to ask about everyone’s individual dietary restrictions before planning a team lunch. It’s not super fun having a brand new team member arrive in the kitchen for an Italian feast of pasta when they’re gluten free. Also, not everyone is big into beer (namely me), but that was easily solved with always stocked Pinot Grigio (my personal favourite) and other types of non-alcoholic drinks like flavoured San Pellegrino and house-made kombucha. Even the smallest details can have the biggest impact. Being able to seamlessly switch from a Magic Mouse to an ergonomic Mouse can make all the difference in someone’s day.
As team members join they bring their own special flare to the table (coincidentally where we have our team lunch each Friday). Okay, that was a bad joke, but we’re proud of the mosaic that is Axiom Zen’s team, and the influences on our culture that are at play. And at our heart, always, is that sense of family. We’ve established our own cultural rituals and norms that will stick with us, no matter how big we become. As we hit the milestone of 100 team members and continue to grow, we’re excited to keep pushing our boundaries on how we are providing a legendary experience for our people, both in and outside of the office.
Written by Dustin Alcorn
Edited by Wren Handman
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