Flux: The brand putting people first
Why this hungry startup puts the learning and growth of employees at the heart of their strategy.
by Maddy King and Gina Stevens-Rembe
As the tech industry grows culture, manaakitangaa and inclusiveness are now more important than ever — for both employees and employers. With behaviours and values taking centre stage in purpose-driven organisations, how are they being applied to common workplace challenges?
Early on in Dev Academy’s journey, we talked to a bevvy of industry heavyweights, quizzing them on their culture and the desirable skills and qualities they’d like to see in candidates for roles in tech. One of the stand-out responses was the ability to communicate effectively and flourish in an environment where diversity of thought and a growth mindset is fundamental.
As in any industry, there are bright spots that stand out. Flux, the software development powerhouse behind electricity retailer Powershop, is one of those places.
With twelve Enspiral Dev Academy graduates currently working at Flux, we spoke to long-standing Fluxters and more recent arrivals in to see what makes Flux special, and to find out why so many of our grads end up there.
One of the driving forces at Flux are their values (or behaviours as they like to call them). Flux spun out of Powershop in 2017 when it became apparent that the technical and development potential could commercially benefit more than Powershop alone. As a newly set up organisation, it had the chance to establish (and somewhat reinvent) its culture. They asked for volunteers to be part of the ‘Culture Club’ to take a bottom-up approach to develop what their behaviours are. They then took on an iterative, collective process to establish the behaviours:
Give a Shit; Think Beyond; Boldly Go.
These behaviours are embedded across the board, including an ‘Appreciation’ slack channel where Fluxters can widely express their appreciation of their colleagues. While there may be pool tables, drinks in the fridge and sausage-roll meetings, those aren’t the main things that attract people to Flux.
This approach is also evident in the way they hire and onboard, with a focus on taking the behaviours beyond traditional promotional posters on the wall and supporting learning and growth in a tangible way that meets the needs of the person.
“Everyone here is genuinely passionate about their craft, they want a challenge, they want to get better, they’re excited about doing something different and learning and growing collectively as a team,” says Ben Amor, the company’s Acting Head of Technology.
Part of this desire to learn and grow is supported by the organisation’s approach to training newcomers; they join a cohort of the so-called Dev Train. It’s a training environment, explains Ben: “Every developer who joins Flux comes onto Dev Train. You’ve got to finish three projects, and then you graduate onto a team.”
This training may be anything from three weeks or more — it’s outcome-based. This process allows existing team members and the trainee to have a conversation about where they can add the most value, taking into account the trainee’s preference, current skills and the needs of the team.
“It’s also a place where you’re encouraged to try, learn and get experience — not figure it out for yourself as an individual put on a production team and left to sink or swim. We very much think of everything as a team sport. We’re all in this together, and we can all lift each other up and be better at it.”
Ben adds: “Training a new starter for weeks seems like a big investment — and it is. But really any organisation which takes on a new developer is making that investment — new languages and codebases are things which have to be learned — you can’t avoid that. We’re choosing to acknowledge that and to help people to do that learning in a safe and structured environment.
Doing it this way gives us the chance to teach people about our culture, the way we do code reviews, how to give feedback kindly — to critique the idea, not the person — how to have those really good conversations about the code.”
So, how do you add value more broadly? Ben believes that great developers do far more than simply write code.
“As a developer, it’s sometimes great fun to stick your headphones on and just cut code all day but if that’s all you do you’re not giving your employer the best value, and you’re not pushing yourself either. All of those other things — helping product people to understand what’s possible, coaching other devs, pairing with more senior devs or with people who understand the code you’re working on — are hugely valuable — both for the business you’re working in and for your own learning”.
