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Diversity
At Ackama we believe diversity is important. This means striving to create a workplace that is welcoming to everyone regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, race, age, ethnicity, disability, physical appearance, body size, and/or religion.
How we practice diversity:
Recruitment
Our job adverts explicitly state that we are a welcoming workplace and strive to be as open and inclusive as possible. Our interview panels are diverse.
Code of conduct
We explicitly state that we are committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and harassment-free workplace for our team, space co-sharers and clients alike.
Wāhine
We have regular wāhine meetings to discuss and improve the issues that face women and gender non-binary people at Ackama.
Accessibility
Accessibility is an important consideration on any tech project to make the web inclusive for everyone.
How we practice accessibility:
Accessibility standards
We use the NZ Government Web Accessibility Standard as a baseline for our accessibility standards.
One project we’ve worked on that had specific accessibility needs was the online dictionary website and mobile app for New Zealand Sign Language.
See the case study
Security
Technical products often deal with sensitive information, therefore good security practice is essential.
How we practice security:
Open Polytechnic
When building an adult literacy course to be delivered on tablets in NZ prisons we had to take physical security issues into consideration.
See the case study
Continuous learning
Our curious team are always looking for ways to improve their skills. Continuous learning is valuable for our clients, our team and our business. In a rapidly changing tech environment we wouldn’t be a viable business if we weren’t always striving to learn and improve.
How we practice continuous learning:
Investment Time
At Ackama we do client work from Monday to Thursday. On Fridays we work on self-directed projects for our professional development or things that are good for the world.
Mentoring
Developers make a plan with their mentors to learn in the following three areas: technical skills, theoretical skills, and learning something so well that you can teach it to others.
Retrospectives
We have sprint retros, project retros, team retros and company retros to gather feedback and improve the way we do things.
Feedback
We base our feedback process on the Enspiral Dev Academy "Human Skills" course, remembering that feedback should be Actionable, Specific and Kind.
User-centred design
At Ackama we put real end-users at the heart of our projects. We take a holistic approach to customer experience, and believe it’s important to consider every interaction, both online and offline, as part of an overall journey.
How we practice user-centred design methodology:
Discovery
At the beginning of every project we make an effort to really understand the client, the end-users and the issues they face.
User testing
We believe that user testing is critical to projects and should be conducted early and often.
User research
Most of our projects include some user research practices such as expert and exemplar reviews, workshops and co-design exercises.
Partnership
The best outcomes are achieved when we work in partnership with our clients. We believe that collaboration should be open and trusting, with everyone bringing their unique expertise to work together towards a common goal.
How we practice partnership:
Product Owners
All clients assign a “Product Owner” to their project who is part of the project team along with Ackama designers, developers and project managers.
Co-location
Where appropriate we may co-locate in a client’s office or have clients come and work in our office.
Sensitivity
We know that little things can make a big difference in traumatic times. When dealing with sensitive content it’s important to think about the sensitivities, both cultural and circumstantial of the end user.
How we practice sensitivity:
Support
We have worked on projects that deal with hard-hitting issues such as death and suicide, and care-experienced youth. We give team members several avenues to take a break or talk to someone (EAP, the Head of People and Culture, their steward etc.) while working on such projects.
Case studies
Some examples of projects that deal with sensitive content are Together We Make a Nation and VOYCE Whakarongo Mai.
Health
The physical and mental health and wellbeing of our team is extremely important to us. We recognise that people will experience struggles in their personal lives that can affect their work lives, and we aim to support people not only in times of difficulty, but at all times.
How we practice health:
Health insurance
Full time employees get free private health insurance.
Support
All employees have access to EAP services.
Stewarding
We run a volunteer stewarding programme, where employees are matched in pairs to provide each other support.
Coffee dates
To help foster good working relationships between team members, we offer coffee dates where people are paired up to go and have a coffee together.
Friday social hour
Another way of building rapport is Friday social hour with drinks (alcoholic and nonalcoholic) as well as light catering.
Care plans
We encourage all team members to complete a care plan, to advise on what others can do (or not do) to help you get back on track if you are having a tough time.
Safety
Team safety is essential. This includes (but is not limited to) feeling safe to express yourself without fear of bullying, feeling safe from sexual harassment and being as safe as possible with regards to working environments e.g. buildings, furniture, etc.
How we practice safety:
Code of conduct
Our code of conduct explicitly states that we prioritise marginalised people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort.
SAPN workshop
In 2018 the Sexual Abuse Prevention Network ran a workshop with the whole company about what sexual harassment is and tools for dealing with it or supporting those who disclose to you about their experience of it.
Alcohol
On occasion we host events where alcohol is present. In all of these circumstances, the consumption of alcohol is a personal choice, and there is no expectation that people should drink.
Pineapple!
We have an Ackama safeword. If there is a conversation which makes someone uncomfortable, whether or not they are a part of it, they can say “pineapple” and the conversation will end.
