Company Culture
Here's where you'll find information on what it's like to be part of Code for Australia day-to-day.
Our Culture
We care about our team and want to create a positive and inclusive culture where everyone feels welcome. We want to encourage and foster people of all backgrounds, and with differing experiences, to thrive in their time with us at Code for Australia.
Code for Australia works openly, agilely, reflectively and passionately to create positive impact in everything that we do. We value people's skills, energy, time, and passion and are always seeking to learn and grow as a team.
We've captured a lot about our team culture in various places... This includes our Ambassador Guidebook and We Are Code for Australia Trello boards. You can find both below or chat to any of our amazing community to hear what it's like from a human.
Our blog is also a great reference point for how we're working on making our culture even better, including a focus on diversity and inclusion.
We also have some pretty cool perks which you're entitled to as part of our team. You can read more about them in the Can I have? and Who Do I Talk To About? sections of this Handbook.
Where To Find Things
We pride ourselves on having great documentation, but sometimes it's tricky knowing where to look.
Here's a rough guide:
Google Drive is where we keep all of our documents safe. Team members have access to everything at Code for Australia once we get them sorted with an email address. With this freedom we encourage you to peruse and read freely, but ask you not move or delete things.
We use Trello to map our work and processes, including boards especially for onboarding, a handy Fellowship Guide, and for navigating what it means to be an ambassador of Code for Australia as a Fellow.
Fluid information on plans and meetings are managed through Slack and Google Calendar - so those are the best ones to keep an eye on.
Our Rituals
Sprint Planning to work out what you’ll work on
Regular Retrospectives to reflect and make incremental improvements
Show & Tell as you go (via showcases) - not waiting till something’s perfect to share it
Open Houses once every six weeks-ish (organised by Base Team)
Ongoing mentorship from great minds (supported and connected by Base Team, initiated by you)
Team lunches every Friday
Sharing our music taste on Slack (whenever the rhythm calls)
Within Fellowship Teams
We encourage Fellows to hold the following meetings and rituals with their government partners.
Showcases/Demos (every two to four weeks, on top of Open Houses)
Sprint Planning (every one to two weeks)
Retrospective (every one to two weeks)
We, the Base Team, also run retrospectives with government partners as a cohort depending on how many Fellowships are running. We hold these about once a month.
Within The Base Team
Every week for sprint planning and finances
Every month for a retrospective
Team-Wide
Every Friday is team day, where Fellows come together to share, learn and work together. We do stuff like:
Team lunch and games
Training and workshops on topics informed by our team
Monthly team-wide retros, including the Base Team and all Fellows
Time to decompress and focus on what you need to as a team and an individual
All Fellows, Individually
One-on-one with our Head of Delivery + People to check in and see how things are going
At their favourite place in the city (if Melbourne), or their favourite platform (if online)
At a frequency of their choosing - definitely in week one and week six of the Fellowship, then however often they would like
Working in the Open
We're an open book. Have a look at our regular Updates section on our blog to see what's happening in our world. We also share what's new during our Open Houses. Find out when they're next running here.
You can also reach out to any of the Code for Australia team via meetings or on Slack or email, anytime.
For Fellows working with Code for Australia, you also can check out the Base Team's Weekly Sprint Board at any time too.
Our Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is very important to us at Code for Australia. We don't want our team members feeling stressed or working extra hours. While we hope our team is excited and interested in their work, we strongly encourage you to switch off once the work day is over.
No one needs to work the nine to five like a robot. As long as they're supporting their team, and getting things done, we are happy for folks to work flexibly, subject to what their team agrees on and what works for our government partners.
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