1. Introduction

The Code of Conduct explains our values and how to bring them into practice. Our commitment to high ethical standards and clear principles helps us hire great people, build great products, and attract loyal users. Respect for our users, for the opportunity, and each other are foundational to our success and are something we need to support every day.

Please read the Code and ACCURIDS’ values, and follow both in spirit and letter, always bearing in mind that each of us has a personal responsibility to incorporate, and to encourage others at ACCURIDS to incorporate the principles of the Code and values into our work.

If you have a question or ever think that one of your fellows at ACCURIDS or the company as a whole may be falling short of our commitment, don’t be silent. We want and need to hear from you.

Who must follow our Code?

We expect all of our employees and board members to know and follow the Code. Moreover, while the Code is specifically written for ACCURIDS employees and board members, we expect members of our extended workforce (temps, vendors, partners, and independent contractors) and others who may be temporarily assigned to perform work or services for ACCURIDS to follow the Code in connection with their work for us.

What if I have a Code-related question or concern?

If you have a question or concern, you can contact your manager or HR. If you believe a violation of law has occurred, you can always raise that to the CEO or mail your concern to:

 

ACCURIDS GmbH

Attn: Workplace Concern

Eisenbahnweg 9-11, Eingang TH6

52068 Aachen Germany

 

You may report your concerns anonymously. However, we encourage you to provide your name and contact information so that we may contact you directly if necessary.

 

No Retaliation

ACCURIDS prohibits retaliation against any worker at ACCURIDS who reports or participates in an investigation of a possible violation of our Code, policies, or the law. If you believe you are being retaliated against, please contact the CEO.

 

 

2. Serving our Users

Users are the ultimate source of our success. Only if people love to use ACCURIDS and only if we help them to accomplish their tasks effectively can we be successful economically.

 

Usefulness

Our products, features, and services should make ACCURIDS more useful for all our users. We have many different types of users, from individuals to large businesses, but one guiding principle: “Is what we are offering useful?”

 

Responsiveness

Part of being useful and honest is being responsive: We recognize relevant user feedback when we see it, and we do something about it. We take pride in responding to communications from our users, whether questions, problems or compliments. If something is broken, we fix it.

 

Co-Development

We co-develop our product with customers to ensure we serve actual needs. We collaborate to find elegant solutions and to obtain fast feedback.

 

Reliability

Trust in us and our product is especially important for our success as ACCURIDS is a registry that must be reliable in all aspects.

 

 

3. Our Values

 

People, Product, and Profit

We take care of the people, the product, and the profit - in that order.

 

Integrity and Trust

Integrity and trust are the basis for effective communication and collaboration in teams and with our customers, users and stakeholders. 

 

Radical Transparency

We believe that access to information is key for ideation and solving issues collaboratively. That is why we default to open. Transparency requires the responsibility to treat information appropriately.

Transparency also bears the responsibility to bring any conflicts or issues to the surface where they can be solved collaboratively. We appreciate issues as opportunities to make us and the product stronger. We don’t fear conflict because we know that ignoring them will let them grow while mentioning them will allow us to resolve them while they are small.

 

Quality

ACCURIDS is about providing access to reliable and accurate information. High quality and great design are the basis for scaling, stability, and usability.

 

Personal Development

Continuous learning is required to be successful in a fast-changing environment. We invest in personal development, training, and learning.

 

Excellence

We encourage people to discover their strengths and follow their interests as this is the basis to create excellent products and services.

 

Fairness & Consistency

We ensure that individuals are treated respectfully, fairly, and compassionately in all aspects of our interactions and apply policies, procedures, and outcomes consistently regardless of who is involved.

 

Responsibility & Accountability

At ACCURIDS, we encourage everyone to take responsibility and we hold all individuals responsible for their actions, and ensure that where appropriate, those individuals hold others accountable too.

 

Diversity and Inclusion

We need multiple perspectives to solve challenges and diversity and inclusion are important for a strong, resilient, and adaptive team.

 

 

4. Our Principles

 

Keep it Simple

Instead of adding numerous and complex features in an ad-hoc style, we invest time to understand underlying needs and think hard to find elegant, simple, and robust solutions that are useful to all our users.

 

Scaling: Go-Slow to Go-Fast

We know that product quality and design are key for our branding, scaling, and for long-term financial performance. That’s why we always set quality over quickly developing and releasing new features. Speeding work up isn’t the answer. In fact, we are convinced that by slowing down, we eventually achieve our objectives more quickly.

This means that

• we set quality over development speed
• we release stable
• we think long-term
• we manage technical debt pro-actively
• we invest in automation where reasonable
• we minimize redundancies
   

Feedback

Humans and machines learn through feedback. We ask for and give feedback to help each other get better.

 

Practice over Theory

Rather than spending time and resources considering theories, we try things and fail or succeed so that we have actual facts of what works and what doesn’t.

 

Proactive Communication & Taking Action

If we see things that should be improved in our collaboration or the way we serve customers we proactively communicate the issue and take action to make the changes happen. E.g.,

• We record issues: Any issues reported are tracked in a backlog and managed.
• We ask for help: If we work on a problem and we have no idea or solution, we ask an experienced colleague and get support.
• We don’t spend time on potentially useless work: Before implementation, we make sure that the solution path and tasks are clear.
   

Respect

We are committed to prohibiting and effectively responding to harassment, discrimination, misconduct, abusive conduct, and retaliation. As part of this, we hold each individual responsible for their behavior in this regard. All of us are expected to do our best to create a supportive work environment, where everyone has the opportunity to reach their fullest potential, and be free from harassment, intimidation, bias, and unlawful discrimination.

 

Equal Opportunity Employment

Employment here is based solely upon individual merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. We strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, veteran status, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy status, sex, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, mental or physical disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected by law. We also make all reasonable accommodations to meet our obligations under laws protecting the rights of the disabled.

 

Work Environment

We choose a work environment that allows us to work effectively - individually and together. This means, for example, that everyone is free to choose their place of work or which hardware or software to use.

 

Safe and Healthy Workplace          

We are committed to a safe, healthy, and violence-free work environment. Behavior that poses risk to safety, health, or security is prohibited. If you become aware of a risk to the safety, health, or security of our workplace, you should report it.

 

 

5. Avoid Conflict of Interests

 

When you are in a situation in which competing loyalties could cause you to pursue a personal benefit for you, your friends, or your family at the expense of ACCURIDS or our users, you may be faced with a conflict of interest. All of us should avoid conflicts of interest and circumstances that reasonably present the appearance of a conflict.

When considering a course of action, ask yourself whether the action you’re considering could create an incentive for you, or appear to others to create an incentive for you, to benefit yourself, your friends or family, or an associated business at the expense of ACCURIDS. If the answer is “yes,” the action you’re considering is likely to create a conflict of interest situation, and you should avoid it.               

 

 

6. Preserve Confidentiality

 

We handle information that is marked as confidential in an appropriate manner. In particular, we ensure that confidential information from customers is not disclosed.

 

 

7. Notes

 

This Code of Conduct was inspired by the Google Code of Conduct.