Before coming to work with Accurate, Devin Martinez was an Accurate client. She had been working with an employment agency as an account executive and Accurate was one of her customers. “The director of HR at the time was my main point of contact at Accurate when they needed temporary staffing,” she says.

But Accurate was growing quickly and soon recognized the need to bring on another person to help manage customers. Leadership thought Devin would be a good fit. And if her 16 years of experience with Accurate is any indication, she certainly was!

From Strip Mall to a Shiny New Building

Devin admits that she was a little surprised when she drove to Accurate for the first time and found it located in a strip mall. That hadn’t been what she expected but, she says, “I decided not to judge a book by its cover.” It was a good call, and, in fact, she never actually ended up working in that strip mall location because shortly after her interview Accurate moved to a new building.

Rapid Growth to Service Growing Client Demand

When she joined Accurate, Devin was one of about 40 employees and was responsible for managing key customers. The role quickly grew and morphed — within about a year and a half she was joined by another account manager. From there she moved into a manager role that she held for several years — and then into a strategic account manager role.

In fact, one of the things that Devin most liked about her work with Accurate was the many opportunities she had for personal and professional growth. She grew with the company and its customers and learned a lot along the way.

Devin also appreciated the opportunity to work with some truly exceptional customers—big companies with well-respected brand names like Starbucks and Ross Stores.

Then, after many years of working directly with customers, Devin was promoted into the role of director of account management — her first foray into people management.

From Individual Contributor to People Management and Leadership

Devin says that, at the time, she didn’t know if she was really going to enjoy the shift from serving customers to serving employees. “People management is very different from being an individual contributor,” she says. But, she adds: “I’ve loved it ever since.”

She feels that her many years of working directly with customers has given her the understanding needed to “be in the weeds and really be a successful manager because I understand the challenges and hardships that are going to be faced along the way, but also recognize that it’s those little wins that you have with customers that really stand out.”

In fact, Devin says, it’s some of her “toughest” customers that she learned the most from—many have stayed not only customers, but friends, even after moving on to other organizations.

“What has led to my success from a people management standpoint is my empathy for those on the frontlines and understanding the day-to-day that an account manager goes through,” Devin says. It’s also recognizing, she says, “that we are the voice of the customer.”

They’re also the voice of Accurate, she notes, adding that: “We need to make sure that the face that we put on for the customer is one where we’re holding Accurate up in the highest regard—even when there are things that may be out of our direct control.” The culture and collaboration at Accurate, though, means that staff work as a team regardless of their personal area of responsibility.

Devin joined Accurate in 2005 and took on the role of director in 2017 and about two years later moved into the VP of account management role and asked to relocate to Irvine, where she had started her career with Accurate. Prior to that, after starting a family, she had been working remotely for about four years. It was, she says, the first remote role for the company. Since then, and, of course, since the pandemic, several roles have been and are remote.

She’s now back in the Irvine office, though, leading a team of about 74 account managers and account representatives.

Through all that time, she says, what drew her to and has kept her with the company is its strong culture and mission—a culture that always puts the client first and has a client-first focus.

“We’re not here to keep people from getting jobs,” she says. “We’re here to help people get the jobs that are right for them.” That was the founder’s vision, she says, and what has kept her with the company and energized.

And, despite the company’s growth, she says, “it still feels like family—I know it sounds crazy because now we’re like 1700 employees, but we’ve always maintained that entrepreneurial spirit.”

Living Up to Accurate’s Values

Accurate has four core value pillars that unify the company with a common purpose, define where they’re headed, indicate what they’ll do to get there, what they believe in, and how they will behave with each other and their customers. They are:

• Take ownership: be accountable for your actions, your team, and the company.
• Be open: be open to new ideas.
• Stay curious: stay curious even as you move forward.
• Work as one: work together to create the best customer and workplace experience.

The one that resonates with her the most, she says, is “Work as one.” At Accurate, she says, all employees are part of a team. Nobody can do their work alone, she says. “You can’t do it without Account managers, without Client Services, without Products, without Technology. Working as one, in harmony, she says, is extremely important to her team, to her role, and, ultimately, to the organization.

“We’ve got a lot of talent here at Accurate, and I’m pleased and privileged to be part of it.”