Lesley Yang was recruited to Accurate by a former colleague at another company who had moved on to take the role of VP of HR with Accurate. She, in turn, had been recruited by Dave Dickerson who was the CEO of Accurate at the time. She started with Accurate in October 2013, initially working on payroll and benefits.

When someone else was hired to handle payroll, Lesley’s focus became strictly benefits. “To this day I still handle just the benefits,” Lesley says. “Just” is actually an understatement. Lesley is responsible for managing benefits for the entire company. When she started with the company it was small.

Today, though, following both growth and acquisitions that brought on more employees, the job has become much bigger. “Back in the day there were 200-300 employees when I first started; now we’ve got about 800 domestically—globally we’re well over 1000,” she says.

A Perfect Fit

One of the things that drew Lesley to Accurate was that it was “a small company that was on a growth trajectory.” She also liked the ability to create new processes for the department—including, at the time, switching payroll systems in 2014. “It was an interesting implementation,” she says.

In addition, she says, “I’ve always liked helping people and, for me, being able to answer people’s daily questions is always something that I enjoy doing.”

Small Company Feel

Lesley says that another thing that made joining Accurate such an appealing proposition was the small company feel. That feel, she says, has remained largely intact despite the company’s growth, although she says it’s no longer possible for everyone to know everyone in the company.

“We’ve been able to keep that small company feel,” she says.

One of the things Lesley was impressed by in her early days with Accurate was the accessibility of then-CEO Dave Dickerson. “The fact that you would get to see the CEO and he knows you by name and would walk the floor and socialize with people is what really sets us apart,” she says. “I feel like the company culture is still pretty much the same, except now we’ve grown quite a bit.”

Working as One

Accurate’s culture is built on four core values 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.

For Lesley, working as one is the value that resonates with her the most. “I feel like our company is always striving to be a team unit,” she says. “Our individual department goals trickle down to individual goals that are always supporting the company as a whole. For me, that’s always been the one that kinds of speaks out to me a little bit more.”

Making Family Connections

Looking back over her time with Accurate, one of the things that Lesley says was most impactful for her was the opportunity to meet fellow employees’ family members at events like company anniversary celebrations, holiday parties, or summer barbecues.

“It was good to see people you see at work in a different way with their families. “For me, that was one of the highlights of working at Accurate.”

Endless Opportunity

Lesley says that she would not hesitate to recommend Accurate to others as a great place to work. The company’s growth and its continual commitment to offering opportunities for employees to move into new roles and try new things give employees the flexibility to learn and grow. Those opportunities, Lesley predicts, will continue well into the future.