We are led by principles, not policy
At Mantel, we have drawn heavily on the concepts of Team of Teams and Reinventing Organisations, as well as the collective professional experiences of our team, to develop and articulate the culture that we believe best reflects our principles.
In particular, we wanted to create a culture of trust and belonging, a business that clients, the community and our people can trust and would feel trusted by. We have done this through enshrining our Mantel principles.
Being principle-based means everyone clearly knows what is expected, and through storytelling, everyone understands the principles in practice, and we don’t need rigid rules and policies to guide us in our everyday decisions.
Our Principles
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Make Things Better
We exist to transform things for the better. We build enduring relationships, contribute to our community, and focus on the legacy we create. As technology pioneers, we are not bystanders—we roll up our sleeves and embrace the hard work required to drive meaningful change.
What does it look like in practice?
- We don’t walk past things – we do things ourselves. We don’t ask someone to do an admin task you could do yourself. If you notice something wrong you fix it.
- We try to improve things – for our clients, our team, our business and our community.
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In It Together
Our strength is our people. We thrive by building genuine connections with colleagues and clients in a fun, collaborative space. We are generous with our time, value humility over ego, and believe our greatest asset is learning from the unique path each of us has walked.
What does it look like in practice?
- We don’t let each other down, if we say we will do it we will.
- We are generous with our time for our team.
- We lift our colleagues up (not literally…)
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Love What You Do & Be Awesome At It
We are a team of driven, high-calibre professionals who trust each other to deliver. We hire people who enhance and inspire our team—those with the potential and motivation to achieve great things. Our philosophy is simple: recruit awesome people and give them the autonomy to do their best work.
What does it look like in practice?
- Deliver quality work to clients, working alongside people who have a passion for what they do
- We set expectations clearly and give feedback.
- We keep our skills up to date.
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Make Good Choices
We’re common sense people, good judgement people, gut instinct people. We trust ourselves and each other to make the best decisions for the company, for our clients and the team. We’re all adults. We honour our commitments and prioritise our clients.
What does it look like in practice?
- The freedom and responsibility to make good choices for our team, our business and our clients.
- There are workplace laws, client and project ways of working and we don’t need policies on top of that.
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Communicate Directly
We operate on a principle of "strong opinions, loosely held." This means we challenge ideas respectfully and are open to changing our minds. This requires direct communication, free from corporate politics. We each take full responsibility for sharing and seeking out information, listening to understand, and committing to decisions once they're made.
What does it look like in practice?
- We seek out information, we ask questions, we don’t fill in gaps of information by guessing, we ask.
- We do not do anonymous surveys. We only survey when we need information – not for the sake of it.
Our Benefits
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Getting Started Pack
Everything you need to hit the ground running. New starters receive a phone, laptop and swag to ensure they have all they need for a seamless onboarding experience.
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Work Hubs
Work from one of our hubs in Auckland, Brisbane, Magnetic Island, Melbourne, Perth, Queenstown, Sydney & Ho Chi Minh City. Every team member has the opportunity to take a trip to a work hub in a different city each year.
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Flexible leave
We offer additional Flexible Leave for times when our team members need extra support, are unwell or have family members who are unwell, have personal issues, or need to focus on their mental health.
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Career Paths
We have detailed career paths, mapping out each role in each brand and the learning pathways between them. Team members can try different technologies, and if they like them, can move into a new speciality.
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My Deal
Individualised benefits, work arrangements and open feedback. The longer you’re with us, the larger the reward, including greater allowances and up to 10 days of extra leave.
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Parental Support
Equal paid parental support and extra individualised support. We provide IVF, miscarriage, stillborn, adoption and foster carers support, paid leave and pay superannuation on all parental leave.
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Learning
A learning organisation; delivering our own training on AI, leadership, on technologies like Kubernetes or Databricks, supporting conferences, consulting skills and certifications.
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People Guide
People Guides are our approach to ensuring we continually focus on the engagement, wellbeing and professional growth of our team.
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Feedback
We don’t do performance reviews; rather, we set clear expectations and give honest feedback. Our team provides us and each other with feedback through retros and pulse surveys.
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Community
Corporate social responsibility programs that make an impact on our local community, including providing opportunities for underrepresented minority groups.
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Rotation
Our team members work on different projects, which may be short or long-running. When they are long-running there will be times when team members may want to move off projects.
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Wellbeing
The most important thing we provide to support wellbeing is a psychologically safe workplace. Work reasonable hours in a supportive culture, with flexible leave, flu shots, counselling, dieticians, financial advice and more.
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Team of Teams
Our approach to build and maintain a flat, flexible and dynamic structure across Mantel without the need for hierarchies.
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Passion Projects
Time, mentorship and investment in individual passion projects through our Embark program. Anyone with an idea for our next speciality or brand is supported to develop and lead it.
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Team Equity
Every team member has the opportunity to invest in Mantel at various stages of our growth journey.