Flatiron Health Company Culture & Values

What do holiday celebrations look like in your office, and how did these traditions develop?

At Flatiron, we acknowledge occasions like Cancer Survivors Day and National Cancer Prevention Month, which reconnect us to our mission. We also celebrate with fun rituals — Halloween and year-end festivities — that bring us together.

This year, for World Cancer Survivors Day, we launched a global initiative bringing together employees from our hubs and offices to create paper bouquets for local cancer centers and patients undergoing treatment. We also opened a Slack channel where employees shared personal stories as cancer survivors or care partners, offering support through words of encouragement and emojis.

Our other celebrations include Halloween and end-of-year festivities. Our Halloween celebration, which started as a startup celebration, has evolved into a beloved tradition featuring a virtual costume contest and in-person activities. Our virtual gratitude wall invites employees to tag individuals or teams and share what they’re grateful for, fostering inclusion for remote employees and highlighting our collective impact throughout the year. Finally, our December end-of-year office party features winter-themed decorations, such as snowflakes and snow people, to ensure all employees feel included.

How does Flatiron Health best support inclusive celebrations that allow everyone to participate comfortably?

Our ERGs are central to our inclusive celebrations. With 10 active ERGs, we empower our co-leads to commemorate holidays and events most significant to their communities, including the anniversary of the American with Disabilities Act, Diwali, Pride Month and International Women’s Day. By letting employees choose celebrations meaningful to them, we foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.

To better serve our remote and global workforce, some ERGs have launched lunch-and-learn sessions where members read an article or watch a short video beforehand, then discuss their thoughts together. Topics range from AI’s role in our modern workforce to book discussions on inclusion and belonging.

Another critical aspect is offering a wide range of food options to accommodate dietary needs: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, kosher and halal. This ensures every attendee can enjoy the celebration without concern and reflects our broader commitment to inclusion and belonging.

What advice do you have for organizations seeking to build new traditions or festive holiday gatherings?

It’s crucial to first engage with employees and understand their priorities. I recommend using tools such as a survey or one-on-one conversations to ask employees directly what’s important for them in the workplace. A lot of the traditions that we have here at Flatiron started with grassroots, employee-led initiatives that eventually became a part of our culture and organization.

Maintaining an open mind to try something new is also very important, and new traditions, whenever possible, should align with the company’s mission and values. For example, a tech company might celebrate Pi Day on March 14 with pies for employees, while a mission-driven organization focused on learning from the experiences of cancer patients might observe Cancer Survivors Day. Ultimately, successful new traditions should resonate with employees and a company’s values and mission, and they should be fun and memorable!

I’m a doer at my core. I’m not the type of person who is satisfied sitting on the sidelines, so I’m willing to do whatever it takes to support our mission. Flatiron’s value, "to be willing to sit on the floor" is one I really take to heart. I remember when I first started at Flatiron and wondering what is really meant by that value, but then I saw it in action time and again and it quickly became a defining piece of Flatiron for me. When you are facing cancer on a daily basis — something that has impacted all of us in some way — no task is too big or too small if it is driving our mission forward.

One of the Flatiron values is ‘be kind.’ I think it’s embodied by every person here and is probably the value that we live by the most. That means valuing everyone’s perspective and having a collaborative, rather than a confrontational, attitude.