Axxess is committed to making lives better. 

As a home healthcare company, Axxess offers state-of-the-art software solutions to improve the care of patients across the U.S. But beyond the company’s suite of technological services, it has a commitment to corporate citizenship—so much so, there’s an entire role dedicated to it.

“My position is somewhat unique in a company of around 300 employees,” Vice President of Corporate Citizenship Stacie Adams says. “In my role, I primarily focus on our input and what we do in the community, really designing and implementing our strategy for philanthropy.”

From a corporate citizenship perspective, Axxess’ comprehensive strategy is reflective of its mission as a company. It derives from authenticity: With clients all across the world, Axxess innovates to improve, and at a granular level, Axxess wants to give back to the community it’s in.

Adams says the philanthropy strategy, on a local level, centers around a combination of giving and volunteering. Around 80 percent of the Axxess staff are engineers, who each have a heart for STEM education, so most projects tend to derive from that. In its home city, Axxess has benefited Dallas Independent School District’s Kennedy-Curry Middle School, Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, the University of Texas at Dallas, and many more.

In fact, this year, Axxess gifted UT Dallas $500,000 for a scholarship program benefiting students in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. It was the largest gift ever received by the university to start an engineering school scholarship program.

That endowment translates to the beating heart behind it all—and coincidentally, the heartbeat of all Axxess operations—Founder and CEO John Olajide.

“Everything kind of comes full-circle back to UTD. It’s where John received his start, and it’s where we have given our most significant gift to-date,” Adams says. “It was an absolute pleasure to work with the staff of UTD and John to come up with something that I think beautifully reflected the way he feels about UTD and what he’s committed to for the future of the organization.”

Olajide was born in Nigeria, but came to the U.S. to attend UTD, where he envisioned Axxess. Adams said it is his passion for philanthropy that truly makes Axxess the place it’s grown to be.

The duo actually met while Adams was working for a museum in Dallas, and happened to sit next to each other at a dinner. Olajide shared his desire to improve society and succeed beyond making money—she realized he was “the most fabulous person she had ever talked to,” eventually going to work for Axxess two years later.

Olajide’s philanthropic mindset runs so deep, it’s become the true lifeblood of the organization. So it only makes sense that every single Axxess employee would be all about positive impact, too.

“The success Axxess has enjoyed would not have been possible without the support and opportunities provided by the Dallas community,” Olajide says. “Giving back is a foundational value at Axxess because I feel very strongly that business is a force for good and we can contribute to making our community better by being responsible corporate citizens.”

Even the most qualified candidate has to be a culture fit to be an Axxess fit. That culture, dubbed The Axxess Way, is about caring. And if you don’t have that, authentically, you shouldn’t work in a place like Axxess.

“If you’re an engineer in today’s market, there are so many great places that you can work. At Axxess, the thing that sets us apart is our culture. If you come and spend any time at Axxess, you will fall in love with it,” Adams says. “When an employee spends time working alongside friends from different departments and doing something that makes a difference in other people’s lives, that’s a great experience at work. We find that our employees—particularly the ones that are most involved with giving back—are some of the happiest.”

While community volunteerism is ingrained in the Axxess way of doing things, Olajide also tends to bring that internally, with his employees. He’ll often do things like take employees to a Stars game if they’ve been working late nights or throw appreciation parties just to show he cares.

“It’s such a joyful place. Of course, we work hard. But people are happy because they know they’re doing good things,” Adams says. “It’s one of those things where if it’s in your blood, and you learn a little bit about Axxess, you’re like, ‘I have to work there.’”

This article was originally published in Dallas Innovates: The [Tech] Talent Issue.

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Dallas Innovates: The [Tech] Talent Issue, a special edition of the Dallas Innovates Magazine, looks at how companies in Dallas-Fort Worth are attracting and retaining the best talent. Startups, corporates, nonprofits, and organizations work hard to create a strong culture, promote diversity, and implement training programs that can help achieve success.

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