Building Community and Innovation: How Reel Works' People and Culture Committee Drives Growth
The People and Culture (P&C) Committee at Reel Works was established to foster transformation for Reel Works staff. Launched during rapid growth, this inclusive committee unites staff members to collaborate on policies, procedures, and community building. Diverse representation, shared power and influence in the group, and maintaining our organizational core values are at the forefront of the committee. Many at Reel Works have observed that the People and Culture Committee catalyzes progress and innovation.
The committee significantly emphasizes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Members work together to establish practices and strategies that support and manage diverse needs across the organization. Transparency remains the Northstar. For example, as new norms and standards come to fruition, P&C collaborates with non-committee members to develop a clear and consistent understanding of the emerging policies.
Regan Hales, the Senior Director of Operations, launched the People and Culture Committee at Reel Works. Regan said:
Pretty early in my tenure at Reel Works, I found the need for developing a PCC to support the people side of the org's rapid growth. It was important to me that the group represent various aspects of diversity from level, department, race, gender, etc. Together, we've worked on a standardized paid time off policy, communication and meeting norms guidelines, a learning and development policy, office celebrations, and compensation philosophy work, to name a few of the items on our roadmap. When we hit our one-year mark, we evaluated our goals and restructured the group to include subcommittees to continue transforming culture and policy. I hope that the PCC continues to evolve and live on during the lifespan of Reel Works and always operates in transparency, diversity, and inclusion, balancing the needs of the org and its people to achieve equitable outcomes.
In addition to the central committee, People and Culture includes three subcommittees: Policy and Insights, Learning and Development, and Social and Team Building. These smaller working groups connect multidisciplinary stakeholders collaborating on initiatives tailored to different interests. Ultimately, these result in organization-shaping efforts. Each intervention is achieved by facilitating spaces for team discussions made possible by healthy coworking environments.
A recent initiative launched by the Learning & Development Subcommittee underscores our commitment to fostering a learning culture. This initiative bolsters staff's efforts to advance skills, training, and competencies that contribute to their success in the workplace. Jenni Loo, Producer of Internal Productions at Reel Works, said:
The Learning and Development Subcommittee recently launched a crowd-sourced professional development calendar initiative for all staff, which allows everyone to share the professional development events we come across and encourages colleagues to attend together. Everyone on the Reel Works staff is passionate about continuously learning and growing within our career journeys, and stewarding this calendar is a great opportunity to support that and build community, too!
As Reel Works grows, the committee aims to develop clear, consistent policies and procedures to promote sustainable growth. We are honored to have the opportunity to implement new practices that allow us to thrive in our blossoming workplace.