October is More than Just Halloween
Big Village celebrated Hispanic heritage, learned about disability awareness, heard from Indigenous voices, and prepared for cold and flu season. Our Human Resources team works incredibly hard every month to provide our employees with the work place environment, resources and support they deserve. Take a look at the initiatives and learning opportunities they provided over the past month.
BeWell: Getting Ahead of the Cold and Flu Season
Flu and Cold season is back, and so was our onsite flu clinic. A registered nurse practitioner came to our NYC office to administer flu shots. BeWell wants to ensure that our employees have a happy and healthy fall. This convenient service was provided to help everyone schedule time for their health and get their yearly shot. For those outside our office locations, we reminded them to use Collective Health, our third-party administrator app, to locate a nearby pharmacy.
Spark: Project Risk Management, Time Management, and Prioritization Trainings
Risk management is the practice of proactively identifying, analyzing, and responding to potential risks to a project. Managing positive and negative risks is an essential part of successful project management. Positive risks are often called opportunities and negative risks are events that cause your project to be thrown off course – both can have a significant impact on a project’s success. Through effective risk management skills, you can control the amount of risk your project will be exposed to and address them in a timely manner. This month, we shared out eLearning resources from LinkedIn Learning on Project Risk Management, Time Management, and Prioritization. We also hosted a “Managing Your Time Effectively” workshop.
Big Village Connects!: Celebrating Halloween
This month, the Big Village Connects! team celebrated all things Halloween! We kicked off the month with a Mad Libs contest and shared our favorite ones through our big-village-wide slack channel. We also hosted a “Halloween Trivia Night” where we created teams and each team had to tackle our spooky trivia questions. And what would Halloween be without costumes?! Those who joined our Trivia Night were invited to wear their scariest, silliest, most spellbinding costume.
Diversity & Inclusion: Hispanic Heritage Celebrations, National Disabilities Awareness and Amplifying Indigenous Voices
D&I kicked off October with a ceviche cooking class in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, featuring our very own Chef Alexandra Musgrove, Strategic Planner. She, along with her lovely mom, Mercedes – dialed in from Maine, and her expert cook Auntie Margarita – dialed in from Uruguay, shared their passion for their rich culture, love for family, and traditions. Further adding to the Big Village Cookbook, which compiles amazing recipes from the many cultures that exist across the company. Then the CASSANDRA Daily dedicated their entire issue to amplifying the voices of Indigenous people using media to drive truer narratives of America’s history. Awareness is great and taking action is even better. So, the D&I Affinity group invited the founder of Neon Moon to share her powerful story and journey to opening the first of its kind Native-owned Coffee House and Indigenous marketplace in Nashville, TN, providing jobs and resources back into her community. Last but not least, October was also National Disabilities and Education Awareness Month. To bring awareness to Big Village, we invited the founder of the Depo Market to share her personal story about her brother and his brilliant mind, and how important it is for employers to think outside of the proverbial box when identifying talent. As we navigate through the “great resignation” and compete for talent, the employer that understands there is beauty and brilliance in all people, including those with both physical and silent disabilities, will be the ultimate winner in the long-run. Big Village continues to focus on action rather than just talking about it.