Wrapping Up the Year with PMG WeCollective

WeCollective at PMG is a group dedicated to creating equality for every PMG employee.

As we begin planning for the year ahead, we took some time to reflect on what WeCollective accomplished in 2019. Founded just two years ago in 2017, WeCollective has come a long way, with membership just over 100 members (which is all the employees who have opted to participate in the group (that’s close to 50% of PMG’s workforce!)).

At its core, WeCollective is about creating equality for every employee. When people join WeCollective, they are added to a smaller “satellite” group of other employees, which they may not regularly work with from across the agency. This small group format allows us to have more intimate, bi-monthly conversations about different situations that people face throughout their careers. 

In 2019, these bi-monthly workshops covered pressing topics like setting goals, soliciting feedback, and having tough conversations in the workplace. In addition to these pertinent conversations, we also made a difference in our work policies and partnered with outside organizations to make a difference in our community. To that end, we wanted to share a few accomplishments from throughout the year:

WeCollective Logo and Marketing Material

We now have a logo, stickers, and buttons that are proudly worn by PMGers. These were created by several members of WeCollective and were proudly featured on all of our marketing collateral during any community outreach and events.

New WeCollective at PMG logo

Refreshed Mission Statement

The WeCollective at PMG Mission Statement

Included in this, we bolded four words which are the pillars of WeCollective —

Four pillars of WeCollective at PMG

Equality — Ensuring agency policies reflect equal opportunity for all employees, no matter the gender or life stage. 

Inspiring — Showcasing representation of different women in their careers in all-company events and community outreach.

Empower — Offering workshops and spaces for support while fostering an environment that gives employees greater visibility and promotes workplace allies.

Greatness — Using all of these tools to achieve your own version of greatness.

We believe that this will help guide our initiatives throughout the year to come and give our members a sense of how to take this group and make it their own. 

Increased parental leave policies
We are proud to have worked with our People Operations department to shape policies that align with our mission statement and core values. As an example of this, we worked closely with People Operations to increase maternity and paternity leave. In 2019, maternity leave was increased from ten weeks paid to 12 weeks paid with the option to take up to 14 weeks using PTO. Paternity leave was also increased from two to four weeks paid. This is a huge win for any expecting or future parents at PMG.

For more insights into how PMG supports parents, see our Mother’s Day blog post.

Partnership with Girls Inc. Tarrant County
Starting in 2019, we partnered with Girls Inc. of Tarrant County to make a difference with a younger generation of girls who will be growing up to be our future leaders. If you’re not familiar with the organization, Girls Inc. “inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold, through direct service and advocacy,” which made it the perfect place for PMG to partner with. We were involved in a number of events and activities and even hosted them in our office for some fun throughout the year. Some of the highlights were:

Smart Camp
We sponsored several girls to attend Smart Camp, a week-long hands-on computer science and robotics day camp in the summer. We also hosted our own little camp when we hosted the Digital Diva’s girls’ field day trip towards the end of the Smart Camp. We spent the day showing them what their future office life could look like, playing with slime, making fun videos with their creations, and then giving them a ‘coding 101’ class with their video. After the girls left, we spent the next hour cleaning glitter out of the carpet if that’s any indication of how much fun they might have had!

Fuel her Fire: College Shower
WeCollective shopped for three young women heading off to college to help them get set up for their new year. We attended an event where these women were honored for their dedication to their community and celebrated for their entry into their chosen colleges and universities. It was an incredibly emotional and moving night, and we were honored to be part of it.

Day of the Girl
PMG’s creative team gave their time and creativity to make a photo backdrop for the Day of the Girl march in downtown Fort Worth. We also sent a full team to participate in the walk alongside Girls Inc. girls and their families. It was a day of celebration and empowerment for all participants. 

PMG team at Day of the Girl in downtown Fort Worth, 2019.

Women Who Code

PMG and WeCollective hosted a Women Who Code event. During this networking event, Emily Fox, Product Manager, and Abeer Thompson, Data & Solutions Supervisor, presenting “How to Build your MVP” to the Women Who Code community and then opened the office space up for networking.

Company Updates 

While we held our regularly-programmed workshops with each satellite group, we also hosted our first Tacobout-it night in Q2 with another one this December. This event was open to the entire company in all of our Texas offices, not just those that opt into joining WeCollective. Tacobout-it is an event with tacos (and sangria, OF COURSE!), but also with open-style group discussions around specific topics like work-life balance and receiving feedback. Our creative team designed open-ended question cards to prompt discussions, and the sangria kept the conversation light and fun. We plan on hosting Tacobout-it nights again this next year!

We’re so proud of what WeCollective has achieved in 2019 and can’t wait to dive into 2020! 

——-

Continued Reading:

Introducing the WeCollective

PMG at UTA’s Diversity and Inclusion Symposium 

Breaking New Ground at PMG with WeCollective