Culture
Culture Club
The WSC Culture Club combines the forces of employee committees so we can support each other’s initiatives and unite in our goal to create a community-focused culture for the WSC and WOS employees. The Culture Club meets monthly and consists of up to two employee representatives from each of the below committees and a Culture Club chair. A representative from each committee, the chair and CEO meet on a quarterly basis to review each quarter’s budget and spend. Involvement in the Culture Club is all volunteer based. In 2023, Culture Club had a total of 42 active members. Committees include:
Charitable Giving
The Charitable Giving committee is responsible for the oversight of WSC’s charitable giving, including determining yearly strategy and budget for charitable giving, considering and approving contribution requests, and tracking contributions throughout the year. The committee ensures that all WSC donations, sponsorships and company volunteer activities are coordinated and aligned with our values and business goals, foster long-term partnerships and are within our budget and resources.
Community Involvement
The Community Involvement committee provides opportunities for employees at WSC to get involved in our local communities using their company-sponsored volunteer hours. They often collaborate with other committees to promote events and help coordinate volunteers. In 2023, the committee planned several events including delivering goodie bags to local senior living homes, regular adopt-a road cleanups, Earth Day activities, Meals from the Heartland meal packing, the West Des Moines 4th of July Parade, and toy and food drives around the holidays. The committee also serves as a resource to share outside volunteer opportunities provided by our employees.
Employee Ownership
The committee’s mission is to contribute to the success of our family of companies by advancing and strengthening our culture of ownership through education and communication. Members often present to divisions throughout the company the benefits of being an employee owned company and hold Employee Ownership Month festivities. Subcommittees include the historian, education/ communication, ownership/contests, and the Deferred Share Unit (DSU) committee to focus efforts and expand membership to more field staff. We also launched a new SharePoint site where all employee ownership resources and pictures from various events are housed. Our committee developed a Central Iowa Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) Networking committee where our objective is to plan local events with other employee owned companies where we can have fun, network, learn from each other and develop meaningful relationships.
Special Events
The Special Events committee is responsible for planning and executing exciting and meaningful events for WSC employees. This committee works to promote inclusivity in the office through holiday celebrations such as, but not limited to, Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month and Pride Month, in addition to hosting the company summer picnic and end of fiscal year party. Their goal is to bring people together, fostering a sense of community and promoting the values of our organization.
Wellness
The Wellness committee strives to look out for the mental and physical health and wellbeing of our employees through several initiatives and programs. The committee provides our employees with access to a wellness portal, educational videos, corporate sponsored events, a community garden and much more. To ensure that all our employees, including those who work remotely, can participate in the company’s wellness programs, and stay mentally and physically healthy, the committee provides content for those who work from home to utilize. All our Lunch and Learns are live streamed or recorded and sent out to those who could not attend in-person.
WOMEN IN ESOP EVENT
In October 2023, WSC hosted the Central Iowa ESOP Networking Committee’s first-ever Women in ESOP Event where attendees had an opportunity to network with fellow employee owners in the area and attend a panel discussion. The panel included female business leaders working for various employee-owned companies in the area.
DEI WEEK
WSC hosted its first-ever Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Week at the corporate office in June 2023. Each day, planned by each committee, was dedicated to furthering our knowledge and understanding of what DEI means and looks likes.
- Monday – the City of West Des Moines’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director came in to speak to our employees.
- Tuesday – a survey was sent out for employees to nominate a DEI organization for WSC to donate to. Three organizations received a total of $5,000 supporting health, well-being, and education initiatives.
- Wednesday – we hosted a mini–Cultural Fair that included CultureALL ambassadors to provide employees with authentic, hands-on cultural experiences including a workshop on African American art and cultures, Hawaiian history and language, hula lessons, and henna.
- Thursday – employees took part in a cultural potluck, bringing in a dish from their own heritage, including (but not limited to) hyderabadi chicken dum biryani from India, hurmasice and oblatina from Bosnia and Herzegovina, kringla from Norway, dulce de lecheempanadas from Mexico and steamed cakes from Cambodia.
- Friday – we encouraged people to volunteer with a DEI organization or look for opportunities to volunteer throughout the year.
Community Board
Facilities added a community board for employees to use for non-work-related personal announcements and events outside of the café. The new board will give employees the opportunity to share information with their fellow employees.
Ethical Standards
WSC’s employee handbook outlines several employment policies, procedures and practices. This contains equal opportunity employment policies, a code of conduct policy, business ethics statement, a harassment policy and a protection against retaliation policy. Management and human resources staff have an open-door policy as well as programming that allows employees to report incidents and provide suggestions to improve the workplace.
Translation Program Committee
The Translation Committee is dedicated to minimizing language barriers to promote effective communication within our organization. By procuring professional translations via our trusted vendor, our core mission is to ensure that language serves as a bridge rather than a barrier by facilitating knowledge sharing, collaboration, and mutual understanding among individuals with diverse linguistic backgrounds.
We can provide Spanish and French-Canadian translations, and many more. Employees can request translations through our shared services department liaison for items such as and not limited to:
- Internal communications
- Recruitment advertisements
- Procedures/training materials
- HR materials
- Public-facing or external use documents
- E-learning content
- Video and closed captioning/subtitles
- Websites
Translations by the Numbers
OVER
100,000
WORDS TRANSLATED
IN 2023
IMPROVED
VENDOR
SELECTION
LAUNCH OF
TRANSLATION
REVIEW
SUBCOMMITTEE
79,690
WORDS
TRANSLATED
IN-HOUSE
FOR ORDERS
BELOW MINIMUM
