This month we introduced an informal informational way for new employees to get to know each other, our CEO, and our company. Pull up a seat to JoVE’s new “Meet and Eat” program!
As a Human Resource Director, it’s always rewarding to implement programs that foster an environment where staff can truly connect and engage across departments and levels of company hierarchy. This quarter, I had the opportunity to do just that with our all new JoVE “Meet and Eat” program.
“Meet and Eat” offers newly hired employees the chance to have a catered lunch with JoVE CEO and Co-Founder, Moshe Pritsker. For Moshe, the event is an opportunity to learn about employees and the skills that they bring to the company, as well as to get their thoughts on how they would like to grow in the company.
“It was an honor and very inspiring, especially coming from a science background, to hear Moshe’s story on how JoVE started,” said Anna Licht from JoVE’s Review department. Anna also enjoyed getting to meet team members, since she hasn’t been able to attend some of our long-running weekly socials.
Simonetta Harris from our Editorial department also liked hearing JoVE’s origin story at the April event. She added that, as a new employee, “it’s nice to feel we have an approachable CEO, and that there are no politics.”
Helene Kuhn, a new addition to JoVE’s Video department and a recent Ph.D. recipient at Brown University, enjoyed the experience and told how she personally shared Moshe’s struggles with protocol replication during her time in grad school. As a native of Kazakhstan, the “Meet and Eat” made her feel welcome at JoVE since, from the CEO down, people from over 50 countries are represented on the team here. As she reported, “it’s always nice to get to know your colleagues, so when you see them in the kitchen you can say ‘hi’”! Helene is looking forward to more events like this to socialize with peers.
Briana Mazola from our HR department feels that these types of meetings are essential for employee engagement. She appreciated that the event did not strictly stick to business topics saying, “I never learned more about fish and fishing in one hour.” Briana also enjoyed the “Meet and Eat” as an informal but informational way to meet your co-workers, especially those from other departments.
It’s my hope that this program also increases inter-department communication which can sometimes be a challenge, that’s why throughout 2017 we will be adding a bunch of new social events to get people talking and hanging out with colleagues from other parts of the company. Look out for our new Trivia Thursday debuting in May!
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