InterAction's Values, Culture & Norms

We believe that InterAction is a place where our staff can thrive 

• We all commit to excellence in our work.
• We look for ways to grow, where we can lead, make a difference, and shape our team and InterAction.
• We are sensitive to the learning of others. We all make mistakes, and we know there is space to learn from things that go wrong.
• We are people before we are staff. We value and respect the boundaries around nonworking hours and time off. We support each other when our colleagues are managing other demands in their lives, and each of us assesses our work-life balance. There will be times where we may need to work long hours, but balance is essential.

We respect each other and our Members

• We believe in treating each other with respect and kindness—even when stress is high, and times are busy.
• We are curious and share knowledge, understanding, and insight when a colleague has a different perspective or disagrees.
• We accommodate each other when our workflows and proactively and openly discuss the timelines for our work, even on urgent actions, inviting constructive discussion about alternative ideas for achieving goals.
• We believe all employees and all teams equally contribute to the success of InterAction’s mission, and we believe in intentionally recognizing our colleagues’ achievements.
• We never make derogatory comments about each other or spread gossip. We believe we each have our own voice and others should not speak for us.
• We trust and are aware that management will address issues based on organizational values and protocols of performance privately while being transparent to all parties involved.
• We will be respectful when communicating with each other.

 InterAction’s culture is inclusive and supportive 

• We all create an inclusive environment at InterAction. Each of us is responsible for building a supportive culture.
• We are responsible for our own education on issues of discrimination and sensitive topics, sharing personal experiences, and allowing others to share at their own initiative.
• We believe that diverse teams of employees increase innovation, productivity, and creativity.
• We believe that every employee’s opinion is valuable. We listen, acknowledge, respectfully engage, and commit to being an adaptive organization.

We support each other and value others’ expertise, opinions, and feelings 

• We support our colleagues when they ask for our assistance.
• Creating a caring and supportive environment, both in the office and virtually, is up to each of us.
• We encourage staff to raise issues with Human Resources and the Executive Team and they can do this in a safe environment without concern of retribution.
• Senior staff and the Executive Team always have an open-door policy (even when working remotely) and encourage discussion and bringing problems to their attention.

We engage to foster a community that creates solutions to problems 

• We believe in collaborating with and listening to our colleagues within and across teams.
• We foster community and relationships among our Members and our staff to better achieve our goals and Mission.
• We believe staff discussions should be held so that we can see and engage each other.
• We believe in having conversations face to face (or via zoom) when we disagree with our colleagues. If needed, we engage HR or management as conflict occur.
• We spend time to know each other as people who bring interesting, different, and varied backgrounds to work. We all want to have fun, laugh, and find ways to interact thanks to the Fun Team and its community-building activities.