Exploring Early and Dedicated DEI Program Success

As the not-for-profit film office for the City and County of Los Angeles, engaged for more than 28 years facilitating on-location filming in Greater Los Angeles, FilmLA has cultivated a workforce of extreme dedication.

While FilmLA employees have long given their workplace culture high marks and describe their experience like “being part of a family,” our leaders have remained committed to enhancing our workplace culture. And our employees expect the same.

Our employees expect company leaders to champion workforce diversity, foster a sense of employee inclusion and belonging, and to create and maintain equitable employee access to opportunities for professional development.

Realizing that valuing these things is not enough, FilmLA sought to create a dedicated structure to support these goals. Three years ago we committed to initiate and become co-executive sponsors of a formal DEI program at FilmLA.

Like many business leaders for whom this work is still new, we spent a great deal of time listening, learning, and engaging with expert facilitators.

Here, with gratitude for the support of our FilmLA colleagues, we’d like to share some reflections on what made our early efforts successful.

ENGAGE EXPERTS EARLY

We were fortunate to identify and engage expert help in building a formal DEI program. To date, three consultants have provided guidance to us as executive sponsors, to our HR department, and to the members of our employee-driven DEI Task Force, DEI Advisory Committee and DEI Affinity Group.

We are assisted on an ongoing basis by Candice Gottlieb-Clark and Suman Kapur of Dynamic Team Solutions. In addition to supporting us through periods of change management, they are our partners in creating an integrated platform for DEI work internally and for the communities we serve.

Access to these experts, and the benefit of their experience working with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, has been indispensable. Being trained facilitators and experts in mediation techniques, Dynamic Team Solutions has helped us engage our employees in socially and culturally complex conversations requiring great sensitivity in workplace settings.

LEAD FROM ALL LEVELS

Like many not-for-profit organizations, we have both a long-term Mission and an immediate Strategic Plan to inform our practices. FilmLA’s Board of Directors, by establishing “Relentless Focus on Team” as a strategic business objective, helped make clear what that involves from a DEI perspective.

FilmLA’s current Strategic Plan invokes in every FilmLA leader a responsibility to help “create a culture that supports and sustains Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the forefront of the work we do.”

Expressions of this DEI value are visible today in changes to our hybrid work environment, our HR policies, and the composition and leadership structure of employee work teams. Our DEI Advisory and Affinity Groups are also an essential part of our internal accountability structure, and today members of these groups are viewed as advisors and subject matter experts among their business colleagues and peers.

SEEKING SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS

Leaning into our commitment to DEI is not always obvious or easy. Complexities abound, and developing the skills and structure to manage it requires sustained attention and intention.

Our success thus far has been driven by a permanent, employee-designed structure which is fully supported by executive leadership. Continued communication, activity, celebrations and learning opportunities are solidifying a DEI DNA at FilmLA.

We believe strongly that maintaining a focus on DEI is the right thing to do for our community and our employees. We also predict that organizations in all industries will find it essential for long-term success in business.

Paul Audley is president of FilmLA and Denise Gutches is chief financial & operating officer with FilmLA. Learn more at filmLA.com.

Like many business leaders for whom this work is still new, we spent a great deal of time listening, learning, and engaging with expert facilitators.