Blue Signal Women of the Workplace, 2021 Update

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Since the beginning, Blue Signal has worked to advocate for women - both internally within our company, and externally within our greater community. In 2019, this took a more official form with the founding of Blue Signal Women of the Workplace (BSS WOW). 

This female empowerment initiative brings together everyone in the company, with the working purpose “to promote education, connection, and empowerment for women (and those who support women) and their contributions to the broader goals of Blue Signal… and beyond!” Just like Blue Signal’s other DEI initiatives, BSS WOW has an impact that extends beyond just the internal organization. Below is an update on the projects we’ve worked on over the last year.

Blue Signal Women of the Workplace Purpose Graphic

BSS WOW Partnering with Live and Learn AZ 

Live and Learn is a local non-profit organization that was created to empower women in the Phoenix-metro area to break the cycle of generational poverty. They support the financial independence and career growth of women in our community by offering classes, workshops, and training geared toward accomplishing each individual woman’s goals. Their incredible education programs have resulted in life-changing successes, like earning degrees, landing jobs, and so much more. 

Blue Signal’s Women of the Workplace has been supporting Live and Learn in this mission since 2020, by providing resume writing tips and interview coaching. Through collaboration and a little bit of recruiter magic, Blue Signal has been able to walk these women through the resume writing process and renew their confidence to dive into the job market. In 2021, we are excited to continue this partnership and plan to provide as much value as possible to the clients of Live and Learn AZ. 

Blue Signal Women of the Workplace, Live and Learn Testimonial Graphic

BSS WOW Education and Certifications 

Despite COVID-19 changing the way we meet, Blue Signal’s Women of the Workplace has continued to come together since our company moved to a fully remote work model. We meet virtually once every other month to discuss updates on our Live and Learn philanthropic work, learn about issues surrounding women, and empower one another through discussion and shared experiences.

In our meetings, BSS WOW has discussed gendered language and its impact on how we understand and represent the workforce overall. We have examined articles, like this one from the New York Times that has stirred quite a bit of commentary surrounding gendered titles like “Female CEO” in corporate leadership. We’ve also covered difficult topics like biases, intersectionality, discrimination, and privilege. Through prioritizing these meetings, we’ve discussed everything from #GirlBoss to “fireperson,” learning along the way about inclusivity and empowerment. These topics have also led to conversations about ways we can implement better industry practices for emailing candidates, addressing clients over the phone, and writing job descriptions to advertise online. 

During a recent meeting, the entire BSS WOW group became LinkedIn certified in helping Women Succeed in the Workplace by taking this course as a team. The course was aimed toward helping women (and their male or non-binary allies) advocate for success within their careers. By learning about better practices surrounding self-confidence, executive presence, and pay equity, Blue Signal is continuing our education on how best to support our candidates on their career paths, and our clients in fostering success throughout their teams. 

Blue Signal Women of the Workplace LinkedIn Learning Course Certification Graphic

Summary

Blue Signal Women of the Workplace seeks to create an assembly that unites our workplace to further the goals of each other as individuals, and propel Blue Signal to be the best recruiting firm on the planet. We believe that connected, empowered women, and those who support them, are unstoppable. BSS WOW has served as a platform to give Blue Signal colleagues the tools and resources needed to support their growth and to build long-term relationships while reaching new heights within professional development. BSS WOW has helped us improve the way in which we support our clients, candidates, colleagues, and community. We are excited to continue in our mission to be a resource for supporting and advocating for women in any workplace. 

Blue Signal Gives Back 2019

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Blue Signal held the 2nd Annual Blue Signal Gives Back Initiative earlier this month. In keeping up with tradition, we gathered together to celebrate the team’s accomplishments and give back to the community. For an entire month, employees stepped up their game in a friendly competition where their work was rewarded with a donation to a charity of their choosing. 

All recruiters choose a nonprofit organization that’s important to them, and team up with members of the support staff. Each team is able to earn money through Send-Outs, Placements, various metric benchmarks, and company trivia. Trivia questions consist of surprising facts, photos and stories about employees - allowing everyone else to guess who fit the facts, and learn a little about each other along the way! Points are added up and converted to dollar amounts, awarding a dollar for each metric to the chosen charity. The team with the most “dollars” is awarded the dollars earned by all teams to donate to the charity of the winner’s choice. 

A quick recap of the competition: This year’s program ran from November 25th through December 25th. With the competition taking place around such a giving time of year, Blue Signalers were excited and eager to start earning points for their chosen organizations. This year, a huge part of the fun was getting to guess answers to the trivia questions! Some of our favorites were  “Who on our team once hiked 35 miles in 24 hours, some of which occurred overnight during a full moon?”, “Who on our team has hitchhiked from Scotland to Italy?” and “Who on our team was supposed to bring lettuce to a taco party, and accidentally brought a cabbage head instead of a lettuce head?”. These questions provided a lot of comedic relief during the workday and brought everyone closer together as a team.

At the 2020 Blue Signal Summit, Recruiting Manager, Ryan Walsh, was announced as the winner of the competition for the second year in a row! This year, the organization Ryan chose to partner with was the Smith-Kingsmore Syndrome (SKS) Foundation: a non-profit foundation dedicated to providing support and medical research toward children with SKS. With the combined efforts of the team, Blue Signal was able to donate a total of $2,052.50!

The SKS Foundation is very near and dear to Blue Signal’s hearts.  3 year old Jameson “JJ” Walsh, the youngest son of CEO, Matt Walsh, was diagnosed with Smith-Kingsmore Syndrome in early 2019. SKS is a rare genetic condition that can cause a wide range of medical, intellectual, and behavioral challenges. Early on, JJ had hearing loss and has undergone two cochlear implant surgeries to allow him to hear, which were a triumphant success! Despite his diagnosis, JJ is a happy and healthy boy and is making great progress with the help of the amazing medical support he receives. 

The Walsh family gathers together.
JJ Walsh with one of his favorite toys.

The Smith-Kingsmore Foundation strives to provide this kind of support to other families and contribute to educating others on the condition. Researchers are continuing to learn more about SKS and are working to help special needs families gain more understanding/earlier diagnosis. The goal is to better understand the characteristics and the differences of MTOR conditions like Smith-Kingsmore syndrome to be able to design well-informed treatment plans. 

The SKS Foundation gathers at a conference in October 2019.

More about the Smith-Kingsmore Syndrome Foundation: The SKS Foundation was established in 2019 as a non-profit foundation for children and families affected by Smith-Kingsmore Syndrome. The foundation is working to improve their quality of life by supporting cutting-edge research, collaborating with medical professionals, and strengthening community through worldwide awareness.

Donate to the SKS Foundation Here!

Blue Signal Gives Back – Puppy Edition

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Blue Signal is proud to announce its second installation of the Blue Signal Gives Back Initiative, the Puppy Edition.

 

Earlier this year, Blue Signal launched its philanthropy initiative to give back to the community and to causes we were passionate about. Blue Signal takes pride in helping others, and the community we live and work in to make it a better place for all. The Blue Signal Team has a soft spot for their pups, so we decided to give back to animals still looking for their forever homes.

Blue Signal reached out to the Arizona Humane Society and volunteered to participate in their “Fur-Real Canine Play Day Experience.” On Tuesday, our team met with AHS members to deliver enriching activities to the pups at their Campus for Compassion location in Phoenix, AZ.

The Blue Signal team took the dogs out in the yard where we played with toys, spoiled the pups with treats, brushed their coats, and ran them around the agility course! We worked hard to get as many pups out and exercised as possible. All of these activities are designed to help keep the canines healthy, happy, and socialized until they find their furever homes! We had a blast meeting so many unique personalities and bonding with each other as well as with the pets!

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After some time in the sun, we went inside and put together several kitten care packages to help prepare AZ Humane for “kitten season” with litter and food. Our teamwork resulted in hundreds of ready to go bags for the bottle baby kittens.

Team Volunteer Packing

To learn more about the Arizona Humane Society and its Campus for Compassion facility, Volunteer Coordinator Caitlyn Quintanar gave the Blue Signal group a tour and explained their mission and some key initiatives. AZ Humane looks to end animal suffering and homelessness through the values of innovation, compassion, and excellence.  However, what sets AHS apart is their Ethical No-Kill Policy, meaning they never euthanize a pet for space or length of time. By implementing this visionary Ethical No-Kill Philosophy, Arizona Humane Society has saved an additional 80,000 lives in the last four years.

AHS Logo

In addition to this policy, AHS offers several services that many other shelters do not. From their Emergency Animal Medical Technician Program, to Mutternity Suites, AZ Humane is working to ensure that every pet gets the good life that they deserve. They work every day with the vision of ending animal suffering through rescuing, healing, adopting, and advocating for sick, injured, and abused animals.

Blue Signal was honored to assist such an amazing company and cause. At the end of the day, we spent some quiet time in the kennels with the dogs we met earlier and the difference in their mood was astonishing. These moments mean the world to a shelter pup in a kennel, so if you are interested in volunteering yourself or your group, we encourage you to reach out to Caitlyn and her team to explore ways to help!

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Blue Signal Gives Back 2018

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In November 2018, Blue Signal launched its first ever Blue Signal Gives Back initiative. In an effort to give back to our community, we implemented a program where the entire team worked together to raise money for a charitable organization of their choosing.

Blue Signal’s company culture is unique in many ways. While we do have four brick and mortar offices – two in Illinois, and two in Arizona including our new HQ – we also find our workplace all across the US in the homes of our remote workers! Because of this, it has been important for us to remain a close-knit company in many creative ways. The Blue Signal Gives Back Initiative allowed us to work as a team to accomplish one major goal – giving back. And we learned a lot about one another along the way!

Here’s how it worked: The program ran for 6 weeks from November through the end of December 2018. All recruiters chose a nonprofit charitable organization that was important to them, and teamed up with members of the support staff. Each team was able to earn money through Send-Outs, Placements, and various metric benchmarks and company trivia. Every week a progress report was sent out to the company, keeping track of which team was in the lead. At the end of the year, the points were added up and the team with the most cash won! The best part? Blue Signal took all the money earned from ALL teams, and donated it to the charity chosen by the winner – placing the donation in their honor. That meant that every send out, every placement, regardless of the winner, translated to a win for one lucky charitable organization.  Each employee’s hard work directly benefited the winning organization.

Blue Signal Gives Back Results

At our year-end holiday party, the Blue Signal Summit – Ryan Walsh was announced the winner. His efforts put him and his organization, the American Parkinson Disease Association, in the lead. Ryan and the entire Blue Signal team was able to raise $1,632.50 to donate to the cause. We are so proud to have had this opportunity to work together as a company to give back to our community!

 

More about the American Parkinson Disease Association – The APDA is the largest grassroots network dedicated to fighting Parkinson’s disease (PD) and works tirelessly to assist the more than 1 million Americans with PD live life to the fullest in the face of this chronic, neurological disorder. Founded in 1961, APDA has raised and invested more than $177 million to provide outstanding patient services and educational programs, elevate public awareness about the disease, and support research designed to unlock the mysteries of PD and ultimately put an end to this disease.