The Hollywood Fee, the group chaired by Anita Hill that has the mission of addressing harassment and abuse in Hollywood, has expanded its reporting platform MyConnext to now be accessible to all movie and TV employees industry-wide.
Final yr, the Hollywood Fee launched its MyConnext platform, which is an impartial reporting software and on-line useful resource for leisure employees to deal with harassment, discrimination, and bullying. The platform additionally gave entry to the Ombuds Workplace, which acts like your individual private human sources division, an individual who can present free, impartial, casual, unbiased, and confidential details about how somebody can report and what their subsequent steps are.
When the platform launched in 2024, it was solely out there through companion organizations, particularly DGA, IATSE, WGA West, Amazon MGM Studios, and Netflix. However it’s now accessible broadly for individuals who work at any studio and whether or not or not they belong to a union or guild.
The Ombuds gives impartial steering and human assist, together with details about the significance of record-keeping, explanations of how confidentiality and anonymity work, and what to anticipate from reporting processes. Additionally they present a secure house to speak about issues or points and will help resolve conflicts or carry points to the eye of {industry} leaders.
“One yr in the past, we launched MyConnext with our collaborating organizations, and since then, their management and dedication to employee well-being have paved the way in which for this growth,” mentioned Malia Arrington, govt director, the Hollywood Fee. “Within the yr since launch, considered one of our most necessary discoveries has been what a useful useful resource the Ombuds has been, and what a possibility it’s to carry it to everybody. Because the first-of-its-kind, industry-wide useful resource, the Ombuds is an industry-wide recreation changer.”
Lillian Rivera, the MyConnext Ombuds, mentioned, “Serving because the MyConnext Ombuds has been an eye-opening and profound expertise. Listening to employees’ tales firsthand — usually when they’re at their most susceptible and delicate — and having the chance to assist them work out their paths ahead is making an actual distinction in these particular person lives. I feel they admire that I’m an actual individual — not a cellphone tree of mysterious choices, not a chatbot or AI. I’m excited to be bringing our workplace to all employees throughout the {industry}.”
The Hollywood Fee launched in 2020 and began with a complete survey of {industry} employees to evaluate what modifications nonetheless wanted to be made in a post-MeToo world, and the MyConnext platform was designed primarily based on these responses. One of many options is the power to “Maintain for Match” something you report such that the system lists a report as pending till one other individual submits a report about the identical individual.
Whereas it’s not meant to switch reporting to your studio’s personal HR, having a useful information and private help about the best way to report and subsequent steps within the course of will be extraordinarily invaluable, particularly for these working at small firms or on impartial initiatives who don’t know the place to show.
Staff can entry the MyConnext Ombuds at www.myconnext.org/ombuds-scheduling.