The Wellness Connection Champions Leadership group had their inaugural meeting on Wednesday, 11/28. The leadership group serves as a mini-representation of the larger Wellness Connection Champion network, and will help the Wellness Connection team recruit, train, and deploy champions across the University to further our mission to promote employee health and wellness. During this productive first meeting, we defined the role of a champion, aligned ourselves into sub-committees, and chose training topics for the coming year.
The roles of a champion has been outlined on our webpage, but as the program grows so does the role. After much discussion and brainstorming, the role of a wellness connection champion can be described as ALLS:
- Announce
- Be visible in your role as Wellness Connection Champion to your colleagues, department, and supervisor
- Serve as the wellness spokesperson for your work area
- Listen
- Understand the needs of your colleagues and departments
- Lead by example
- Promote and participate in programs and events
- Advocate for a workplace culture of well-being
- Share
- Share your successes
- Provide feedback from your colleagues
While this volunteer role will surely continue to evolve, by providing this definition champions will be better prepared to discuss what it means to be a champion and work with their departments to build a community of health and wellness.
Sub-committees can help us focus on our goals and utilize the expertise of the group. Our main focus for strategy development falls into one of the following categories:
- Training
- Recruitment & Retention
- Evaluation
- Communications
Providing quality training can create an opportunity for personal growth that will benefit both the volunteer and the University. Based on requests from our champions, Wellness Connection will partner with Guidance Resources to provide in-person training sessions at the 2019 quarterly luncheon meetings. Each quarterly meeting will have a new training. Topics will include:
- Effective communication and how to positively influence people
- Emotional agility and cultivating happiness
- Interpersonal skills and how to deal with negativity
- Active listening, referral skills, and how to be visible as a wellness champion
We look forward to reconvening in the new year and working to expand and strengthen our Wellness Connection Champion network.