Supporting faculty and staff success is identified as a pillar in U of G’s strategic plan, and we are committed to supporting this success and the holistic well-being of all staff and faculty through the Wellness@Work initiative. By design, Wellness@Work integrates evidence-informed workplace health promotion practices along with direct feedback from you, the valuable members of our community!

At the end of May, you were invited to complete the 2023 Wellness@Work Pulse Survey – thank you to everyone who took the time to complete this survey and offer your feedback. This is Wellness@Work’s second annual pulse survey which sought to understand how faculty and staff felt in the moment and how those perceptions may have changed from 2022. Through a series of questions, the 2023 pulse survey specifically sought out to assess your experiences as related to mental health, workplace safety, work-life balance and to identify any emerging trends across our broader employee community.

Here’s what respondents generally said is going well:

• You feel supported by your immediate manager and connected to your colleagues
• You agreed that the University offers enough supports for your well-being
• You agreed that you feel physically safe working on campus

Here are the areas respondents generally said need attention:

• Enabling better work-life balance
• Reducing work-related stress and/or anxiety
• Better supports for excessive workload concerns

We value your input and your feedback will directly shape the programs, services and resources we offer in 2024 and the years to come. We can’t do what we do without your guidance and over the past couple of years, your feedback has played an integral role in what we’ve offered.

Here are initiatives we pursued as a result of your feedback:

• Increase in Psychological Services coverage under the Extended Health Plan
• Expansion of eligibility for the Employee and Family Assistance Program
• Creation of the GREAT at U of G initiative
• Access to the Not Myself Today program offered by the CMHA
• Embedding findings into Learning & Development consultations and programming, including offerings related to leadership, psychological safety, navigating change at work, and the SCARF tool.
• Developed “A Guide for Staff & Faculty: Steps to Supporting a Colleague in Distress”
• Consulted with various departments to implement tailored wellness initiatives
• Expanded our programming offerings and variety
• Continuously promoted resources available, both internally and externally, to support your mental health
• Developed the Wellness@Work grant program and funded 159 unique grant programs to date

As we work through our 2023 data, we will communicate the updates we are making to our existing programming to better serve you in the areas you indicated needed improvement. In January of 2024, you can expect to receive the 2024 Comprehensive Wellness@Work Survey, which will assess psychological health and safety and collect more detailed information than our pulse surveys, including the opportunity to answer open-ended questions. You will be able to let us know if our enhancements have made a difference in these key areas.

In the meantime, be sure to check out the Wellness@Work website where you can view the full results from the 2023 Wellness@Work Pulse Survey, access our programming and resources and learn about upcoming events. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Wellness@Work Advisor Isidora Nežić at nezici@uoguelph.ca.

Your voice matters and together we can collectively shape the work environment we want for ourselves.