Your Part in The Whole U
Kimberly Mishra, Director, HR Marketing, Communications, & Engagement
Kettlebells, cooking demos, talent showcases, and family photo days. UW leaders and scholars offering insights and advice. Social groups, team and individual challenges, discounts, and contests. So, what is this Whole U thing exactly, and what role can you play in it?
As we prepared to launch The Whole U last year, many endeavored to define it. Some characterized it as a wellness program while others categorized it as employee engagement. The Whole U is both of these things—and so much more. It’s difficult to pigeonhole because it was intended to be both global and individual, broad and specific. The program is designed to be different things to different people so that faculty and staff can take full advantage of the University’s amazing resources and experts in myriad ways.
The Whole U is based on the premise that life does not stop when you come to work and for many of us work no longer stops when we go home. As President Young described in his annual address, The Whole U is innovative. It’s changing the way we think about integrating our work lives with other things that are important—from volunteerism, engaging personal interests, and managing life changes and events to staying healthy, eating well, and keeping active.
But is it working?
The idea to start The Whole U sprang from conversations between President Young and the Vice President for Human Resources, Mindy Kornberg, in September 2013. By mid-December, with The Whole U team in place, we included a short blurb in UWHR’s monthly e-newsletter, The Resource. Within 24 hours, over 1,000 faculty and staff had registered to attend The Whole U kickoff event: breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest kettlebell workout.
A few weeks later we sent out a survey asking what types of events, activities, and information people most wanted and were flooded with ideas. We met with partners from across campus to see how we could work together, and engaged a group of Whole U ambassadors (at least one from every major organization) to help us make sure The Whole U worked across our vast institution.
Less than a year after the kickoff, we’ve had more than 10,000 participants in Whole U events and activities and built a robust "for UW, by UW" website with articles about and by UW faculty and staff and over 200 employee discounts.
Okay, so what is it really?
The Whole U really is different things to different people. To me it’s about taking full advantage of being part of the amazing UW community, getting to know people who work in different areas and fields, and interspersing some fun into my jam-packed work days. To others it’s about working out at lunch, getting free tickets to Athletics events, or finding like-minded individuals interested in a particular hobby.
If I put on my UW leader hat, I see The Whole U as a way to shift workplace culture from silos of people competing over who is the most busy to a culture that is more sustainable, supportive of differences, and valuing the whole person instead of just the "employee." It is also a morale-booster for faculty and staff who are often asked to do more with less.
What can I do?
When we presented the program to the Administrator’s Forum last fall, their main piece of advice was that University leadership be actively engaged and supportive of the effort. They are absolutely right—we have to walk the talk if we intend to enhance our campus culture. Here are a few ways you can get involved as a supporter or more active participant:
- Empower your Whole U Ambassador. Let your organization’s ambassador know that you care about their efforts and strategize with them on ways to best engage your organization’s faculty and staff.
- Lead by example. Find a Whole U event or activity of interest to you and invite others to join you.
- Provide access. Invite The Whole U to speak at a department or leadership meeting.
- Tag on to one of our events. Leverage your own internal team-building activities by tagging on to one of our events. Looking for a great way to celebrate the holidays? Consider hosting your team’s holiday celebration in conjunction with Ovations!—a faculty and staff talent showcase. President Young and Marti Young will be there along with some amazing performers.
- Showcase your team. We are always looking for story and event ideas that highlight our amazing faculty and staff or other UW resources.
- Challenge your department or team. Watch The Whole U for challenge opportunities and set up different departments or teams to compete against one another (the Stress Less Holiday Challenge is going on right now). Let us know when you’re involving a group in a challenge, and we might be able to help out with some Whole U swag or other incentives.
And lastly, challenge us! It has been an incredible year for The Whole U team, and we are constantly learning and recalibrating. Wonder why we do something or why we don’t do something? Help us get better by sharing your perspective, questions, and ideas. You can reach me at kmishra@uw.edu or 685-3845.
