Council Corner - March 1, 2024

Our pledge in Student Affairs is to support students in a community that values holistic student success and well-being and invites students to grow, develop, and achieve in an environment that values learning, discovery, and engagement.

For this to be possible, we must also create and nurture a strong culture of Employee Well-being and Flourishing where all team members are valued, empowered, and respected in a healthy, equitable, and inclusive work environment—with career paths that positively impact an individual’s mental, physical, social, emotional, financial, and spiritual well-being.

Sounds great, but how exactly is it that we plan on doing all that?

The short answer? We’ll do it together.

The longer, less Hallmark-card, answer? At an individual, team, department, and divisional level, we will work to prioritize the efforts that collectively create the environment and culture described above.

To dive deeper into the myriad goals and objectives of this priority, we encourage you to read the full Student Affairs Strategic Plan. For the remainder of this message, we’ll be focusing on one of the key underlying frameworks we’re using to help guide this priority.

The Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well‑Being

Recognizing the critical role that workplaces have in enhancing (as well as detracting from) employee wellness, the Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well‑Being, identifies five essentials needed to establish workplaces as engines of well-being: Protection from Harm; Connection and Community; Work-Life Harmony; Mattering at Work; and Opportunity for Growth.

As a part of the Student Affairs strategic planning process, each of the Surgeon General’s Framework essentials will be mapped to specific activities for our division. From assessments, to recognition programs, to training opportunities, and so much more, our goals for Employee Well-being and Flourishing have been intentionally designed to align with those well-being pillars. That means that in addition to the incredible programming and support from our Hokie Wellness team, Student Affairs will be intentionally moving this well-being priority forward in other very real and tangible ways. You’ll be hearing more about each of these areas as we roll out different initiatives each month starting this coming June 2024, so stay tuned.

Again, sounds great, but how can we be optimistic that this plan is more than just words?

Real talk? The beauty is that we always have opportunities to work on and improve our organizational culture. Some areas may have more work to do than others, but we all have some miles left before we reach our cultural destination. That’s okay. Transforming culture takes time, intention, and consistent effort; it doesn’t just organically happen. The good news is that this plan is built on actions that we can take individually AND collectively. We can each be the change we wish to see and work on this in our own way—committing to small changes and prioritizing well-being efforts which collectively add up to greatness. Paraphrasing what Dr. Keene wrote in the September 2023 Hokie Family eNews, it is important to understand that “success comes from the cumulative effect of small daily habits”.

One step at a time, little by little, we can make this happen…together.

Micah Fairchild
Division Director of Human Resources

Amy Epperly
Senior Director of Hokie Wellness