Wellbeing for Employees (WE) has put together a speaker series that is running for four Fridays in October from 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. The series is called Support “ME” with WE and takes place at the Konferensrum in the Campus Center. The first session was Oct. 2nd, with sessions on Oct. 9, 16 and 23. These sessions are for the employees of Gustavus and are free of charge.
The Gustavus Wellbeing Initiative started for the entire campus about a year and a half ago. Meghan Krause is the Director of Wellbeing, alongside Head Women’s Basketball Coach and Health Promotion Coordinator in Athletics Laurie Kelly, who is the Director of Wellbeing for Employees. Support “ME” with WE was formed thanks to Administrative Assistant in Psychological Science, History, and Sociology and Anthropology Nicole Goebel’s idea for a scholarship grant.
The grant was approved and Support “ME” with WE was launched with the help of Krause, Kelly and [Junior Health Fitness major] Christina Marton.
Marton is the Wellbeing for Employees Intern on campus. She grew up as a three sport athlete and has learned to value all types of wellbeing at Gustavus. She is en route to become an Occupational Therapist and she sees value in the internship she is doing now.
“I think it’s good to know that your support staff at Gustavus, your professors, anyone who works at Gustavus, that they have access to group fitness classes and support groups. I think it’s something that most students don’t think about and it is really not something that affects us directly but I think it helps that the staff has support just like the students do,” Marton said.
There are many different kinds of wellbeing, so a survey was sent out to find out which ones the Gustavus employees wanted to focus on.
“The three areas that we found through surveys that needed the most attention were physical, relational, and financial support. So we have developed classes utilizing faculty, administration and friends of the College to put on classes,” Goebel said.
The first event focused on goal setting and creative visions in wellbeing. 37 employees attended the first event, with over 50 employees registered for the series. The second event will focus on physical wellbeing, the third on relational wellbeing, while the fourth and final session will focus on financial wellbeing.
Krause was one of the speakers featured in the first session.
“My aim was to have the attendees think broadly about what matters to them most in terms of their wellbeing and provide them with a tool that can help them have those conversations and explore their interests,” Krause said.
“Our intent is to enhance or deepen employee engagement by helping them to explore and support their own wellbeing”
—Meghan Krause
While there was a significant turnout for the first installment of the series, Kelly is aware that reaching all the employees at Gustavus has its challenges.
“It is hard because we have employees that teach at a certain time. We have employees that work hourly and they’re not allowed to leave. They don’t have the flexibility; if you are working in food services or working as a custodian or at some other positions, they don’t get an hour to come away.
That’s the hard part, to try and reach everybody,” Kelly said.
Support “ME” With WE is an employee only series but Krause stressed that the Gustavus Wellbeing Initiative is for everybody.
“The wellbeing initiative is intended to serve the entire Gustavus community. We feel like while students are our primary audience and we care about supporting students during their time here, a big part of that is how we model and how we live out our own wellbeing as employees. Our intent is to enhance or deepen employee engagement by helping them to explore and support their own wellbeing,” Krause said.
All four of the people behind this project were women, and that is on par with other wellbeing projects at Gustavus.
“Most of the programs are supported by predominantly women on campus. Even the fitness classes we offer and a lot of the things that we do, you tend to have more women attend these who are employees than you do men but it’s open to everybody,” Kelly noted.