ADVOCATE: A WCWI Competency  

We advocate for the success of our members by widening the scope of employee wellbeing in Wisconsin and navigating the barriers in the industry.

WCWI champions the collective learning, idea-sharing, and perspective-shifting of our members – all in support of ensuring that employee wellbeing is a foundational strategy and business priority for every employer of all sectors, industries, and sizes. The terms wellness and wellbeing have many interpretations. When we use the words wellness or wellbeing, we use a description derived from many reputable sources, namely Gallup¹ and the CDC². When WCWI advocates for the success of our members by widening the scope of wellbeing, we’re framing wellbeing as. . . 

What people think and feel about their lives as they move through their days. Wellbeing is inclusive of the quality of their relationships, their emotions, their resilience, the realization of their potential, the physical health of their body, the health of their mind, and their overall satisfaction with life. A person’s sense of wellbeing, and their ability to feel wellbeing derives from – and is impacted by – their environment, their social and interpersonal networks, their workplaces, their jobs, their social determinants of health, the relationships they have, and much more. Wellbeing is complex and the strategies to impact it must be aware and informed of those complexities. Wellbeing can be impacted across three pathways – individual, organizational, and community.

It’s a Journey

The WCWI staff members are your on-the-ground advocates in the journey of using this frame of wellness in your organizational strategies. We know there are challenges and nuances that you’re navigating in your work. We’re here for you – providing the forums of discussion, the spaces to learn, and the resources and tools to help you positively impact wellbeing for your people. 

There is one WCWI team member in particular who is tasked with supporting your learning and application of skills, methods, and strategies to widen the scope of employee wellbeing at your organization:

Katie Reiels, WCWI’s Director of Learning Strategy, has been on the WCWI staff since 2016 as a trusted coach and advocate. Here are a few ways that you may have connected with Katie in the past – and how you can connect to her as your champion going forward:

• Katie is one of WCWI’s coach consultants and has supported over 100 employers in solving wellbeing challenges in their organizations and achieving national designation for their workplace wellness strategies
   
• She created and implemented WCWI’s TECH Training in 2019 - a virtual professional development and networking group formed with the intention to connect like-minded professionals for collaboration, idea-sharing, and learning exclusively available to 10 innovative wellbeing professionals each year. Since its launch, she has facilitated and supported 28 wellbeing strategists in their endeavor to journey through TECH curriculum in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Applications for the 2022 TECH Training cohort are open now!
   
• Katie has been instrumental in the creation of the agenda and learning experience of WCWI’s Annual Employee Wellbeing Conference and Learning Circles for the last six years
   
• She developed resources aligned to the essential building methods that will guide the reframing of the role and impact of employee wellbeing professionals: 
  • Method 1: Contemplative Practice for Wellbeing Professionals
  • Method 2: WCWI’s Inventory for Growth™
  • Method 3: Vital Conversations
  • Method 4: Collaboration
• She is integral to the ongoing integration of WCWI’s Inventory for Growth™ within your member learning experience and WCWI’s upcoming signature training - coming soon in Spring 2022 – complete this form to stay in the loop!

A Message from Katie

"It gives me great joy to continue to craft meaningful resources and learning opportunities that support wellbeing leaders in Wisconsin and beyond. It is evident in our description of wellbeing, that we are tasked with supporting something that is so very unique and complex. My hope is that all of your WCWI learning practices meet your multifaceted wellbeing experiences with abundance. And that they leave you feeling empowered and equipped to impact wellbeing and draw correlation across all three pathways- individual, organizational and community.

No small feat-but then again the journey itself is the point!"

1. Gallup. Employees Want Wellbeing from Their Job, and They’ll Leave to Find It. Gallup Website. August 3, 2021. Accessed February 9, 2022. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/352952/employees-wellbeing-job-leave-find.aspx
2. CDC. How Is Wellbeing Defined. CDC Website. October 31, 2018. Accessed February 9, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/hrqol/wellbeing.htm#two