Submitted by Adrienne Hammond, Office Manager at MedIT
MedIT is a somewhat unique department in that we have approximately 100 staff on seven different teams, and we are distributed throughout the province, with staff in multiple Vancouver locations as well Prince George, Victoria, and Kelowna. The size and distribution of our team requires some creativity in terms of engagement and making everyone feel connected to the team.
For many years we have done team building events involving one or more of our teams. For example, during the annual Collaboration Technologies Retreat, all of MedIT is invited to join for a pizza lunch, and last year they invited two other teams to join in the entire retreat as well.
The 2015 MedIT Collaboration Technologies retreat
My primary role in MedIT is Office Management and Human Resources, and as part of that I have recently started leading a Staff Engagement Working Group made up of both managers and staff. We look at our engagement survey results, discuss them with the teams, discuss feedback, decide on action items and then implement those actions. We are mid-way through this process at this time, and I’m excited to see some new initiatives implemented over the next few months.
There are several other things we do to engage our staff. We have a group training for the Gran Fondo cycling event. We also have a group that is similar to Toastmasters, and we have other small events organized by staff such as soccer games, ping pong tournaments, and more. Additionally we have an internal blog where teams can share information and highlights. I have also recently incorporated a “Getting to Know You” series into the blog where we profile a staff member and ask them fun questions so we can all get to know each other a little better. We have also started sharing photography on the blog as many of our staff enjoy that as a hobby and it gives us a visual peek into each other’s lives outside of work.
MedIT Gran Fondo training ride
I feel that staff engagement is a high priority in MedIT and I look forward to continuing to increase our efforts in this area with the creation of the Working Group.
Have a story to share about what you’re doing to create an engaging workplace in your department and the impact for staff and faculty? Please send your submissions to communications@hr.ubc.ca