How YuMuuv Supports Wellness for Academic Advisors at a Nevada Community College
A dedicated group of academic advisors at a prominent community college in Nevada noticed growing challenges related to workplace wellness and burnout, largely due to high caseloads and significant demands in supporting students. With generous support from the Stupski Foundation, these advisors formed a wellness team with the goal of enhancing staff well-being and preventing burnout through targeted wellness initiatives.
Identifying the Challenge:
The advising team recognized the importance of addressing wellness holistically. Rather than just tackling physical health, they wanted solutions that also embraced mental and emotional wellness. Given the high temperatures and demanding schedules inherent in their roles, simple yet effective strategies like hydration reminders, movement breaks, and mindfulness were key priorities.
Why YuMuuv:
YuMuuv stood out to the wellness team due to its inclusive and comprehensive approach to wellness. Chante Derella, a key leader in the initiative, appreciated YuMuuv's broad spectrum of activities including physical tracking, mental wellness activities like meditation, journaling, and hydration challenges, making it accessible and appealing to staff with diverse wellness preferences and capabilities.
Implementation Process:
After completing necessary institutional agreements, Chante introduced YuMuuv during a departmental wellness retreat. Initially, around 50 academic advisors from three campuses were encouraged to engage with the platform. Chante designed various wellness challenges on YuMuuv, starting with basic activities such as step counting, hydration reminders, and team-driven squat challenges that resonated well, particularly due to their humor and simplicity.
Outcomes and Benefits:
- Positive Engagement:
- Around 38 staff initially engaged with the app, with approximately 15 becoming active, daily users.
- Particularly popular was the squat challenge, started playfully within one campus team, and walking challenges that leveraged mobile tracking, making participation easy and inclusive.
- Inclusive Wellness:
- A notable challenge that involved manual logging of activities like journaling, outdoor time, and mindfulness exercises saw strong participation, highlighting the appeal of varied wellness activities beyond traditional physical exercises.
- The integrated chat feature enhanced team dynamics, enabling advisors to engage socially, encourage each other, and foster a community spirit around wellness.
- Creative Recognition and Motivation:
- With limited resources for tangible rewards, creative motivational tactics such as peer recognition, friendly competition, and internal acknowledgments significantly boosted morale and participation.
Current and Ongoing Challenges:
- Continuously coming up with new, engaging monthly wellness activities remains a creative challenge for Chante and the wellness team.
- Sustaining active participation and demonstrating wellness outcomes for ongoing support and funding is an ongoing area of focus.
Looking Ahead:
- Chante and her team plan to gather detailed user feedback through surveys to refine their wellness initiatives further. This will also help in presenting clear outcomes to their grant providers to justify ongoing funding and support.
- Insights gained will help evolve the wellness program to more closely align with the advisors' evolving preferences and wellness goals.
User Feedback on YuMuuv:
Overall, YuMuuv received enthusiastic feedback for its intuitive user interface, flexibility in creating diverse wellness challenges, and strong social features such as interactive chats and activity rankings. Suggestions from the team included introducing periodic wellness tips and expanding the variety of fun facts to keep engagement fresh and continuous.
Conclusion:
YuMuuv has proven valuable in enhancing the overall wellness and reducing stress among academic advisors at the community college. Through a thoughtful balance of physical, mental, and emotional wellness activities, YuMuuv supports not only individual health but also creates a vibrant community, effectively addressing and reducing the risks of occupational burnout.
