August 31, 2020

Programs to help employees thrive in the workplace

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These are indeed challenging times for everyone at the University of Michigan, including faculty and staff. There are a variety of university programs to help employees nurture their careers, health and emotional well-being.

Here are some of the ways U-M faculty and staff can pursue their goals and seek support outside of the cubicle, and hear from professionals about how health and well-being can be an integral part of the workplace.

Working with the COVID-19 pandemic

Healthy Lifestyles, Mental Health and Well-Being

  • MHealthy: The university’s flagship health and well-being program is an avenue for faculty and staff to engage in a variety of activities, including nutrition and weight-management initiatives, fitness classes, and alcohol and tobacco use programs. For more, visit mhealthy.umich.edu.
  • Emergency Hardship Program: Provides resource recommendations and, in specific emergency cases, funds up to a maximum of $1,000 to help employees with sudden and significant financial hardships, such as family crises or natural disasters. For more information, visit emergencyhardship.umich.edu.
  • Michigan Medicine Office of Counseling and Workplace Resilience: Offers confidential, compassionate, evidence-based counseling, consultation and debriefing services to all Michigan Medicine faculty and staff. For more, visit counseling.med.umich.edu.
  • Faculty and Staff Counseling and Consultation Office: Along with offering short-term, confidential counseling, the office also provides personalized coaching services and hosts support groups to faculty and staff on the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses. For more, visit fascco.umich.edu.
  • Occupational Health Services: Provides services to Michigan Medicine and Ann Arbor campus faculty and staff for the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of occupational illnesses and injuries. For more, visit https://hr.umich.edu/benefits-wellness/health-well-being/occupational-health-services.

Career Development and Mentoring

  • CEW+: Supports U-M students, faculty and staff and the surrounding community with events and workshops, funding, counseling and advocacy initiatives. Offerings include career and education counseling and the Women of Color in the Academy Project, a campuswide network that supports scholarship focused on understanding and addressing the experiences of women of color in the academy. For more, visit cew.umich.edu.
  • ADVANCE Program: Delivers programs, resources and research supporting faculty recruitment, retention, climate and leadership. Examples include Launch Committees, which offer a circle of support for new tenure-track assistant professors as they begin their careers at U-M, and faculty recruitment workshops, which teach practices that make searches more successful in producing diverse candidates. For more, visit advance.umich.edu.
  • Center for Research on Learning and Teaching: Collaborates with faculty, administrators and graduate student instructors to support and enhance learning and teaching. For more, visit crlt.umich.edu.
  • Organizational Learning: As U-M’s central department for professional, career and leadership development, Organizational Learning offers free professional and leadership development programs that cover topics like communication and management. Courses are available to faculty and staff on the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses and at Michigan Medicine. For more information, visit hr.umich.edu/organizational-learning.
  • LinkedIn Learning: Thousands of online courses are available at no cost to benefits-eligible faculty and staff through LinkedIn Learning, which can be found at hr.umich.edu/linkedin-learning.
  • Career Path Navigator: A university tool that can assist in personal career planning and shows how an employee’s current position relates to other market titles in the U-M Family Classification System. The tool allows employees to review and compare positions and career changes. To view the tool, visit careernavigator.umjobs.org.

Work-Life Balance

Employee Advocacy

  • International Center: Serves international faculty, staff and their families and hiring units on the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses. Assists with immigration advisement, case preparation and management, compliance and risk management guidance, programming and advocacy. For more, visit internationalcenter.umich.edu.
  • Office for Institutional Equity: Provides programming and services for faculty, staff, students, and management to support diversity, inclusiveness, equal access, equitable treatment, and cultural understanding and competency. For more, visit hr.umich.edu/oie.
  • Office of the University Faculty Ombuds: A confidential, impartial, informal, and independent resource that helps resolve academic and administrative problems and disputes through procedures that may be preferable to a formal grievance or judicial proceedings. For more, visit facultyombuds.umich.edu.
  • Office of the Staff Ombuds: Promotes a civil and inclusive university community by providing independent, confidential, impartial and informal conflict resolution services to all non-bargained-for staff on the Ann Arbor campus and at Michigan Medicine. For more, visit staffombuds.umich.edu.

Service Opportunities

  • Voices of the Staff: U-M’s employee-engagement program that brings more than 100 staff members together across campus to meet and provide staff input, develop resources and events and meet with university leaders. For more, visit voices.umich.edu.
  • Mentoring programs: Several U-M mentoring programs give faculty and staff the opportunity to connect and help students navigate their college experience. For more information and a list of some of the university’s mentoring programs, visit https://record.umich.edu/articles/mentoring-michigan/.
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