Workplace Wellbeing - Capital Area Intermediate Unit 15

A Commitment to a Culture of Wellbeing, Belonging & Dignity

As part of our strategic plan, we are committed to fostering a culture of dignity and belonging making our organization well to cultivate thriving students, families and employees.

The Capital Area Intermediate Unit (CAIU) has recently adopted the Framework for Workplace Wellbeing. We feel it provides a clear, concrete approach to supporting staff holistically and creates the culture we desire, one where belonging and dignity are always at the core of what we do and who we are.

Framework for Workplace Wellbeing

The Framework is divided into five essentials: Protection from Harm, Connection and Community, Work/Life Harmony, Mattering at Work, and Opportunity for Growth. Each essential is based in a recognized human need, including the needs of feeling belonging and having dignity honored.

Protection from Harm

The CAIU is dedicated to fostering a workplace where employees feel physically, psychologically, and emotionally safe through intentional measures and supportive practices. This commitment includes implementing clear safeguards, responding appropriately to harm or threats, and ensuring consistent communication and safety procedures across all locations. Leadership prioritizes continual improvement of these efforts, striving for measurable results that strengthen organizational safety.

Connection & Community

The CAIU is committed to fostering a sense of connection and community by creating trusting spaces where employees can authentically express themselves and feel heard. We recognize that each staff member brings and needs different levels of connectedness to their workplace and approach their perspectives with empathy and compassion. Through timely, clear, and consistent communication, we strengthen relationships and ensure a cohesive organizational culture.

Work/Life Harmony

The CAIU supports work/life harmony by encouraging employees to engage in meaningful work that aligns with the organization’s mission and strategic goals. Clear expectations empower staff to focus their efforts with confidence, while flexibility and balance allow them to care for their physical, emotional, and personal needs. A supportive culture built on trust, respect, and professional autonomy ensures that both organizational success and individual well-being thrive together.

Mattering at Work

At the CAIU, mattering at work means being trusted, supported, and held accountable as a valued professional. Employees know their voices and actions have a meaningful impact, and they receive recognition and constructive feedback to foster growth. Through encouragement and empowerment, staff are inspired to support others and contribute to the organization’s success.

Opportunity for Growth

At the CAIU, opportunities for growth are created by building the knowledge, skills, and confidence employees need to excel in their current roles and prepare for future opportunities. Staff are encouraged to explore new interests and responsibilities that align with their professional goals. Through coaching, training, and feedback, employees develop the experiences and capabilities necessary to take on future challenges within or beyond the organization.

Workplace Wellbeing Resources

Protection from Harm

Connection & Community

Creating an Employee Resource Group for Mental Health
As demand for mental health support continues to grow, many leading companies are creating mental health-focused employee resource groups (ERGs). A mental health ERG can increase employee engagement and loyalty, strengthen culture, and set a company at the forefront of HR and diversity and inclusion (D&I) best practices.

Work Design for Health
Work is a leading source of stress for Americans, and research has shown that the nature and design of work, and the extent to which it acts as a chronic stressor, can have wide-ranging effects on employee health and health care costs. This toolkit is designed to help employers support worker well-being and to build a workplace culture of health in which workplace conditions foster the good health of all workers in a fair and equitable manner.

Work/Life Harmony

How can we grant employees flexibility in their job positions?
When companies think about flexibility for employees, they often think about flexible work arrangements, such as different schedules or the ability to work remotely. But there’s more to flexibility than where and when employees spend their time. Flexibility can also address how employees spend their time working toward their job goals.

People Still Want to Work. They Just Want Control Over Their Time.
Workers — particularly those considered “knowledge workers” who are able to do most if not all of their work with a laptop and an internet connection — have been fighting for the right to maintain control over their time for years. While working from home in 2020 and 2021, they demonstrated to their bosses that they are able to maintain, or in some cases even increase, their productivity while working flexibly. Their bosses, on the other hand, have been pulling them in the opposite direction.

The Teachers Are Not All Right: Improving the Mental Well-Being of Teachers and Their Students
In the midst of a student mental health crisis that had predated the pandemic and worsened during that period, most teachers reported that student mental health was having a detrimental impact on learning. Despite these challenges, roughly two out of three teachers said that their district’s programming to support educator mental well-being was either nonexistent or minimal.

Mattering at Work

Belonging at Work: Everyday Actions You Can Take to Cultivate an Inclusive Organization
Belonging at Work empowers business leaders, change agents, visionaries, and those on their way to joining them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to build inclusive organizations. The personal stories, case studies, and practical strategies featured in the book offer everything you need to cultivate workplace cultures where all of your stakeholders can show up authentically and feel valued and respected for their contributions.

Healthy Workplace Participatory Program
The Healthy Workplace Participatory Program (HWPP) is designed specifically to help employer organizations adopt and implement programs with a Total Worker Health® approach. The HWPP Toolkit was developed to engage employees in designing integrated solutions that address a wide range of work environment, work organization, safety, and employee health issues.

The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work
Despite valuable skills and strong work ethics, neurodivergent individuals face significant employment barriers. It means that their unique talents and perspectives are often excluded, and their canary warnings about problems like bullying, ineffective work organization, or ethical slippery slopes that harm all are ignored. This practical guide helps CEOs, managers, HR leaders, and changemakers build truly inclusive workplaces by addressing systemic problems and improving work for everyone.

The Power of Mattering: How to Create a Culture of Significance
Feeling significant is a basic human need and a critical factor for individual, team, and organizational thriving. Creating experiences of "mattering" for others is a skill.

What Is Employee Engagement, and How Do You Improve It?
Employee engagement is the emotional connection and commitment employees have to their work and organization — it goes beyond employee satisfaction. Improving employee engagement requires a research-backed strategy that equips leaders to create the conditions under which people and business performance thrive.

Opportunity for Growth

What professional development opportunities can we offer?
Professional development opportunities help both employees and employers contribute to a better workplace experience. Employees who receive professional development can apply new information to their jobs and improve their performance. They may also be able to learn skills or abilities that help them receive promotions or transfers to other job opportunities in the workplace. Employers benefit from increased job satisfaction and increased knowledge in their employees.

Work, Family, & Health Study
In 2008, a five-year, multi-site, randomized, controlled trial of a workplace intervention—the Work, Family & Health Study (WFHS)—was launched to explore whether changes made to the work environment itself could have impacts on worker health and well-being, as well as benefit the employer. Pilot work had discovered that workers supervised by family-supportive managers were significantly more likely to experience lower levels of work-family conflict, higher job satisfaction, lower intention to change jobs, and higher reports of physical and mental health.

Other Resources

Educational Equity
The Intermediate Unit is committed to the success of every student in each of our programs and in Districts throughout the region. The Board adopts this policy to prioritize the principle of educational equity through the fair and just allocation of resources, opportunities and treatment of students based upon each individual student’s needs.

View Policy #832

Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being
This 30-page Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being offers a foundation for workplaces to build upon.

View PDF

Contact

For more information, email:
Belonging@caiu.org

CAIU Framework for Workplace Well-Being

Belonging & Dignity

The CAIU is committed to sharing resources that align with our values and commitment to all stakeholders. You will find a variety of resources on the Belonging & Dignity Resources page.