Wellness in the Workplace
Mighty Crow is proud to offer a comprehensive workplace wellness plan to all employees. Often cited by employees as a key benefit of working at Mighty Crow, the program came to be after team members Jake Hammond and Michael Kocinski attended The Wellness Collective’s ‘Well Workplace Summit,’ Hosted by Katy Tombaugh, in September 2022. The Well Workplace Summit is a conference that focuses on employee well-being and organizational culture. Katy invites professionals and experts in fields related to wellness in mind, body, and community as a force for structural change, cultural shifts, and personal growth in the workplace.
Jake and Michael returned to the office inspired by what they’d learned from the summit. With notes and ideas and possibility shining in front of them, they collaborated with Mighty Crow CEO Gretchen Hammond to draft a company-wide wellness plan that would further develop the culture of support, mutual benefit, good health, and personal development that already existed at Mighty Crow. The program was designed to not only support, but also encourage the growth of the business by maintaining a focus on mindfully confronting burnout, compassion fatigue, and the general stressorsof the work/life balance.
The big idea behind the program is this: “All workers primarily need three things: purpose, variety, and autonomy.” Of course, we all work for a salary to provide for our physical needs, but these three other aspects of employment have an outsized impact on a person at work. Lining up all three prongs creates energy and momentum.
Members of the Mighty Crow team have all experienced stagnant, toxic, or menial work environments where we felt no purpose, where work was rote, where we acted a cog in a machine. With backgrounds in social work, behavioral health, retail, restaurants, academia, and team members with lived experience with substance use and mental health concerns, and the rigor and burnout of academic achievement, our starting point for wellness at The Mighty Crow was to create a space of psychological safety, where team members can grow skills and knowledge while making a difference within the ecosystem that is improving people’s lives. The Wellness Team (Jake and MIke), aka ‘The Wellness Bros.’, proposed a strengths-based, trauma informed plan that included digital wellness kits accessible through our shared Dropbox.
The Mighty Crow team places a heavy emphasis on breaking bread together, so much so, that locating an office with a kitchen was a priority of our relocation. We also emphasize wellness at our team meetings where we ask each other, “What do you need?”, and “What can I do for you?”. We celebrate personal and professional victories and lift up our clients who have surmounted challenges and executed amazing programs in their communities. In this way we grow familiar with our team and our projects and develop a bond based on shared effort and mutual goal attainment.
Perhaps the ‘crown jewel’ of our wellness program is the flexible 32-hour work week. Across the board this is our most well received and highest valued wellness initiative. The flexible work week gives us the autonomy we need to complete our work on a schedule that satisfies our clients and accommodates our out-of-the-office lives. A 32-hour flexible work week reduces the stress of scheduling health care appointments, tending to family illnesses, and finding time to recreate or rest. The 32-hour work week illustrates the level of trust and confidence Gretchen has in her team to meet deadlines.
The Mighty Crow’s Wellness Plan continues to grow, to shift, to adapt to a growing staff and increasing business. One of the ways we sort out what’s working and what needs re-evaluating is a staff survey we deploy once a year—we are evaluators, after all. Our survey helps us address an evolving workplace in an world that requires us to learn new skills and grow them quickly to support our clients and to make sure our team is healthy at work and fulfilled by the work they do.
A fun, full-circle note is that Mike and Jake returned to the 2024 Well Workplace Summit. As pictured above, the two weren’t simply attendees this time. Instead, they were there to share the launch story of Mighty Crow’s wellness program with those in attendence.
Mike presenting at the Well Workplace Summit 2024
Jake Presenting at the Well Workplace Summit 2024
