BCCWF Staff

Published October 6, 2022

September is always a busy month and this year it was particularly busy for the Center and our members. For many organizations, this September has meant a renewed push to return to the office and codify new ways of working - with an eye toward (re)building company culture and social connections and enabling a healthy work-life balance. 

High turnover and “quiet quitting” mean a sharper focus on revamping how work gets done and devising holistic learning & development and wellbeing strategies that support each segment of the workforce. Our programming has reflected this with a continued focus on managing burnout and building effective wellbeing programs that employees utilize and value. 

In our Distinguished Speaker Series event, Stephen Courtright offered the DESC (Demands, Efficacy, Support, Control) model as a practical framework for addressing burnout. Some great takeaways: 

• don’t just reduce but change demands by giving employees new challenges; 
• create opportunities that help employees feel like they are making progress; 
• create a clear sense of shared purpose; and 
• be a good steward of people’s time.  

We also got a glimpse into the comprehensive, creative ways our members are supporting employee mental health. In a member open forum last week, we heard about expanded, free mental health sessions for employees and their households (even roommates!), training top leaders in self-care, and embedding mental health advisors in ERGs to begin to address the intersection of mental health with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. 

We look forward to continuing these conversations next month at our hybrid Fall Roundtable Meeting, where keynote speakers Lakshmi Ramarajan (HBS) and Darcy Gruttadaro (NAMI) will speak to identities and belonging and innovations in mental health approaches, respectively. We’ll also feature member John Hancock, who will spotlight how they are aligning mental health & well-being and DEI efforts.

Members, check out our packed agenda and register here. We hope to see many of you in person in a few weeks!