January/February 2024Empowered to Make a Difference

“Empowered to Make a Difference” program at University of California, IrvineBy Ramona H. Agrela, CHRO and vice chancellor – HR At the University of California, Irvine, our ”Empowered to Make a Difference” program is the umbrella for our enterprise-wide engagement efforts. With approximately 13,000 staff and an additional 16,000 faculty, physicians, and other academic personnel, engagement is a priority for leadership across our three business units: campus, Health, and College of Health Sciences.Within this program, we have many initiatives to recognize, support, and engage employees, and to ensure they have positive experiences throughout their employment lifecycle. A few of the many programs we offer include the following.

Recognition campaigns via our “Bright People, Brilliant Solutions” platform give employees an opportunity to thank and appreciate one another throughout the year. In 2023, more than 1,500 messages of thanks and recognition were shared between peers. In addition to recognition, the “Bright People, Brilliant Solutions” platform is used for innovation campaigns, where co-workers are invited to submit ideas for solving identified problems across the enterprise.

Co-worker appreciation week is full of celebratory activities for our colleagues, including two high profile awards ceremonies: the prestigious “Health ARIISE Awards,” with one award each given for co-workers who best exemplify the Health values of accountability, respect, integrity, innovation, service, excellence, and a team award, and the “Staff Assembly Excellence in Leadership Awards,” honoring leaders nominated by their teams. The week also includes treat cart rounding at Health, which allows leaders to visit departments with a cart full of treats and spark casual conversations with co-workers at every level; a virtual scavenger hunt; and special wellness offerings such as sunrise yoga classes, mini chair massages, pet therapy, and much more.

A service anniversary program with congratulatory events and milestone gifts. In particular, an enterprise-wide service recognition event is held in June at our Bren Events Center, which seats approximately 7,000 people. Co-workers celebrating years of service (one, three, five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50) are invited to attend to be honored, while all co-workers are invited to attend in celebration and support their colleagues.

The enterprise-wide leadership team from campus, Health, and School of Health Sciences, including the chancellor, vice chancellors, chief executives, deans, and other platform party members, honor staff for their service. Honorees (15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 year) walk the stage in a ceremony reminiscent of a commencement. Individual names are announced, and commemorative photos are taken. Pre-event receptions include a one-year anniversary party, so that more recent staff can get a feel for what it’s like to work at UCI and UCI Health over their career. Service honorees of five years and more, in increments of five years, receive a lapel pin and a gift based on years of service. Finally, a special luncheon, affectionately named “The Quarter Century Club,” is held at the chancellor’s residence for all 25-year honorees.

Hospital week and nurses week feature week-long special activities designed to recognize our hard working, frontline medical professionals.

Town halls are held multiple times per year featuring the chancellor and key leaders. Employees expressed the desire to hear from top level leadership directly in our first enterprise-wide survey in 2017, and these town halls are a direct result of that feedback.

A robust engagement ambassador program has more than 250 employee volunteers who champion, support, and participate in engagement-related activities at their departmental level.

Ongoing engagement training for people leaders features a four-session “Engagement 101” series where managers and supervisors learn how to take positive steps towards improving engagement within their teams.

Our biennial co-worker engagement survey invites all 13,000 staff members to take a comprehensive survey covering foundational engagement questions as well as indices measuring supervisor accountability, supervisor effectiveness, change management, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) efforts, well-being, and patient safety for those in healthcare positions.

HRO Today - January/February 2024HRO Today Calendar of EventsHRO Today Calendar of EventsContentsHR Today Data Analytics & AI SummitMastheadEditor's NoteCEO's LetterHRO Today Association UpdateHRO Today AssociationCover StoryEmployee Engagement at Clearwater AnalyticsEmpowered to Make a DifferenceHR ResearchL&DEmployee ExperienceWorkforce ManagementDEIBSubscribe to HRO TodayHRO Today ForumArchives