Excellence, Innovation and Wellness:

Workplace Transformation

Marilyn ThompsonAssociate Provost, Human Resources

The next 60 minutes

• A little about the University of Waterloo

• Why we chose excellence, innovation, and

wellness as our standards

• People, process and performance: Bridging

the gap

• Sharing our experiences

Strategic Plan 2013

University of Waterloo

• Established in 1957 and opened with 74 students

• Today: 30,600 undergraduate and 5300 graduate

students

• 35% graduate and 13% undergraduate international

students

• 1139 full-time faculty and 2500 administrative staff;

mostly non-unionized

• Largest faculty of engineering and #1 Psychology

department in Canada

• Largest actuarial science program in North America

Strategic Plan 2013

STRATEGIC PLAN 2013

How we are known

• Most innovative university in Canada x24 years

• Entrepreneurial from the start

STRATEGIC PLAN 2013

How we are known

• Most innovative university in Canada x24 years

• Entrepreneurial from the start

• “Creator-owned” intellectual property policy

• Change lives and advance industries through high-impact, highly-relevant research

• Transform education through experience-based learning; largest postsecondary co-op program in the world

• Very smart students: half of entering students have an entrance grade of more than 90%

Why mess with a good thing?

• Our reputation is

largely based on

teaching, research and

entrepreneurship

• Everything can get

better and become

more efficient

• Higher education is

dynamic and funding is

based on enrollments

• We have a lot of si lo

thinking

• Administrative processes

tell a different story

• It ’s everyone’s job to

advance innovation –

some take this l iterally

• Our consultations said

there was much lurking

below the surface

Strategic Plan 2013

Bridging the gap

Performance

Process

People

Strategic Plan 2013

What was our gap?

Performance

Process

People

• We started with basic

metrics and

benchmarks

• Who works for us???

• What will we call

‘success’?

• Staff surveys called

for quality indicators

Strategic Plan 2013

Campus Strategic Plan 2013-2018

Exp e r ient ia l Ed u cat ion

Entrepreneursh ip

Tran sformat iona l Re search

Acad emic P ro gramming

Internat ional i zat ion

V ib rant S tu dent

Exp e r ience

Ro b u st Emp loyer -Employee

Re lat ionship

P ro mo t ing a So u nd Va lue

Syste m

The Excellence Canada Pilot Project & Lessons

Learned

Robust Employer-Employee Relationship

• Attract and retain the highest-quality

candidates for faculty and staff positions

• Provide a diverse and enriched career

experience

• Integrate quality standards – Excellence,

Innovation and Wellness

The Excellence

Canada Pilot

Excellence Canada: An overview

• Excellence Canada (EC) is a national independent, not-

for-profit organization focused on assisting institutions

to continuously improve performance and build upon

excellence

• A “quality and wellness” standard that aligns with the

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and

international quality standards, i.e., Baldridge

• The EIW framework allows Waterloo to take a

progressive approach to focusing on excellence,

innovation and wellness over time

The Excellence

Canada Pilot

Excellence Canada Milestones

Strategic Plan 2013

Bronze

(Foundation)

Silver

(Actions)

Gold

(Results)

Platinum

(Role model)

How are we performing?

Strategic Plan 2013

Bridging the gap

Performance

Process

People

Strategic Plan 2013

a destination of choice for employment

• What does it take to become an employer of

choice?

≫ Comparison against external standards

• “Employer of choice” to whom?

≫ What do the people we want, want?

≫ What are we prepared to do to attract them?

Creating an outstanding workplace

• Psychological health

• Physical health and safe environment

• Leading edge practices

• Best HR practices

Excellence Innovation

Mental Health @

Work

Healthy workplace

Strategic Plan 2013

What was the story from our health benefit utilization?

• People were facing challenges

≫ A great deal of change was happening

• Good stress, bad stress – your body reacts in the same way

≫ Highest volume of drugs were prescriptions for medications associated with stress

≫ Counselling Services could not keep up with the demand for psychological counselling

≫ Sick time was rising – about $1M each year

• Increase in internal grievances

Strategic Plan 2013

A focus on wellness

Strategic Plan 2013

Strategic Plan 2013

UW WELLNESS PASSPORT

Applied Health Science Date/Time Visited:

Environment Date/Time Visited:

Engineering Date/Time Visited:

Dinosaur Date/Time Visited:

Arts Date/Time Visited:

Village 1 Date/Time Visited:

Math Date/Time Visited:

Advancement Date/Time Visited:

Science Date/Time Visited:

Visitor Centre Date/Time Visited: