Well on our way

New coordinator promotes professional development and healthy lifestyles.

October 24, 2006

Steve Riccio, coordinator of the Professional Development and Wellness program and the head coach for women's tennis, wants to change the culture on campus to better support participation in wellness activities and ongoing professional development.

Since the Dickinson Walking Club started logging miles this summer, the members have tread 2,651 miles, far enough to have walked from Carlisle to Sacramento, Calif.

This group is just one of the wellness initiatives under the direction of Steve Riccio, the new staff-development coordinator of the Professional Development and Wellness program in the human resource services division.

On campus since September 2005 as the head coach for women's tennis and as a Banner consultant who specialized in employee training, Riccio was hired in May to organize the innovative program. His charge is to discern opportunities so that college employees may enhance their professional skills and overall well-being, while achieving personal and institutional goals.

"With Steve's help we will establish a culture within the college that promotes lifelong professional growth and well-being," says John Weis, vice president of human resource services.

One step for...

Riccio's first step was a survey to determine the interest in various areas of wellness and professional development. These results led to lectures, events and programming held over the last four months, including workshops on topics such as effective communication, systems thinking and public speaking.

Using feedback from these and other scheduled programs, Riccio has begun to create future courses on time management, team building and conducting productive meetings.

Strategic development

Riccio says that he also sees speakers and classes as a way to support the goals and initiatives within each of the college's divisions, connecting directly to the strategic plan.

Participation in professional-development opportunities eventually will be linked to the performance-management system, Riccio says. These courses are a concrete way to support ongoing professional growth for employees, and along with wellness programming, they will provide benefits to both employees and the college.

Wellness component

The employee wellness efforts were officially launched with the Kickoff to Wellness event on Sept. 18.

Even before the official start, Riccio had organized monthly Lunch and Learn events on topics such as stress management and nutritional planning. Upcoming sessions include a Weight Watchers at Work program and a class on smoking cessation.

He also was instrumental in getting the walking club moving and in creating a schedule of fitness opportunities from yoga to ballroom dancing.

"We want to constantly reinforce the wellness message," he says.

And Riccio practices what he preaches. He recently placed first in a field of 75 during a 5K fun run at a national conference.

Not one and done

Using his nine years' experience as a consultant, along with feedback from members of the campus community, Riccio aims to create an all-encompassing program that is unique to Dickinson.

This is already happening. After receiving suggestions from the support staff forum, Riccio and Jeanette Gribble, training specialist in academic technical services, are mapping out technical training classes to meet specific needs of employees from all areas of the college.

All of the training and programming is being created with the long term in mind. "We are not going to do one and done," he says.

For instance, plans are in place to begin a series of certification programs in 2007 related to personal enrichment as well as management and leadership development.

Also, discussions focusing on new initiatives, policies or services that are taking place on campus are being designed in order to foster communications, while providing an opportunity to bring members of the campus community together.

Riccio would like input from everyone on campus, including faculty and students. "We will continue to solicit feedback as a way of ensuring ongoing enhancement of the programs that we will be offering.

"My passion is to provide opportunities for employees to find benefits for themselves physically and mentally with our wellness programs as well as from the professional-development initiatives," he says. "I want everyone to know that they are important, and Dickinson is willing to invest in them."