MORE INFORMATION

"In tough times, stress can mount," Our University (July 2011)

"Amid the anxiety, take care of yourself," Dateline UC Davis (March 11, 2011)

ASAP x 2

Davis campus: by telephone, (530) 752-2727, or in person, Guilbert House, 112A St., Davis

UC Davis Health System: by telephone, (916) 734-2727, or in person, 2100 Ticon III, 2730 Stockton Blvd., two blocks south of the main hospital, Sacramento

Budget cuts, office reorganizations, departments being eliminated, the forthcoming shared service center.

No doubt UC Davis is going through a significant amount of change, with associated disruption and ambiguity. And this is likely resulting in additional stress for you and your colleagues, say the organizers of a new program, “Stress and Resilience,” offering self-care techniques and coping strategies.

The workshop is a collaboration of the Davis campus's Academic and Staff Assistance Program, or ASAP; Staff Development and Professional Services, or SDPS; and the Shared Services Implementation Team.

SDPS is also collaborating with the Shared Services Implementation Team on another new workshop, “Managing Staff Through Transition,” for campus managers and supervisors in the administrative units that are participating in the shared service center.

‘Stress and Resilience’

Over the last few years, the Academic and Staff Assistance Program has been helping people develop resilience through such workshops as “Stress Resilience During Tough Economic Times” and “Family Stress Resilience.”

Now, ASAP Director Beth Cohen and one of her interns, Rob Wennerberg, have put together “Stress and Resilience” in response to the changes at UC Davis. Wennerberg is a post-doc in psychology who specializes in working with people who experience acute and chronic stress, and who has worked with Cohen on many different ASAP programs.

Wennerberg said employees will glean a great deal from the new workshop, even if they attended earlier programs on stress resilience.

The new workshop, "Stress and Resilience," focuses on practice, process and the development of resilience as an essential part of adapting to change.

"We have people in the class participate in experiential practice of stress relief, we explore how their life impacts their work and stress level, and how they can cope in a work environment to build resilience," Wennerberg said.

Cohen and others at ASAP will lead five sessions of “Stress and Resilience," all on Wednesdays and all from 1:30 to 3 p.m.:

• July 20 — Hamilton Room, Heitman Staff Learning Center
• Aug. 24 — Hamilton Room
• Sept. 21 — Hamilton Room
• Oct. 19 — Hamilton Room
• Nov. 16 — 136 Hoagland Hall

'Managing Staff Through Transition'

The organizers said this workshop is vitally important for managers and supervisors, to help them understand how their employees experience change and to help the managers and supervisors develop skills for assisting staff through transition.

"'Managing Staff Through Transition' is a highly interactive course designed specifically to help managers and supervisors develop tools and strategies to address the human aspects of change," the organizers said.

The facilitators are Karen Hull, associate vice chancellor for Human Resources, and Lisa Terry, director of organizational development and communications for the Shared Services Implementation Team.

Topics include how to:

• Lead staff through strategic change initiatives.
• Recognize the way employees respond to change.
• Develop coaching skills needed to help employees deal with constant change and loss.

Three sessions are scheduled, all on Thursdays and all from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Hamilton Room at the Heitman Staff Learning Center:

• Aug. 25
• Oct. 6
• Oct. 27

The transition to shared services

SDPS and the Shared Services Implementation Team are continuing to present Managing Through the Transition to Shared Services, a course that offers regular updates on the development of the shared service center.

The series began in March, and 115 managers and supervisors have attended one or more of the four updates that have been held so far.

Six more updates are scheduled between now and the end of the year, all from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Hamilton Room at the Heitman Staff Learning Center:

• Thursday, July 28
• Friday, Aug. 26
• Thursday, Sept. 15
• Wednesday, Nov. 16
• Thursday, Nov. 17
• Thursday, Dec. 1

Registration is limited to managers and supervisors in the units that are participating in the shared service center.

Up until recently, the shared service center project comprised five units: Administrative and Resource Management, the Offices of the Chancellor and Provost, Information and Educational Technology, Student Affairs and University Relations.

The chancellor and provost are still involved, although Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi announced in May that the chancellor and provost units had been separated into the Office of the Chancellor and the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor. The offices continue to share an administrative services cluster, however.

Also, the shared service project has expanded to include the central administrative unit of the Office of Research (excluding academic units within the office).

Shared services certificate series

Ninety-eight employees earned their certificates by completing all seven parts of this series, called Shared Services: Preparing for Success in a New Service Model.

SDPS and the Shared Services Implementation team collaborated on the 22-hour series, presenting it five times since February.

Two-hundred-eighty employees participated in one or more segments, which included an overview of the shared service center project, and professional development in the areas of shared services customer service strategies, creative problem solving and preparing for career transitions.

Online enrollment

• “Stress and Resilience” (search for “stress”), for all employees
• “Managing Staff Through Transition” (search for “SSC”), for managers and supervisors in the administrative units that are participating in the shared service center project
• SSC updates for managers and supervisors in the participating units: Managing Through the Transition to Shared Services (search for “SSC”)