Life at Wilson | Leading the Wellness EBG

My name is Luke Tortorella. I'm the total reward specialist here at Wilson. I'm located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I've been in the human resources space for about five years now.

I would say that it really just goes to my mindset. I'm the type of individual mindset is a lot, is really top of mind. Feel good, work think well, things like that. So I would say it really takes a big part of just my mindset in what I'm doing, whether it's work, whether it's personal life, or anything like that.

A wellness practice that I incorporate in my daily routine is definitely working out. And then also I'm going on walks constantly. I'm lucky that I live in a good city for that. And then also, I read a little bit as well. I read a book recently called Letting Go, and that was really, really good. It's called The Pathway to Surrender, and it really is just about your mindset.

So I know that previously there was a wellness committee and that had ceased. So what we wanted to do was really bring wellness back together as an employee belonging group to really get everybody involved and really just make wellness a forefront what we do in our professional lives and also in our personal lives.

So some of the initiatives that we have planned and have completed, our pillar of wellness for last quarter was financial wellness. And so we were able to set up a three-part webinar series with our benefits partners. And they were able to go through financial wellness classes, you know, could do one-on-one financial wellness consulting after and then for this quarter we are focused on mental health and stress and so we have a wellness workshop that will be coming up. and then we also have a few other things that are being set up such as collaborations with other EBGs and those types of things. So definitely we have some exciting things coming up.

So being part of the Wellness EBG, it's impacted my experience at Wilson greatly, especially with being a newer employee. It has allowed me to meet a lot of new employees that I necessarily wouldn't really have much contact with on a daily basis or even just in general. So it has allowed me to make a bunch of new connections and that has been really great.

The most rewarding part of being the leader would be just seeing after the meetings, people saying, know, that was a great meeting, you know, that they really needed that meeting, you know, just to take a break, talk about wellness, talk about where we're at, and, you know, to talk about how we're feeling, especially for this quarter with mental health and stress, you know, so that has been very rewarding.

So my experiences with other wellness groups, they were a little bit different. I was not the leader of those groups, but I had been able to see how the leader of those groups interacts. that, you know, allowed me to really have a plan going into this of how I wanted it to be, it really gave me a lot of insight on how to lead a group like this.

So I think really just having that wellness mindset everybody is in a good space and it allows for more productive work. And so therefore, it will be a lot better for the organization in the long term when it comes to work productivity, but also that your wellness matters at work. And it's not just about, you know, numbers and work, but also that you're, committed to, being well, as we say, mindset is everything and you know, you really need to be in a good mind frame.

So to get more involved in these types of things and community efforts, I would say really is to just put yourself out there, ask questions, look into what is going on and really just be like, hey, I just saw this, I'm interested in it and join. And then once you get in those types of initiatives, once you get into those types of community things, you'll find that it all gels together very, very well.

I would focus first off on the mental health and stress management part of the pillars of wellness. Just again, because I really am one of those firm believers that it starts out with your mindset and then once you can get motivated to really... not necessarily make a change in your life, but really enhance it. I think the other things will then follow such as, you you'll then have the motivation for the physical wellness. And then, as you start to really, have that mindset, I think then, you know, the financial can come and all of those things. So I think it really does gel together once it started, but I would recommend with starting out first with.

So if you want to learn more about Wilson's culture, go ahead and check out our careers page.