Incorporating Wellness Programming into Job Search
By: Heldrich Center For Workforce Development
Tags: Unemployment, Virtual Service, Job Seekers, Wellness, Workforce Development

by Savannah Barnett and Stephanie D’Angelo

Increased job loss, accompanying social isolation, the expansion of virtual methods of communication, and general economic turmoil during the COVID-19 pandemic put significant strain on job seekers and the systems designed to help them get back to work. Job search burnout is increasing across a variety of professions and can hinder reemployment. Having fewer financial, social, and psychological resources can lead to job search fatigue, resulting in poorer long-term outcomes. In particular, long-term unemployment can lead to high levels of fatigue. Fortunately, there are ways that burnout can be combated, including mindfulness practices.

Companies often use wellness challenges to keep their workforce productive and engaged. Wellness challenges are short-term behavioral change contests, interventions, and team activities designed to improve employee health and morale by encouraging healthy habits. Recognizing that unemployed people don’t have access to these kinds of services that are critical to both the job search and employability, this article explores using that same model for job seekers as part of workforce programming.

“Restoring Aliveness” New Jersey Job Seeker Community Series

To assist the job seekers of New Jersey during a time when in-person services were largely suspended, the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, with funding from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, launched an online community, open to anyone in New Jersey who is actively pursuing work. The resultant New Jersey Job Seeker Community was established in September 2020 and is a moderated, peer-driven online community with daily virtual events, job search resources, and peer support and engagement. Despite being less than a year old, the community has almost 800 members and good member interaction and retention.

A primary goal of the New Jersey Job Seeker Community is to engage with job seekers holistically, recognizing that promoting physical, mental, and emotional well-being is as important to the job search as providing advice on résumés and interviewing (see Strategically Virtual: Effective Job Search Services in the Time of COVID).

Job seekers often find that résumé help, LinkedIn advice, and other job search assistance is easy to come by with simple Google and YouTube searches. What is harder to find is support for the extreme stress, isolation, and confusion that often comes with job displacement. This stress and isolation have been exacerbated by the social distancing required during the pandemic.

Recognizing that January 2021 would be a difficult month for job seekers following an isolated holiday season, a “Restoring Aliveness Challenge” was organized for the New Jersey Job Seeker Community for the month. Modeled after corporate wellness challenges, daily activities encouraged job seekers to engage in various non-job search events to reduce stress and increase feelings of physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Specific benefits the challenge was meant to support were:

> Help with creating and maintaining a schedule and routine by having regular events to attend;

> Increasing cognitive flexibility by participating in new activities and experiences;

> Increasing self-efficacy, self-esteem, and a sense of mastery by completing exercises/activities;

> Creating healthy self-care habits; and

> Increasing social engagement with others who are “in the same boat,” leading to decreased isolation and increased feelings of validation.

Activities were designed to address various domains and included:

> Physical activities (yoga classes, a walking club, Couch to 5K, Zumba, and gardening);

> Mindfulness programming (meditation, self-compassion, music, and resilience through mindfulness);

> Artmaking/art-sharing activities (vision board creation, collage making, and Kirigami paper cutting); and

> “Fun” group activities (game night and “open mic” night).

All activities were virtual, offered via Zoom videoconferencing, and each lasted from 30 to 90 minutes. The sessions were facilitated by the volunteer coaches who facilitate the community, job seeker members of the online community, and professionals who volunteered their time to run various events. Members were encouraged to try a range of activities and to engage in something every day. They were also encouraged to interact with one another during each session.

Feedback on the Restoring Aliveness Challenge

The Heldrich Center conducted a follow-up survey with community members to obtain feedback on the impact that the activities had on job seeker mindsets and feelings of well-being.

Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents reported that the challenge activities were “extremely worthwhile,” and 42% said they were “worthwhile.”

In response to the question, “How did the activities impact your well-being?” all participants reported positive impacts. Below are some of the responses that were submitted:

> I honestly don’t think I could have gotten through January without these events; they gave me a sense of purpose, direction, community, and optimism to make the job hunt slog bearable.

> Provided distraction from worries and stress.

> To sum it up, it was refreshing and revitalized my confidence in the job hunt. Thank you!!!!

> Relaxed and refreshed for 2021. During a stressful time of year, it was great to take a break with these events.

> [Restoring Aliveness] gave me the opportunity to experience being out of my comfort zone…and lean into it without being concerned about feeling judged or failing. Sometimes, I ended up really enjoying the experience. Every time, though, I learned a little bit more about myself and how to make progress at other things that seemed to be hard. Learning to take new actions in a very supportive environment helped enable me to take different actions that benefit my career search. Taking (uncomfortable) action is a transferable skill.

Overall, the challenge approach proved to be a successful intervention for participating job seekers, providing them with new well-being practices and habits to use during their job search, as well as the restoration and rejuvenation they needed to persist with searching for employment.

Tips for Implementing a Wellness Challenge in Workforce Programming

What follows are some tips for organizations interested in utilizing the wellness challenge approach:

> Set a timeframe for the challenge — it can be a week, 10 days, a month, etc.

> Identify themes — mental and emotional well-being, mindfulness, healthy job search habits, etc. are potential options.

> Identify specific daily activities in support of the theme.

> Offer options for both synchronous and asynchronous activities — plan live events that can be recorded for later viewing. Having scheduled events allows participants to rekindle a sense of structure, and making programming available on demand helps ensure access.

> Recruit volunteers, including volunteers from the community you serve, to help facilitate activities. This helps reduce the burden on staff, increases job seeker self-efficacy, and creates closer connections between job seekers. Recruiting volunteers from the local community can also create new opportunities.

> Make it fun!

If your organization is new to the challenge approach, it’s best to start small — a five-day challenge, for example. You may also want to try your challenge with staff first or with a small group of job seekers to test the approach and see where you want to make changes or improvements.

Conclusion

Wellness challenges can provide much-needed support to job seekers and new opportunities for engagement. Virtual wellness can be a low-cost measure to alleviate the stress and burnout of job search, lessen the isolation of the job search process, and help job seekers feel more energized so they can persist with their search activities.

Savannah Barnett and Stephanie D’Angelo are researchers at the Heldrich Center.

Further Reading

Choitz, Vickie, and Wagner, Stacey. (2021). A trauma-informed approach to workforce: An introductory guide for employers and workforce development organizations. National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

Volpe, Liana, and Holcomb, Stephanie. (2021). Building communities of care in workforce development programs. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University.

In the Suddenly Virtual series, the Heldrich Center examined how the public workforce system had adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing case management, training, and job search services in an online environment. The Strategically Virtual series builds on this work, outlining how the public workforce system can use technology and community partnerships more effectively to expand services, address job seeker mental and emotional well-being, and ensure that a broader range of the public is able to access supports during a time of social distancing and massive job loss. The Strategically Virtual series is producing issue briefs, Medium blog posts, practical guides, and more. View all of the Strategically Virtual blog posts.