When Winfield Park District celebrated the grand reopening of its Activity Center last year, everyone looked forward to what it would offer — like an expanded family fitness center, an instructional kitchen and a special recreation program room. But who knew that for Business Manager Christy Liszka and Recreation Coordinator Cayla Pruitt it also would be the inspiration for a whole new employee wellness, training and engagement program for agency employees?

Kristin Bykowski, Fitness Supervisor, and Mike Bachio, Athletic Coordinator, participated in Wear Red Day.

“We were at the grand reopening with all the other employees, and afterwards everyone was talking about how great it would be if we had more opportunities for all of us to get together,” says Liszka. “That was our jumping-off point, especially knowing what other park districts do.”

Pruitt adds, “We’re pretty small compared to other park districts, with only 12 full-time employees and only 60 part-time and seasonal staff. But we all wanted to have the comradery and competitive activities those bigger districts have.”

So Liszka and Pruitt created a plan to develop a new committee and presented it to Executive Director Mark Pawlowski. And he loved the idea! “We didn’t have an employee engagement committee, so we took it upon ourselves to create one to focus on wellness, safety and employee morale and appreciation,” Liszka explains. “Officially, we’re the Employee Engagement Committee — unofficially we’re the Magical Motivators of the MotiMittee.”

T.J. Banks, Maintenance Foreman, enjoyed Random Act of Kindness Day.

They started the new year by introducing the committee to all full-time employees — each of whom also participates in PATH. “We told them what we were doing and planning for employee engagement, talked about all the 2023 PATH updates and explained the opportunities to earn points through both PATH activities and ones sponsored by our new committee,” says Liszka. They also asked the full-time employees to pass along news of the committee’s activities to their part-time people.

“We started our own incentive program for everyone,” Pruitt explains, “including four quarterly gift-card drawings. Employees qualify to have their name in the drawings each time they participate in an employee engagement event. They also earn 10 points toward a separate safety incentive program our park district has.”

The committee got creative and had fun choosing events to sponsor. “We had a walking activity for National Wear Red Day to promote heart health,” Pruitt says, “and we just celebrated Random Act of Kindness Day where we gave staff little mystery bags with instructions for a task to complete for someone else. Some bags had gift cards in them to take someone out to lunch or treat a coworker to a cup of coffee, while others were simpler, just asking the recipient to give someone a compliment or write a thank-you note.”

And employees are loving the new engagement program! “The Random Act of Kindness event was a great idea,” says T.J. Banks, Maintenance Foreman.

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“It allowed us to do something nice for each other that wasn’t work related.”

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“My favorite part has been the buy-in from all our staff and the leadership Christy and Cayla have shown,” says Pawlowski. That “buy-in” has been extraordinary, with nearly 100-percent, full-time staff participation in every event the committee has sponsored.

Sometimes those events coincide with PATH activities, as happened during the US National Parks Challenge. “We created two agency teams, and that went really well,” recalls Pruitt. “All our full-time staff joined in — and really got competitive with each other!”

These two Motivators aren’t done yet; they have many more fun plans in the works! “We’re looking to have a mix of smaller events along with one big event for all full-time and part-time employees each quarter, like when we celebrated Employee Appreciation Day with a pizza party for first quarter,” Liszka explains.

The women are especially excited for May and Mental Health Awareness month. “We’re going to have different Mindful Monday activities every week,” says Pruitt. “One Monday will be meditation, another a yoga demonstration and others will focus on a gratitude journal and different grounding techniques. And in June, we plan to provide lunch for everybody at one of our bigger parks that has a walking trail — so everyone can take a walk after lunch.”

Since both Liszka and Pruitt are new to the employee engagement business, they assess the activities they host each month to determine what went well and what they can improve when planning their next event — events that all Winfield Park District employees seem to love!