At Kansas Legal Services (KLS), the mission is clear: “We are legal aid in Kansas, providing equal access to justice for the most vulnerable Kansans.” The call center, where Michele Davis is the supervisor, processes more than 100 calls every day. “A lot of people are reaching out to us for help,” she said. “The stories that we hear are heartbreaking. The amount of resources we have don’t scratch the surface of the need that’s out there, so it can be an incredibly stressful environment to work in.”
Davis was on a mission to find something to help her staff through the stress. “You’re hiring people who desperately want to help others. That’s why you hire them. And then you ask them to turn people away,” she said. “It’s difficult to describe how desperate I was to find something to help our staff feel well and feel fulfilled at work despite these challenges.”
Then, she discovered the Working Well Conference––a one-of-a-kind event focused on workplace wellness hosted by the Health & Wellness Coalition of Wichita. The goal is to help employers understand the value of wellness programs and provide the tools necessary to make their programs successful. For the last 10 years, KLS has allowed all call center staff to attend the conference and learn about the benefits of physical activity, the importance of mindfulness practices, tips for better nutrition, and more.
“I cannot stress enough how much it has improved our culture. To the core,” she said. For example, in 2022 they implemented a weekly meditation. The overwhelming feedback Davis received was that everyone was surprised by how much they loved it. After the next year’s conference, they increased to two mindfulness and two physical activity practices every week.
Comparing both years, every agent’s call volume increased: “Even though we were providing more time off the phones, call volume increased,” Davis said. “It blew my mind.” When she shared these statistics with staff, one of her employees said that it didn’t surprise them at all. Immediately after a mindfulness or physical activity practice, they said they could feel their brain working better. “There are real, measurable results that have stemmed from our participation in the Working Well Conference.”
For organizations still on the fence about attending the Working Well Conference, Davis has a clear message: Try it. The cost is minimal ($125 per employee before Feb. 27), and the return is exponential.
“What does any CEO want? What does any director want? Well-trained, mission-aligned employees who feel well and produce results,” she said. “I just can’t fathom how that can be done without wellness practices in the workplace.”
