Workplace supports
Volunteer Opportunities Learn More
We are committed to creating and linking McMaster employees to meaningful volunteer opportunities which allows for personal and professional development, provides networking and collaborative opportunities across the University, mobilizes and supports community-driven change, and builds partnerships with the greater community.
Employee Networks Learn more
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Affinity Groups are typically based on shared interests and identities and foster a sense of community and belonging for members within an organization.
McMaster Children's Party Learn more
The McMaster Children’s Party is an annual event that invites employees and retirees to bring their families to campus for a seasonal celebration. Designed to create meaningful connections between work and home life, the event features festive activities, crafts, and treats in a welcoming and inclusive environment.
Resources
more information coming soon
Evidence that informs social well-being in the workplace
The following literature explores social well-being in the workplace context.
Dutton, Workman, and Hardin examined how compassion has been studied in organizations and how it can be embedded at an individual, relational, and systemic level. While suffering within an organization can be pervasive and entail financial, emotional, and physical costs, compassion at work can yield individual benefits in terms of better physical and mental health, decreased symptoms, and the promotion of healing from ill health.
Waters (2012) conducted a study assessing gratitude practices at an individual and organizational level in a workplace setting. The evidence shows that organizational gratitude interventions and embedding gratitude practices into the organizational culture could enhance and sustain job satisfaction.
High-quality connections (HQCs) are short-lived dyadic relationships that the people involved perceive to be positive because of the uplifting sensation that a genuine interest can spark in them (Stephens, Heaphy, & Dutton, 2012).
The underlying rationale is that relationships contribute to individual growth, with social support and trust being key in the development of organizational features such as cooperation and trustworthiness.
HQCs have been correlated with several organizational and individual outcomes, including performance and health (Stephens et al., 2012). Interestingly, the interaction between cognitive, emotional, and behavioral individual mechanisms and the organizational practices can amplify or diminish outcome