myHR Archives
myHR: May 4, 2016
Healthy Living One Walk at a Time
Slow and steady – that’s been the key to Kim Peurifoy’s healthy lifestyle.
Peurifoy, manager of Finance and Administration for the School of Arts and Science’s McNeil Business Administration Services, started her healthy lifestyle in January 2014 when she decided on a whim to try out walking to work.
“I had music while I walked, but of course I was out of breath because I was overweight,” says Peurifoy. “But it wasn’t all that bad.”
The following week, she continued walking and also packed her own lunch. That led to food shopping more thoughtfully the following week – first cutting out juices and then buying whole grain bread for her family.
“Every week it was something very small, but every week those small things built on what I was doing,” says Peurifoy.
That first day of walking two years ago started a journey that has her 80 pounds down and still walking at least 3 miles each day. Beforehand, Peurifoy would fixate on the general idea of losing weight, but it did not yield any results. Her advice now is to set short-term goals as a way to stay on track and avoid feeling overwhelmed. With that approach, she has since incorporated running and spinning into her workout routine and added several 5k runs to her list of wellness successes.
Peurifoy’s success is owed to her own dedication, but Penn’s health and wellness programs have helped her along the path.
“When Be in the Know comes around I get really excited because I see progress through the campaign and in what I’m doing,” says Peurifoy.
She had her first biometric screening as part of Be in the Know the fall before making changes to her lifestyle. After getting her screening results, she said, “I knew I needed to make a change, but I really didn’t know how.”
Shortly afterwards, Peurifoy took advantage of Penn’s nutrition counseling benefit and met with a registered dietician on campus. She learned about pairing foods to create healthy snacks to eat throughout the day. The Bonus Points for Be in the Know were just an added perk, she said.
The following fall, her biometric screening numbers had improved. “My job was helping me lose weight!” says Peurifoy.
Part of the journey has been sharing it with others and celebrating the successes. “You stop thinking just about losing weight because you start thinking that you love the way you feel,” Peurifoy says.
Peurifoy’s coworkers at the McNeil Regional Business Office keep each other on track by taking a five-minute break to do a physical activity together and keeping a shared calendar where they list their activity for the day.
Peurifoy keeps track of her personal progress in the same style as her she does her work in finance – by using a spreadsheet with titles, calculations and color coding. Every Thursday since January 2014 Peurifoy has weighed in and recorded the results.
Keeping a log has helped her to visualize the progress. On the hard days, it’s a source of inspiration, she said.
The key to working through any setbacks is recognizing that the changes to her lifestyle over the past two years have become habits, says Peurifoy.
“It’s not all-day-everyday eating healthy, that’s just not reality,” she said. “But you keep going with the new way of thinking about healthy eating choices because this is who you are in your life now.”
Kim first shared her story with the Healthy Penn’s My Moves, My Way campaign. The Healthy Penn Partnership is a comprehensive program for faculty, staff, and students at Penn, focusing on increasing the availability and accessibility of wellness activities across the University. The initiative is the result of a collaborative partnership between the Center for Public Health Initiatives, Penn's Division of Human Resources, Campus Health, and Penn Recreation.
Level up Your Retirement Plan
Most people want to put more of their pay toward retirement savings, but it can be a challenge. Make it easier on yourself by setting a date to level up your retirement planning game. Financial experts recommend that the combined contributions to your retirement add up to at least 12% to 15% of your current income. If you’re not there yet, incremental boosts to your retirement contributions can smooth the way toward reaching your retirement savings goal.
When is the best date to escalate your saving? Your level up day could be a birthday, a wedding anniversary, the day you file your income tax return, or the first day of Penn’s fiscal year. Just pick a date that reminds you to “pay yourself first,” mark it in your calendar, and go for it.
For example, on July 1, 2016, you could increase your retirement savings to match an increase in your pay. Putting another candle on your birthday cake? Put another 1% toward retirement. Even a 1% annual increase in your retirement savings can make a big difference over time, especially at the beginning of your career.
To increase your retirement savings, just log in to Penn’s secure Online Retirement Enrollment System or call the Retirement Call Center at 1-877-736-6738.
Even if you’re already putting 5% of your pay toward Penn’s Matching Plan to get your dollar-for-dollar match, Penn’s Supplemental Plan allows you to contribute as much as you like.
If you’d like more guidance before leveling up, make a free appointment with TIAA or Vanguard, Penn’s investment providers. TIAA and Vanguard offer confidential, professional counseling sessions on campus to help you with your investment choices. You can schedule an appointment online or by telephone at:
TIAA Vanguard
www.tiaa.org/moc www.meetvanguard.com
800-732-8353 800-662-0106 ext. 14500
For detailed information on retirement savings, visit Penn’s Retirement Plans website.
Tools to Tune up Your Work Processes
Think about the processes you follow at work. How smoothly do they run? Are requests completed on time? When the work is done, how satisfied are your customers or stakeholders?
Processes are the engines of a workplace, but not all of them may help your office run like a well-oiled machine. The solution? Register for the American Management Association’s Lean Process Improvement Planning workshop, and get the tools you need to give your processes a tune-up. This two-day AMA workshop runs June 14-15, 9am-5pm, in the Learning & Education training room at 3624 Market Street.
Lean provides a framework to analyze and improve processes in virtually any area, including higher education, research centers, and hospitals. Whether in an office, lab, or clinical setting, lean can help you create a more efficient workflow, reduce mistakes, and improve critical services and processes. The approach weaves continuous improvement into your processes, transforming how you and your team think and work.
Led by AMA’s expert trainer, this workshop will give you a foundation in lean principles and tools. You’ll learn the DMAIC process (define measure, analyze, improve and control) and lean metrics, as well as how to determine which activities add value and how to eliminate those that do not. What you learn will help you see your own processes in a new light and identify simple fixes that can deliver quick solutions and improvements. A highly interactive case study will also let you put your new skills to use as you work to repair a broken process.
Register now for this AMA workshop at Penn. This same program offered directly by AMA costs up to $2,095. At Penn, your department will be charged only $75 when you register.
Healthy Meals: Omelet with Summer Vegetables
This morning staple filled with summer’s best produce works for any meal, breakfast through dinner.
Find the recipe here or send us your healthy recipes and tips.
Did You Know? May 10 Biometric Screenings
You can have your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar checked for free at the Biometric Screening event in Houston Hall on Tuesday, May 10. Make your appointment now! This is the final on-campus Biometric Screening event for the 2015-2016 Be in the Know campaign. Note: If you had a biometric screening last fall when the campaign kicked off, you do not need to have another one.
Penn Volunteering Poll
Public service is at the heart of Penn's mission. It’s no surprise that many faculty and staff chose to go above and beyond by volunteering through organizations such as Penn VIPs.
Let us know about your volunteer efforts. Take this quick online volunteering poll and you'll be entered in a prize drawing.
We'll share the results in a future issue of myHR.