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Everyone, Everyday: The Culture at UMass Memorial Health
At UMass Memorial Health facilities, caregivers greet patients and visitors with smiles, and posters of friendly faces extend that welcome. These posters and installations do more than brighten the walls — they tell the stories of our dedicated caregivers.
Health care is a team effort: Everyone is a caregiver
Some posters include the UMass Memorial credo: “Everyone in the UMass Memorial Health system has something in common: We are all caregivers. Working together. Supporting one another. Contributing to our communities. And improving the health and lives of the people who count on us … every day.”
UMass Memorial’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Tod Wiesman, said the notion that “everyone is a caregiver” comes from the research done with caregivers leading up to the launch of the 2016 Everyone, Everyday campaign, a partnership between Human Resources, Marketing and Communications, and clinical departments.
“Before that campaign, our organization was experiencing financial challenges, and relationships between our unions and management teams were strained,” said Tod. “Caregiver engagement survey results revealed a very clear message: caregivers wanted to feel heard, have their ideas considered, and participate in acting on them.”
Aligning the workforce as one system, toward one common goal
Employee engagement survey results laid the foundation for an internal campaign to recognize employees and their contributions. “The timing of this campaign coincided with our President and CEO, Eric Dickson’s newly developed long-term vision, or ‘True North’ goal: to become the best place to give care and the best place to get care,” said Victoria McCandless, Chief of Staff and System CEO Communications Officer. “Foundational to this vision was our people, and the notion that it would take everyone, every day to help us get there.”
As the campaign continued, the Everyone, Everyday message, along with a strong focus on recognizing and supporting employees, became a natural part of UMass Memorial’s workplace culture.
In May 2025, the latest phase of the campaign featured 25 caregivers in various roles and locations across the health system — through a short video, posterboard installations, and other communications. Leading these efforts was Johanna Webb, Director of Marketing at UMass Memorial Health, who said, “We had two specific goals: (1) to remind our workforce what it means to be a caregiver at UMass Memorial Health; and (2) to remember that we are all connected as one integrated health care system working toward a common goal: to improve the health and lives of the communities we serve.”
A video series, Reel Caregivers, shared internally and externally since May, continues to highlight why UMass Memorial Health caregivers love what they do and the difference they make for patients, clients, and each other.
“It’s so heartwarming to get to know our caregivers through these stories, learn what led them here, and what keeps them coming to work every day,” said Johanna. “It reminds us all why we work in health care.”
Elevating and empowering employees through recognition
Since the launch of the Everyone, Everyday campaign nearly 10 years ago, the workplace culture at UMass Memorial Health has evolved significantly. Every phase of the Everyone, Everyday campaign has included an important recognition component. Any caregiver can recognize a colleague, and managers can recognize their team members, through an Everyone, Everyday award.
“We value the power of recognition and its impact on retention, on our caregiver experience, and in turn, on our patients’ experience,” said Tod. “Everyone, Everyday is more than a campaign — it’s who we are, and what we stand for. We are all caregivers.” •
