May 2025

Welcome to the Level Up Newsletter, a resource for all state employees to take advantage of wellness and professional development opportunities.

In this edition:

• Thrive Oklahoma Employee Wellness
• Statewide Learning Services
• Collaboration corner

Thrive Oklahoma Employee Wellness

Personal training and nutrition expert joins the Thrive team

"I’m Ryan Hulcy, a Health and Wellness assistant at Thrive. I have 15 years of experience in personal training and nutrition, plus a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sport sciences.

"Having competed as an NPC Bodybuilder and worked at multiple gyms, I have deepened my commitment to helping others improve their quality of life through fitness and sustainable health practices. I also love baking and cooking, blending my passion for nutrition with creativity in the kitchen. Writing has always been a part of my journey, and I’ve had the chance to author comic books and a cookbook. I’m a relaxed, open-hearted person, always here to support, motivate or simply have a great conversation."

Hearty Solutions: May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month

Dr. Tiffany Brazeal, SSM Dermatology, explains the different types and characteristics of skin cancer, how they appear on your skin, what factors put people at a higher risk for skin cancer and the prevention practices she recommends to her patients.

Thrive explores group health coaching

Thrive may soon offer group health coaching, providing state employees with guided support to improve wellness in a collaborative setting. This program will help participants set and achieve personal health goals while benefiting from shared motivation and accountability. If you're interested, think about which areas you'd like to focus on – whether it’s fitness, nutrition, stress management or another aspect of well-being.

Let Thrive know your preferences by submitting a ServiceNow ticket to request guidance on the areas you need help with!

Paddle to victory at RIVERSPORT OKC!

RIVERSPORT's Dragon Boat League is your chance to train with a dedicated coach, and score unlimited access to select fitness facilities.

• Participate by forming a team of 11-15 members, or choosing to be placed on a team.
• Submit a ServiceNow ticket to Thrive to show interest.
• Learn more.

May toolkit

May is when we celebrate mothers, both traditional and nontraditional, honoring them as mentors. Additionally, May 11-17 is National Women’s Health Week, and in this month’s toolkit, we have a list of self-care activities for women who deserve this much-needed time to refresh and feel empowered. 

Walking Club

Sign up to join the fun and stay tuned for news about group walks and events. 

Statewide Learning Services

May and June courses

SLS offers both free and low-cost continuous learning opportunities to all state employees. 

Workday Learning tip: Learning Transcript

Looking for your Learning Transcript? You can now find it in your Workday@OK worker profile. 

• Once logged into Workday@OK, navigate to your Profile:
  • Select your image in the top right corner.
  • Select View Profile.
• In the menu along the left side of the screen, navigate to Career.
• Within the Career app, select the Learning tab.
• Once in Learning, not-started, in-progress and completed enrollment Workday@OK coursework will be listed.
• You can still find your Learning Transcript in the Learning app as well!  

Currently reading One of the biggest challenges for any individual is learning how to be both productive in what we do AND present in all our relationships. The 5 Gears is a practical tool designed to help achieve this balance. Join our SLS webinar, based on the book "The 5 Gears: How to Be Present and Productive When There is Never Enough Time" by Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram. This session teaches you to shift into the right gear at the right time, enhancing your relational intelligence and influence.

Join us for one of the upcoming offerings:

Highlighted course

LinkedIn Learning highlight:

Developing and Managing Employees in the Age of AI

Course feedback

Multipliers webinar series

Collaboration corner

Employee benefits: Benefits Partner Certification Training

Benefits Partner Certification Training has launched!

We are excited to announce that benefits partners (BPs) can now receive the training necessary to do their jobs more effectively. We recognize that some BPs are already subject matter experts, but we also realize that all BPs will greatly benefit from the additional training the certification program offers.

The training includes on-demand, self-paced courses where BPs can review the foundations of benefits and the processes related to benefits in Workday@OK, and explore tools to help communicate complex benefit information. The training also contains links and downloadable resources for your convenience.

All BPs are required to complete the training annually. The training will be listed in the Learning module of Workday@OK.

State employee discounts: Oklahoma Awesome Adventures and Endangered Ark Foundation

Smishing text scam escalates in Oklahoma Be wary! Do not open links from unknown sources or give out personal information. The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is advising consumers to be wary of the pervasive smishing text scam plaguing Oklahomans this week. Scam text messages have been targeting tolling authorities nationwide for the past year. Oklahomans are seeing a significant increase in these texts after bad actors in other countries have mimicked OTA's PIKEPASS website and messaging. "We want to be clear that the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is in no way affiliated with these fake text messages or emails claiming that people owe unpaid tolls," said Executive Director Joe Echelle. "OTA is actively combatting these false websites by reporting them to the authorities and working with domain registrars to have them taken down as quickly as possible. The reality is that this scam will remain active as long as unsuspecting consumers are making unnecessary payments to these thieves. We are asking the public to please only pay tolls through approved and secure methods." As of noon Wednesday, OTA's IT security personnel – working in conjunction with other tolling authorities nationally – had identified 264 scam websites, and 146 websites had been deactivated in the past week, Echelle said. "The problem is that we're seeing multiple fake websites go up at a time, including 100 new websites in the past 24 hours alone, to continue this egregious targeting of consumers," he said. "We want to reassure turnpike customers that their personal information remains secure with OTA as these false text messages are not related to actual turnpike travel." Some of the smishing texts claim consequences that are not possible. For example, the OTA cannot impound vehicles or garnish wages. WHAT CAN YOU DO? There are some easy ways to identify these texts as fraudulent: They come from an email or an international number. The message requires an opt-in to complete the requested action. The message is unexpected or includes: Spelling errors, poor grammar or odd sentence structure. An extreme sense of urgency. Links that are not verifiable or not from trusted sources. Unexpected attachments. OTA has partnered with the Federal Trade Commission, which has provided an Oklahoma-specific reporting link. Those who receive a fraudulent text are encouraged to report it to the FTC or to the FBI’s IC3.  The public is encouraged to report and delete any such text messages; they may also forward them to the FTC's text line at 7726. Those with questions or concerns about their PIKEPASS account may check their accounts online at pikepass.com. PlatePay customers may look up any tolls owed by entering their license plate number at platepay.com. For more information about how to identify scam texts and emails, go to pikepass.com/updates.