Case Studies
Organisation Profile
- Over 800 employees
- Wellbeing strategy sat with HR
- Health and Safety team had separate goals.
Business Problem
- Staff complaints about high workload
- Signs of burnout in staff through anecdotal evidence. No specific data on stress and burnout.
- High workload endemic in their industry. No immediate possibility to eliminate this hazard.
- Lack of data regarding psychosocial hazards (aspects of work that are the root causes of burnout and stress)
Investigation
Heart and Brain Works (HBW) conducted a psychosocial hazards and burnout audit. Data revealed:
- Work pace bigger problem than workload
- Unclear communication gave rise to the perceptions that tasks were urgent when in fact they were not
- Meetings took up great portions of work time not allowing for task completion within regular working hours, which led to overtime
- Staff felt obliged to attend meetings because they feared they would get the necessary information otherwise
- Almost 40% of staff was at severe or very severe risk of burnout. This is a very high percentage.
Solutions
- Established a working group composed of HR, WHS, Inclusion and Diversity
- Re-drafted Wellbeing Strategy
- HBW training with leaders on staffing resources in teams and project capability analysis
- Organisation-wide bespoke training by HBW on communication and the implementation of the new wellbeing strategy
- Delivery of The Wellbeing Protocol for the whole staff
Results
6-month follow up audit revealed:
- 18% reduction in severe and very severe burnout risk scores
- 15% reduction in severe job demands scores
- 20% improvement in job resources such as support from supervisor, support from colleagues and role clarity
- Qualitative data – positive appraisal from staff and increase in engagement
Business Problem
- Miscommunication between one supervisor and staff
- Instances of disrespectful behaviours
- Low productivity and underperformance in some staff
- Not working as a cohesive team
Investigation
Heart and Brain Works (HBW) conducted a psychosocial hazards audit. Data revealed:
- High incivility (instances of perceived disrespect with low intensity and ambiguous intent)
- Low role clarity
Solutions
- Creation of wellbeing strategy: purpose, framework, action areas
- Creation of working group: HR manager, business owners, staff representatives
- HBW bespoke training on “Culture of Civility, Respect and High Performance”
- 1:1 coaching with problem supervisor
Results
6-month follow up audit revealed:
- 60% improvement in role clarity
- 72% reduction in incivility
- Qualitative data – positive appraisal from staff and increase in job satisfaction and productivity