Work and Well Being

Leading Software Company
Imperial College London
County Library Service
Call Centre

Leading Software Company

The challenge

This organisation was a leading international software corporation with headquarters in the US that employed over 50,000 people worldwide. Attracting and retaining high performing people who were spread across eight different international locations, was critical to the success of this large team. Cracks in the team’s resilience were beginning to show as evidenced by the company-wide staff satisfaction poll. The challenge therefore was to perform a deeper dive with this team to determine the main drivers of effective performance.

The objective

Work and Well-Being Ltd was tasked with measuring the well-being of this large international team with a specific brief to establish how people’s work impaired their overall work experience.

Results

Using Work and Well-Being’s assessment process, 10 distinct components of well-being were established. Areas for improvement mostly related to organisational uncertainty and the challenges of working across different time zones. The analyses challenged and, in some cases, reversed management assumptions.

Commercial benefits

The action-based results highlighted seven new areas that had not been previously tracked by conventional methods. These included the impact of organisational change and specific effects on people’s psychological and physical health. Using the findings, the management team was able to prioritise changes which were central to team members and their performance.

“This approach to evaluating team effectiveness was new to our way of working. Some of the key findings were unexpected and underscored the value of this type of evaluation which puts the individuals’ own needs and experiences at the centre.”
Senior Director, Global Marketing Team

Imperial College London

The challenge

Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a worldwide reputation for excellence in teaching and research. With a population of some 2,500 PhD students, Imperial was keen to investigate how their role as researchers impacted on their overall well-being. In particular, Imperial wanted to establish the specific drivers of a positive doctorate experience. Being a leading research university, Imperial was attracted to the science-based methods practiced by Work and Well-Being Ltd.

The objective

Work and Well-Being Ltd was tasked with establishing the main ways in which studying for a PhD at Imperial affected students’ well-being and their experience of working towards their degree generally.

Results

Using Work and Well-Being’s assessment process, seven distinct components of PhD well-being were established. These highlighted new areas which had not been quantified previously. As well as establishing the key predictors of a positive PhD experience at Imperial, the findings were also able to show significant differences between the needs of students at different stages of study and different departments. Differences between genders were also evident.

Commercial benefits

These findings presented a new perspective on the PhD population at Imperial. For the first time, the university had an evidence-based overview of what was perceived to be most important and concerning to this group. This has informed Imperial on the best ways to better support PhD students in the future. The well-being survey was welcomed by Imperial’s staff as a way of demonstrating commitment to enhancing the research student experience – particularly crucial as universities face increasing global competition to recruit and keep the best.

“The Graduate Schools really hit the nail on the head with their PhD Wellbeing Survey. I could identify nearly every question as something I had experienced, seen or heard about and it will be a tremendously useful project for improving the experience of postgraduate researchers.”
Student Union President, Imperial College London

“The results have been very well received. Dissemination throughout the College has encouraged more open communication of difficulties, enhancing our ability to support our research students.”
Elaine Walsh, Senior Lecturer, Graduate School, Imperial College London.

County Library Service

The challenge

The organisation was one of the UK’s largest county-based library operations employing some 800 people. The majority of these were deployed in front-line services. The service had recently undergone a major restructure with more organisational change planned. Engagement levels were low and employee absence was high. While the service took part in a general staff survey, the questions were not sufficiently specific to capture the real issues of library workers. The challenge therefore was to develop an assessment tailored for this workforce which would establish those elements of library work that most impaired well-being, commitment and attendance.

The objective

Work and Well-Being Ltd was tasked with systematically evaluating how the work of library employees impacted on their health and wellness which would support the organisation’s long term HR strategy and plan.

Results

The findings showed that the work-related well-being of library employees comprised nine different dimensions. Of these, the impact of organisational change on people’s health and wellness was shown to be most detrimental. Those who had been with the service for over 10 years were particularly affected.

Commercial benefits

For the first time, this library service was able to quantify what it was about working the organisation that was most harmful to people’s well-being. The findings provided a clear agenda for its workforce strategy which could now be shaped according to factors such as age, tenure and location.

“The process was quick and easy to do. Being able to quantify how library work affects our
people has been very helpful. In particular, this work has highlighted areas that we were unaware of or have been unable to evaluate until now. It is our intention to carry out another assessment next year.”
Nicola Horsey, Assistant Director – Libraries and Information Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs Hampshire County Council

Call Centre

The challenge

This operation comprised 33 sites and 2,500 staff deployed in call centre roles. 40% attrition and 18% absence rates were already costing the organisation £8m annually. The real losses were considerably more. While the management team agreed that this was a priority issue, they disagreed on how best to tackle it.

The objective

Work and Well-Being Ltd was tasked with measuring the well-being of call centre employees and identify the drivers of sickness absence and intentions to quit so that senior management could make informed decisions on improvements.

Results

Using Work and Well-Being’s scientifically proven process, eight distinct components of call centre well-being were established. Impact of call centre work on social well-being, physical health and built environment needs were shown to be key predictors of absence and attrition. Further analysis signified that the shift management system was a key factor in these outcomes.

Commercial benefits

For the first time, the organisation was able to understand how well-being linked to hard performance outcomes and enabled it to prioritise and shape workforce initiatives that would realise most benefit commercially. Early indications suggest that absence and attrition are down by some 10% – an annual saving of some £800k. An assessment on progress against baseline data is expected later in the year.

“The output has delivered great value to us. Although we had a staff survey, the questions were generic and did not address the work issues specific to call centres. Work and Well-Being’s work identified, quantified and ranked the main problems associated with call centres for our front line staff. This has enabled us to develop a clear evidence-base performance strategy which is informing a large scale strategic work stream to make our national organization a better place to work. The analyses revealed some surprise findings which have been particularly valuable. As far as I am aware this is a unique approach. I would have no hesitation in recommending it.”
Richard Winter, Regional Director, National Call Centre Operation