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Tackling team effectiveness and wellbeing has never been so important. If 2020 taught us anything, it was that having support in place for staff needs to be front and centre of any company culture.  Know You More are taking on the challenging subject of wellbeing in the workplace.

As a society, we’re talking more openly than ever before about the mental health challenges we face. While more efforts need to be made, there are certainly far more examples of people talking openly about their psychological well-being. That’s universally positive.  But, in some workplaces the resources to support it aren't available or prioritised.

If the psychological wellbeing of staff is left unmonitored it can lead to stress and absenteeism. This has the knock on effect of impacting morale, reducing productivity and in many cases can cost the business and the wider economy significant sums. 

There is absolutely more that organisations can do to support the health and wellbeing of their employees. We’d like to share our perspective with a case study based on real data.

Wellbeing in the Workplace  - Case Study

A new team of young professionals has been brought together to breathe new life into the marketing department at AA Engineering. CEO John is looking for a fresh, innovative approach on how they promote the business and wants to do so as quickly and efficiently as possible.

John has charged AA Engineering’s Marketing Director, Amanda Walters with the task of developing this new team.

Amanda’s Problem

Being a new team, Amanda found that they were having challenges in delivering and implementing change. They didn’t have the wider respect of stakeholders. Their inability to set boundaries meant they found themselves saying ‘Yes’ and jumping through hoops to make progress.

At this early stage in their careers, their focus was still on themselves and not on the collective group. The team’s productivity and effectiveness were not what the business had anticipated, and little progress was being made on some of the key marketing projects.

Amanda was feeling the pressure.

As the team was not functioning collectively and were unable to influence, there was a concern that some team members may begin to suffer from burnout. Morale was low and Amanda could see the frustration. It’s not surprising that sickness rates within the team had risen. Worse still, Ashley, one of the most talented members, was considering leaving in pursuit of a better role.

As for Amanda, she felt most of her time was taken by managing and supporting the team. She hardly ever had the opportunity to develop strategy or follow through on projects.

The Know You More Solution

The Know You More (KYM) coaching programme was developed to support team development. For AA Engineering, this meant that each member of the Marketing team accessed 3 individual coaching sessions and 2 team coaching sessions. 

Having spent time with Amanda, it was agreed that the team programme would focus on developing collective leadership and stakeholder influence.

The Know You More coach matching process meant that we could identify the best team coach from our pool of 150 within our coaching community. In this case, the ideal coaches were those with expertise in supporting high-performance teams

The Team Sessions

  • Know who – Collaborative skills, and collective reflection skills
  • Know what – Teamwork and collective leadership
  • Individual Coaching Sessions

Each of the 8 team members was matched with an individual Know You More coach, against criteria based on their profile. The coaches and marketing team members established clear goals for the coaching process. These were stored in the Know You More platform for measurement and monitoring throughout the programme.

While the topics discussed during the coaching sessions were personalised to each team members specific needs, they also discussed how to embed and sustain the group coaching session content. 

Additionally, there were a number of themes emerging from the individual sessions which were consistent across the team and they set about addressing those.

Developing resilience and ‘bounce-back’ started with personal reflection and self-awareness about reactions under pressure and individual stress responses. The coaches helped their coachees to focus on strategies for developing resilience and how to see these in others. 

Self-awareness and mindfulness was explored in group coaching sessions around teamwork and collaboration and provided the opportunity for the coachees to consider their intent and impact on wider stakeholders. Coaching supported them to make conscious changes in behaviour and mindful choices that benefit themselves and the organisation.

The benefits

Wellbeing coaching provided an increased confidence in individuals’ ability to manage their own wellbeing in the workplace and to support leaders in managing wider team wellbeing. The results were tangible and participants reported an overall sense of improved wellness in and out of the workplace.  There was greater engagement with existing wellbeing provision from all staff and the team were visibly happier, more resilient, fully engaged and positive. With a better understanding of focus and team performance, the team were able to creatively address the marketing problems they faced.

What this meant for Amanda & John

Amanda was in control of a team with clear goals, a greater sense of empowerment and who worked collaboratively. She was able to concentrate on strategy and project delivery and this led to significant cost savings and an increase in new business. 

Encouraging good health and wellbeing with employee coaching can be a core factor in improving employee engagement and organisational performance.