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Enhancing Mental Wellbeing at Organisation W, a FTSE 250 Global Recruitment Firm
August 28, 2024

In 2022, a leading global recruitment and talent partner, with nearly 2000 recruitment experts operating in 15 countries, embarked on an ambitious journey to enhance the mental wellbeing of its employees.

Organisation W’s People Strategy centred around building trust, acting with care, and aiming high, and identified mental wellbeing as a crucial enabler for success. To support this strategy, they launched a new initiative, focusing on creating the right environment and building capability within their workforce.

They engaged us to assess their workforce and provide a comprehensive plan to support them.

Background and Objectives

Organisation W recognised that building mental wellbeing capability was essential to fostering a supportive and high-performing environment.

They wanted to provide a well-rounded approach to enhance the skills that support mental wellbeing and maintain high resilience in their employees who were working in various levels of management responsibility and across different global teams.

Having engaged us, between March 2022 and June 2022, they completed the Pilot phase, aimed at enhancing the mental wellbeing of their line managers and employees. The specific aims of the pilot were to:

  1. Evaluate the effectiveness of the Mind Strength for Professionals Programme and the Mind Strength for Leaders Programme for their organisational context.
  2. Determine whether the programmes could be tailored to better suit the working environment of the organisation.
  3. Use insights gathered from participants to help shape the future mental wellbeing strategy.

Solution

To address their objectives, Organisation W initially decided to run a pilot of the Mind Strength for Professionals programme and the Mind Strength for Leaders programme.

The former included 85 participants from across the global network, while the latter involved 79 line managers, exceeding the initial target of 50 participants. Participants were based in 8 countries and more than 15 different locations.

  1. Mind Strength for Professionals

The Mind Strength for Professionals programme is a 7-week programme through which participants gain a complete psychology-based toolkit of practical tools and techniques that include stronger cognitive skills, the ability to remain calm and effective under pressure, enhanced collaborative relationships, and the ability to be highly resilient in the face of challenge and stress. It was delivered through a combination of self-led online skills-build learning and group coaching sessions.

  • Mind Strength for Team Leaders programme

Mind Strength for Leaders is a programme designed to enhance leadership skills through psychology-based tools and coaching, enabling managers to support their teams’ resilience.

This programme targets senior management and team leaders, offering support to implement positive behavioural changes, recognise personal and professional challenges, navigate difficult conversations, and create a supportive workplace culture.

It consists of three steps: an hour of online theoretical learning, a four hour interactive workshop with professional actors, and a follow-up virtual workshop for skills consolidation. Benefits include improved team engagement, productivity, and retention, contributing to overall business resilience.

Implementation

The implementation process involved the following steps:

  1. Delivering to the Pilot Cohort

In 2022, the pilot cohort undertook the Mind Strength for Professionals programme. The training included psychometric tools and self-assessment to measure employees’ mental wellbeing, resilience, and perceived stress levels. Each week, participants acquired knowledge and skills through the flexible self-led online learning platform, and attended one group coaching session. Four coaching sessions per week were offered to allow participants to self-select their preferred time. Group sizes were capped at 12.  

The line managers in the pilot cohort completed the Mind Strength for Leaders programme. Following completion of three short, online skill training modules, they attended a four-hour workshop in groups of 8, with 6 role play actors, covering 6 different scenarios that reflected the typical challenges they experience as managers.

Approximately six weeks later, they reconvened in their learning groups for a further 1.5 hour consolidation workshop to embed the skills learnt.

  • Scaling Up

Following the successful pilot, the organisation decided to scale up for their employees in 2023.

Based on the experience and feedback of the pilot Mind Strength for Professional programme, this was implemented as two closed groups of 8 participants in each group (instead of allowing participants to change between four group sessions for each programme stage). As result of this change in format, the completion rate increased to 94% and group cohesion among the participants was very strong and supportive.

Due to the high demand for the Mind Strength for Leaders programme in the pilot, Organisation W implemented 24 workshops plus follow up workshops over five months in 2023. All workshops were capped at 8 participants per group to allow full participation, and were conducted virtually to be accessible to participants based in each continent.

  • Feedback and Evaluation Data Collection

Participants’ feedback was gathered through online surveys and verbal feedback to understand the impact of the programme on their mental wellbeing, performance and their ability to support others.

Pre- and post-programme psychometric assessments provided information on change in resilience, stress and mental wellbeing.

Results and Evaluation

Participation and Reach

85 professionals and 79 line managers participated in the Pilot programmes.

16 professionals and 146 line managers participated in the Scaling Up programmes.

“Having the platform to express my thoughts and feelings is very helpful.”

“Good advice how to proceed and which tools to use next.”

“It was great to openly discuss and listen to everyone else’s experiences. and attitudes towards their mental wellbeing… without fear of prejudice.”

“Very surprised of the interaction and amazing atmosphere!”

Mind Strength for Professionals – Quantitative Measures

Psychometric assessments revealed measurable improvements in participants’ resilience, perceived stress and mental wellbeing:

The percentage of participants that improved in each measure over the course of the programme is:

The significant improvements on these evidence-based measures demonstrates how effective the Mind Strength programme has been for this client.

75% reported their Productivity had improved since completing the programme.

100% said they were happier.

37% agreed they were more likely to stay at Organisation W since completing the programme, with a further 37% were neither more or less likely.

Mind Strength for Professionals – Qualitative Measures

Participants highlighted the relevance and applicability of the programme content to their daily work environment. They appreciated the practical tools and strategies provided for managing stress and building resilience.

Participants reported more mental strength and personal resilience:

  • They had skills and resources to support their mental wellbeing,
  • They felt they had more control of their emotions,
  • They felt more confident and better connected with other,
  • They described stronger and more positive thinking,
  • They had much more self-awareness; they can identify more accurately how they’re feeling and when it would be useful to use their resilience techniques.

They reported changes in their behaviours and mindsets, and cited examples of changes in their thinking processes, positivity, feeling of purpose, and having techniques for maintaining better mental wellbeing.

“I am in a really good place both inside and outside of work. I wanted to work on my resilience and I feel that I am now able to look at life through a positive lens, things have just got better and better.”

“Very good program that helps me bring a lot of good into my life and helps me stay away from my natural negativity. I would wish for everyone to take part it in!”

“It was very positive to receive actual tools and strategies that we can use to get out of thought traps. Thank you for this!”

“The program is definitely helping me, both on the personal and professional sides of my life.”

“Great information and helped me a lot this programme, has been life-changing for me.”

From the participants’ perspective,the programmes fostered a greater sense of community and support among colleagues, leading to improved team dynamics and trust.

Mind Strength for Leaders – Outcomes

Participants’ knowledge and skills in how to support better mental wellbeing improved following the programme and rated this as good or outstanding at the end.

Participants felt much more confident in their ability to support others’ mental wellbeing at the end of the programme, with 90% rating themselves as very or extremely confident in holding conversations about mental wellbeing with their team.

They reported learning skills such as active listening and asking open questions, and understood how to be more proactive. Evidence of change:

Nearly 80% of participants stated that their knowledge and skills in how to support better mental wellbeing had improved.

Nearly 70% of participants felt more confident in their ability to support others’ mental wellbeing.

At the start of the programme 55% of line managers felt their existing skill and knowledge in holding a mental wellbeing conversation was good or outstanding. This increased to 95% at the end of the programme.

85% would recommend the programme to colleagues.

Overall Effectiveness of the Programmes

The Mind Strength programmes were instrumental in demonstrating the value of investing in mental wellbeing initiatives. Organisation W saw tangible benefits in terms of improved employee resilience and stress management. Participants reported feeling more equipped to handle mental health challenges and support their peers.

Participants described the difference the programmes made for them:

“I am getting stronger mentally – coping with stresses better. Taking time for myself helps me recharge and refocus. Asking for help when needed makes life so much easier than trying to pretend I can do it all.”

“This programme has helped me in many ways in my personal life and also my work life. I am able to manage my workload and understand the benefits of having regular breaks and boundaries which allows me to be more productive. It has also shown me different ways to reaction to and communicate my feelings.”

“I really appreciated some of the tools we learned during the course, and I feel they are practical and add value to our day-to-day. If your mental health is good, all other aspects of your life will be better balanced.”      

“The program made me realize that I should not let my thoughts impact my mood/ behavior, which can result in a lower productivity. I have the feeling that I better control my thoughts/behavior as the program really gave me good insights/ strategies to deal with things.”

“In a positive way, I’ve learned to control what I can and try not to let the rest impact me too deeply. I can’t control everything and trying to control the uncontrollable ultimately leads to disappointment.”

Conclusion

The successful implementations of the Mind Strength for Professionals and the Mind Strength for Leaders programmes marked a significant step in enhancing the mental wellbeing capability within Organisation W. By prioritising mental wellbeing, Organisation W has created an environment where employees can thrive, ultimately driving the organisation’s success.

This case study underscores the importance of a well-structured mental wellbeing strategy in building a supportive and high performing workforce. The organisation’s commitment to mental wellbeing and resilience will continue to play a pivotal role in its ongoing success.