Assignment Task

Case Study: Improving Staff Wellbeing

You are a newly-hired manager who reports directly to the Director of ‘People and Culture’, in a not-for-profit organization that provides community services – including residential aged care facilities, disability support services, and counseling and mediation services.

In this case study, the COVID-19 crisis is over, for now. There has been a high uptake of a vaccine, and a range of somewhat effective treatments, although the elderly and those with chronic conditions are still most vulnerable. For most of the population, things are just starting to settle down again to a kind of ‘normality’. Luckily your organization was able to avoid an outbreak in its facilities. You are still new to the organization, but you have met several employees on-site visits to introduce yourself, and you get the sense that most of them are still feeling anxious and stressed as a result of the recent pandemic.

The Director has just received a report from human resources, showing that sick leave is still unusually high (compared to pre-COVID levels), and staff are feeling disengaged from the organization in the most recent staff engagement survey. She was particularly concerned about the results for the questions: “I feel that the organization cares for me as an employee”, and “I enjoy working here”, where the average response was close to the middle, halfway between “Agree” and “Disagree”.

In response, the director has initiated a policy review on employee mental health and well-being. She has asked you to review the current employee well-being program, which currently has very low levels of participation (only 5% of staff have taken part in one or more of the program’s activities). This program mainly consists of discounted membership with a particular gym franchise, access to confidential workplace counseling services (up to 5 sessions free), an online learning resource on topics such as meditation, mindfulness, and self-compassion, and a few other activities throughout the year such as the 10,000 steps challenge and ride to work’ day). She has asked you to put together a plan to improve employee well-being over the next 12 months (just in time for the next staff engagement survey), including details about how you propose to implement it and evaluate it, and how you will evaluate its implementation (process evaluation).