Smile – a case in point

Problem:

Smile employs a Chief Executive and three other staff. Additional roles (such as book-keeping, IT support and social media management) are contracted on a sessional basis. Mediations are conducted in pairs by qualified mediators, acting in non-paid or pro bono capacities.

In response to CoVID-19 pandemic, Smile introduced a range of changes to the ways the service could be operated and delivered:

working from home for all staff members and no attendance at the office
the provision of mediations and a new ‘listening service’ using telephone and video-conferencing, rather than in-person meetings
on-line training courses and training for mediatorsStaff, volunteers and indeed members of the public successfully adapted to the new working arrangements for delivering mediations and training. However, the Chief Executive became aware of the pressure on staff arising from the increase in the number of referrals, limitations associated with IT equipment and systems, personal and family impacts associated with requirements to work from home plus ‘home-schooling’. Given that these arrangements were likely to continue for the foreseeable future, the CEO considered it important to ensure that the needs of staff could be addressed. The Chief Executive approached CD Psychology to review staff wellbeing and to offer recommendations.As an organisation having an ethos in acknowledging the health and wellbeing of parties in the mediation process, the Chief Executive was conscious that the health and wellbeing of staff alongside maintaining business financial viability, was key to continuation of the business in the longer term.Whilst attention to workforce health and wellbeing is relevant at any time, many organisations have acknowledged that mental wellbeing and resilience were really brought sharply into focus during 2020 to 2022 because of significant personal, social and cultural impacts arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

Solution:

The Chief Executive of Smile wished to adopt a new approach for addressing the wellbeing of staff and proposed that CD Psychology lead a wellbeing review using the ‘DECAMA system’. Further, that the wellbeing review could be conducted with Smile as a pilot case study.

CD Psychology and the Chief Executive discussed how DECAMA flow could be adapted to suit the requirements of a small business and agreed that the project would be conducted in three phases, repeated every six months.
Each phase would comprise:

Step 1 – measuring individual staff wellbeing using a tool called the DECAMA Wellbeing Wheel
Step 2 – improving wellbeing by talking with staff, consulting with the Chief Executive about changes and the impact of changes in working practices that she or staff had initiated

Step 3 – monitoring wellbeing by repeating the Wheel measures and feeding back the results to the Chief Executive

In addition to improving how people feel (wellbeing), DECAMA flow was designed to have an impact on how well people work together. This in turn would yield improvements in work undertaken (productivity) and ultimately increasing revenue and business profit.

Smile’s Chief Executive agreed to provide business data to CD Psychology, for example profit/loss spanning the timeframe for the project; performance data such as number of requests services plus staff sickness absence.

Phase 1

1. All members of the staff team received information about the project and agreed to taking part. Each completed their personal Wellbeing Wheel. The Wheel provides a visual impression of individual wellbeing; that is how the person views their circumstances and relates to people and the world around them. This approach is not an assessment of signs and symptoms of poor mental wellbeing.

2. All staff then took part in 1:1 consultation with CD Psychology. The consultation gave each member of staff an opportunity to talk about their individual circumstances. They could begin to identify what was going well for them at the time, what they were having difficulties with and whether anything could change. Each member of staff reflecting on their own circumstances (with assistance from CD Psychology) created the FIRST ‘feedback loop’, as shown in the diagram below.

3. CD Psychology analysed comments, concerns and suggestions made by all members of staff about their personal and working circumstances. The material provided by staff was further analysed in relation to problems and concerns previously identified by the Chief Executive. Subsequently, CD Psychology generated guidelines that would support and improve individual staff wellbeing. With the agreement of all staff, a summary (excluding personal detail) was discussed with the Chief Executive.

This consultation, together with the construction of guidelines for attending to staff wellbeing, comprised the second ‘feedback’ loop

Phase 2

Staff completed individual Wellbeing Wheels (this time without having 1:1 consultation with CD Psychology)
CD Psychology analysed material provided by staff and prepared a summary for the ChiefExecutive.
Consultation with the Chief Executive and review of implementation of guidelines completed Phase #2.
At the request of the Chief Executive, a presentation was prepared for the Board ofTrustees. The Trust Board concluded that staff wellbeing should become a ‘standing Agenda item’, to be considered alongside other ‘business performance’ facts and figures, such as number of referrals received and cashflow forecast

Phase 3

Steps 4-6 above were repeated, with a report presented to the Board of Trustees.

Project findings:

What results did the project achieve?

What did staff say about completing the Wellbeing Wheel?

It was a way of finding ‘me’ this week
it’s helpful talking about your own situation, saying things out loud
I have a better idea of my circumstances, how important different thigs are to me, what Iam thinking and feeling
I realise that my wellbeing does vary from time to time, even during the day
it helps you reflect, everything has changed so much for everyone
It’s helped me think about my situation and what I can do for myself.Scores for staff have been combined into a single ‘picture’ of wellbeing

Conclusion:

For many people, ‘wellbeing’ is a vague concept and often associated with doing yoga or going for long walks. We may only think about our ‘wellbeing’ or become aware of poor mental wellbeing when something seems to have gone wrong and we feel stressed. If we just keep going and don’t find out what has happened or change anything, stress can lead to more serious difficulties affecting many aspects of day to day living.

The DECAMA Wellbeing System demonstrated:

a) That the Wheel could provide a baseline measure of staff wellbeing
b) That,as a visual tool,the measure was meaningful for staff. TheWheel also offered a means of enabling staff to reflect on their individual circumstances
c) That combining scores across staff was a way of providing a ‘picture’ representing staff wellbeing across the organisation, in a single visual format
d) That by prompting 1:1 consultations with staff and generating extensive ‘rich’ material, this could be used to inform an analysis of issues within the workplace. Some issues had already been identified by the CEO, whilst other matters, identified by staff had not been mentioned to the CEO.
e) That the ‘issues’ and concerns, together with suggestions from all staff helped construct the foundation for a Wellbeing Strategy for the organisation and the identification of a number of specific areas which, if addressed would have benefit for staff wellbeing.
f) Repeated phases of measures (Phase #2 and Phase#3) provided evidence for continuing change. The CEO welcomed feedback reports from CD Psychology, the opportunity to discuss changes in staff and her own behaviour and noticed how
g) That over the span of the project, business performance, as measured b ‘cash in bank’, improved alongside changes in staff wellbeing. The financial status will enable the business to embark on further growth and development over future years.

In the context of work and employment, employees experiencing positive wellbeing are more likely to feel they have productive and meaningful jobs and have low absence rates due to sickness. Employees describe such an environment as a ‘good or great place to work.’

Conversely, people experiencing poor mental wellbeing are likely to be less satisfied in their work role, have greater levels of sickness absence, report difficulties in working relationships with colleagues and managers and describe the working environment as ‘stressful’ or ‘toxic’.

Let's bring about positive change because wellbeing benefits all of us.

Try our beta test version of the Wellbeing Wheel here.

Smile – a case in point

Problem:

Solution:

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Conclusion:

Let's bring about positive change because wellbeing benefits all of us.

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Catherine Dobson is a Chartered Psychologist with over 35 years experience of providing psychological therapy to people with mental health conditions.

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