Umbrella partnered with a specific business unit operating in a fierce market with significant adversity for the employees, their clients and the industry.
The goal of the initiative was to support individuals and teams to increase resilience and manage stress successfully at home and work.
Following a detailed assessment of BNZ’s needs and objectives, Umbrella provided a full day’s resilience training for each team, in geographical teams, 12 weeks of follow-up emails to prompt practice of skills and access to resilience e-learning.
BNZ conducted an impact study of the programme, including the use of psychometric assessments pre-training, at 5 and 12 weeks following training and concluding with a survey to ask for participant feedback on the effectiveness of the programme.
Immediate impact:
- 97% agree or strongly agree that the programme is important to my job and career success
- 94% agree or strongly agree that the programme is relevant to my current work
- 91% agree or strongly agree that the programme increased their skill level
- 91% agree or strongly agree recommending the workshop to others
- 86% agree or strongly agree intend to apply their learning back in the workplace
Impact at 4 months following training:
Surveyed participants said the programme had influenced:
- Increased job satisfaction (39%)
- Customer satisfaction (16%)
- Improved communications (55%)
- Employee satisfaction (51%)
- Team work (43%)
In addition to participants’ feedback the impact study included an assessment using three empirically validated psychometric measures.
- Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). This scale measures participants’ perceptions of their ability to cope and manage stressful situations, both at work and life generally.
- Focus and Concentration Measure (Adapted from: Baer et al, 2006). This measures participants’ experience of being able to focus in the moment, being fully present for what they are doing and not getting distracted when performing tasks.
- Resilience at Work Scale (Winwood & McEwen, 2011). This measures 7 aspects of workplace resilience including work engagement, sleep, stress recovery and physical health.
Results:
Overall BNZ’s assessment results were positive. There were statistically significant improvements on all measures at both time points post training. Compared to pre-training, participants reported that they were less stressed, had greater focus and concentration, and were more resilient at work.
The results were consistent for both follow-up periods, suggesting that immediate post training improvements were sustained into subsequent months.