How to reduce burnout and high turnover with the help of technology

Staying true to core values and company culture

Present in more than a dozen countries, this global oil and gas company prides itself in following a set of values that always put employees first by encouraging innovation and investing in their career growth.

After introducing many internal changes as a response to evolving market conditions, the organization observed a decline in the engagement of employees working both remotely and on-site. For this reason, they started to look for ways to help their staff identify better with the company, show how much their work is appreciated, and make them feel an integral part of the bigger picture.

As all their subsidiaries had already undergone a successful digital transformation, they decided to find a solution in the world of the cloud.

Looking for tools to improve work habits and well-being

Aware of the impact of multiple changes on the team’s performance, the client wanted to get to the bottom of the problem and introduce a proven technology to address the issues.

To do so, they needed third-party recommendations and insights from a technological provider with HR experts on board who could develop a solution based on the current cloud infrastructure. For this reason, they chose to partner with Predica.

Identifying key challenges with a design thinking workshop

Using the design thinking methodology, during a workshop and an As-Is process analysis, we helped the organization identify several pain points that hindered a sense of healthy well-being and caused low motivation levels.

Upon collecting the answers, HR experts discovered that most employees felt burdened with long working hours and meetings, had too many tasks assigned, longed for recognition, and lacked time for self-development.

Participants also mentioned that they could benefit from some process improvements:

• Directions on what needs to be done, with a clear deadline, so they could stop relying on emails for task distribution
• Task tracking and utilization rates for managers to monitor team backlog
• Accountabilities mapping, employee recognition, and feedback sharing

Additionally, workshop participants emphasized that whatever the solution would be, it must be connected to the company’s core values and have a clear strategic direction so that the employees’ experience is seamless from day one.

Implementing Viva Insights tools

Keeping all the challenges in mind, we introduced Viva tools offered by the company’s current infrastructure provider – Microsoft. We expected that familiarity with MS technologies would vastly accelerate the adoption of the solution and with it the improvement of work habits and productivity levels.

Overview of Microsoft Viva Insights benefits

With Viva Personal Insights, employees received a toolkit for preventing burnout and allocating time for meaningful work and self-development. In parallel, Viva Manager & Leader Insights were introduced to encourage supervisors and leaders to promote better work habits and due recognition.

We also designed a communication plan to update employees on the value of the solution and evangelized the new technology.

Finally, we enabled additional Power BI reports that allow for visual analysis of findings from Viva Insights. As a result, it is possible to forecast capabilities and implement recommended measures that could help improve collaboration and counteract high turnover across all teams.

Taking productivity and well-being to the next level

Employees used to find it difficult to go deep on challenging work as they had only small chunks of time between meetings to focus on their tasks. Incoming emails and chats were also constant distractors.

By blocking a few hours every day, they can now concentrate on their ongoing projects without interruptions and see their progress, helping them achieve short and long-term goals and raising their job satisfaction as a result.

Viva Insights panel for booking focus time

They can also maintain healthy habits and energy levels by setting preferred lunch hours. Once a recurring event is added to the calendar, it is no longer possible for other employees to book the time slot.

Setting lunch hours

A similar feature allows one to plan upcoming time away automatically to benefit from the pool of available vacation days without informing every coworker individually, reducing the hassle and time spent on a manual set-up.

That is also useful for emergencies. Instead of canceling meetings one by one, the functionality resolves all of them in one place with a custom message about scheduled time off and an option for selecting another date.

In order not to lose track of commitments made by email in the last 14 days, it is possible to enable a feature in Outlook that reminds an employee about outstanding tasks.

This feature comes especially handy during busy periods when juggling a few projects or after vacation. Consequently, employees need not worry about missed deadlines.

Their stress levels significantly decrease as they feel their work is under control, and it also saves valuable time on planning while also respecting coworkers’ time.

With a view to increase productivity and space for actual on-hand work, we also advised the company to set team meeting rules and standards for declining a meeting or declaring meeting-free periods and run regular checks with their people to see where they can improve.

What is more, when using Viva Insights in Outlook, employees receive a reminder to shorten the meeting while booking it and schedule it in a way that does not require their coworkers to rush from one event to another without time to prepare. Additionally, they are asked to add an agenda for other participants to see whether the call is relevant to them or not.

To avoid meeting fatigue and disconnect mentally from work, it is possible to indicate quiet hours and no-meeting days rules in the calendar, allowing employees to spend quality time outside work hours or focus on their projects without any interruptions.

Setting quiet time

As one of the challenges related to lack of recognition and success celebration, colleagues are encouraged to set praise reminders, boosting motivation levels and a sense of belonging.

Sending praises and recognition

Additionally, leaders can schedule recurring one-on-one meetings to engage better with team members and help them build the skills for their role or discuss career goals. As a result, workers perceive the company as a place that supports growth and development and are less likely to look for job opportunities elsewhere.

To help employees further develop their skills, they can take advantage of the Inspiration library in Microsoft Viva Insights with thought leadership pieces and schedule uninterrupted learning sessions in their calendars.

Helping employees grow to increase productivity

By identifying professional challenges, we helped the company find tools for developing better work habits and improving the well-being of their people.

With Microsoft Teams and Outlook being the internal messengers, employees can now benefit from instant access to efficiency features and recommendations in the application panels.

They received a set of best practices and have Viva Insights capabilities in place to fight meeting fatigue and avoid manual scheduling and joining meetings that do not contribute to their projects. Adopting these measures will give them more energy to pursue their career goals and carry out ever-more exciting initiatives.

At the same time, people are encouraged to regularly celebrate the achievements of their peers and appreciate their efforts. That, in turn, will strengthen teamwork, and with the staff feeling motivated, it will be also easier to keep turnover low and morale high.

Finally, to counteract any disturbing trends regarding burnout or low engagement, the HR department and leaders can analyze Power BI reports with insights into collaboration patterns or meeting effectiveness and use the results to make appropriate decisions backed with reliable data.

Summary

Guided by its core values, the client made a commitment to creating a positive work environment and embraced new technology to improve productivity and employee well-being. It is also exciting to see that our cooperation brought a fresh perspective and practices that the company is bound to promote.

No matter how many changes the future will bring, the organization is equipped with solutions to assess the workload and grow steadily without putting a strain on its workforce.

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