The Client

Swoop is a rapidly growing company specialising in travel to the ends of the earth. At the time of the work, the organisation had c.40 employees. Along with the rest of the travel industry, Swoop was significantly affected by the pandemic, however coming out of this, there remained low levels of staff morale, motivation and wellbeing.

Need

• Swoop felt that the decline in wellbeing was not solely caused by the challenges of the pandemic; and wanted to understand what elements of the working culture and environment were contributing to this.
• Swoop were keen to have clear recommendations which went beyond short term productivity and retention, to a real commitment and care for all 'Swoopers'

Solution

• A three-stage approach to explore the deep rooted causes of the decline in wellbeing and identify practical and feasible actions to improve wellbeing at work.
• Stage 1: Familiarisation stage including meetings with the senior leadership team and operational staff and a review of relevant organisational documentation, data and practices
• Stage 2: Engagement sessions with all staff. Five online focus groups and two interviews were conducted with 30 employees at Swoop. These groups gathered information on aspects most negatively impacting upon wellbeing, recommendations for change, and those aspects which most supported wellbeing.
• Stage 3: Analysis and synthesis. Findings were thematically analysed and key risks and opportunities were assessed against an IGLOo framework designed to look at wellbeing from a systemic viewpoint. Recommendations were based on evidence from best practice, research and from Stages 1 and 2.

Outcome

• All employees that were not on leave were able to contribute to the wellbeing review
• The report identified clear causes of the decline in wellbeing and motivation and provided recommendations for improvement at the Individual, Group, Senior Leader and Organisational Level. These ranged from 'quick wins' to more long term cultural changes.
• Following the report, Swoop commissioned Affinity to design and develop a wellbeing workshop to be delivered to all staff in order to 'kick off' and highlight the commitment to improving wellbeing
• In the year since the report, Swoop have been committed to implementing many of the recommendations of the report, particularly where recommendations were procedural and structural.
• Affinity has just been approached by Swoop about running a follow up review to understand whether wellbeing has changed and further actions to focus upon in the coming year.

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