A national media company had many wellbeing programs in place, and yet were struggling with a large number of employees on leave due to stress and burnout. Their HR department was tapped out – already doing all they could to support their workforce. Their Chief Operations Officer (COO) chose to collaborate with WPO Consulting to get to the root of the problem.
Our consulting team worked with HR and the COO to understand their business objectives and their perspective on the situation. We then interviewed managers in the most effected departments and the colleagues closest to them. Among several challenges, we uncovered a systemic issue around how a project is bid and the resulting pressures. The company was competing for work based on speed to market. They won several bids, but were overwhelming the workers responsible for production.
We worked with the COO and Sales Leadership to establish new criteria that could help them win bids in a more sustainable way. Changing sales tactics was a large undertaking and one that required data-informed decisions through every step. We built an implementation process that allowed for testing and feedback from our real-time reporting and the client’s sales teams.
WPO helped the sales team with the transformation, working side-by-side to create strategies that meet their targets and are sustainable for the company. During the transition, many of the people on stress leave returned to work, and as sales grew again, the workforce was better equipped to produce for their clients. The company got back on course for hitting its goals.