Work design case studies

These case studies show the practical ways people have been able to use work design and the SMART framework to diagnose and solve real work challenges. 

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• Managing symptoms of perimenopause in the workplace 
• Increasing support and participation in a demanding 24/7 contact centre 

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Do you have a story you want to share about how you've used work design? Email GoodWorkDesign@comcare.gov.au

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Managing symptoms of perimenopause in the workplace

During perimenopause I’d gone from being highly capable, often juggling multiple things at work easily, to not remembering the most basic of things. I’d sit in meetings and feel my eyes glaze over because I couldn’t understand what I was looking at or what was being said. Concentration and memory became worse in the afternoon. I’d find myself looking at my computer screen trying to make sense of my work.

I became so worried about being performance managed I started looking for different, less responsible work so I could start fresh, where people didn’t know me and have the same expectations of me.

Work design challenges

In a catch up with my manager, it all came out. She could see I’d been struggling but rather than focus on my performance, she started the conversation by asking about how I felt about my work and my work design.
I immediately felt at ease. The focus wasn’t on me and my performance; it was on what was working well and what felt difficult in my work – which was different and not like any conversation I’d had with a manager before.

Work design changes 

Together, my manager and I talked about the work design changes I could make. Some things I had already thought about, but there were others I didn’t even think were work design.

We agreed I could have flexible start and finish times to work when I was freshest. If sleep was bad, I slept in and started later. If my concentration was bad in the afternoon, I finished earlier. As long as I did the hours I needed to, my manager was OK with how I did them. This really gave me the agency to manage my work hours in a way that was best for me. Being able to have flexible start and finish times also improved my performance and the quality of work I produced.

As meetings could be challenging, we booked meetings for mornings when I was freshest. This helped because I was more alert and was able to contribute to conversations in a meaningful way and made me feel like I had a voice.

Sometimes my team got urgent tasks that needed to be finished quickly. These tasks usually needed a lot of brain power to complete. During the worst parts of perimenopause, my manager didn’t give me these tasks to do because she knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on them. Instead, they went to other teammates. To make sure my teammates weren’t impacted, I picked up other work from them. We swapped and changed depending on who needed what. It’s something we continue to do to this day, because it’s made work more tolerable for all of us.

In my workplace we have access to software like Microsoft CoPilot pro. My manager supported my application for a licence. Having this software meant I could use it in meetings to take minutes, transcribe and summarise important points. I was able to keep a record of what was talked about in meetings so I could come back and revisit any time I forgot. This helped my sense of mastery. I was able to recall information and detail for discussion with my teammates and work better with them.

Work design outcomes

Before the conversation I felt like I was letting my teammates down. Implementing some of these work design changes helped me feel connected to them again and helped strengthen these relationships. I felt like I was making a difference to my team’s work outcomes again. I wasn’t just being present but contributing to work in a meaningful way.

These changes made me feel better about my work. I felt confident again knowing I’d made changes that supported me at work when I needed it. My relationship with my manager improved because I didn’t feel like we were focusing on my performance. I mean, I knew how I was doing. I felt supported because we talked about my work design and we were able to keep talking about work design as my needs or symptoms changed.

Organisational work design

Increasing support and participation in a demanding 24/7 contact centre

Workers in a 24/7 high-risk contact centre worked in an environment where they were exposed to distressing and emotionally demanding calls. These calls created risks to the health, wellbeing and performance of the centre’s workers.

Work design challenges

The contact centre management wanted to know how workers felt about their work and where they thought changes could be made. Management contracted an independent organisation to meet with workers and understand what they did and didn’t like about the work.

Through this process, they found that the parts of work design that impacted workers most included:

• low control and autonomy over how the work was done
• no flexibility on where the work was done
• not enough support around difficult calls
• lack of onsite, professional support when needed
• complex key performance indicators (KPIs) that were set by the business.

Workers also reported low engagement and high levels of stress and burnout.

Workers also wanted more support and training for new workers and genuine, ongoing consultation on changes in the workplace.

Work design changes 

To make the work design changes, the centre involved their workers in every part of the process. Together, they identified changes they could make to increase worker support, develop supportive leadership capability and lift engagement at work.

To support workers who dealt with difficult calls daily, an escalated call procedure was developed. This procedure focussed on supporting the wellbeing of workers by looking at the demands placed on them during these calls, rather than the process of what happens after a difficult call.

To further support workers, the centre implemented regular onsite clinician visits through their Employee Assistant Program (EAP). Workers had sessions scheduled as part of their telephony roster, but they could also drop in whenever they felt they needed more support, with no limit on the number of sessions they could attend. Workers had agency to attend how and when they needed to, including on the day the clinician was on site. Resources were moved to cover telephony business demands so customers weren’t impacted.

To build their mastery and capability, leaders were Mental Health First Aid accredited and underwent trauma informed training. This helped leaders avoid assumptions and judgement when workers were distressed by difficult calls. To reduce stigma and encourage mental health discussions, the centre promoted messaging that mental health is a continuum and isn’t just about mental ill-health. 

The centre listened when workers said new people needed better training. An in-depth coaching and quality training model was developed to help build mastery for new workers from the beginning. Wellbeing check-in conversation tools were created to help leaders have conversations with their workers around potential psychosocial risk factors. These strengthened relationships between workers and leaders and meant leaders could better identify if support was needed to prevent harm.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a part of most contact centres. Revised KPIs were developed with worker input. This approach gave workers a sense of agency and mastery over their own performance targets and helped reduce workplace demands.

To create a stimulating and engaging environment, the centre gave control of some things back to workers. Ownership of the engagement committee was given to frontline workers. Workers could develop the activities they thought would work best. This increased stimulation and helped workers develop other skills outside of their roles. Ownership of the Work, Health and Safety committee also changed. Workers were responsible for running this committee, and reporting risks and concerns to the leadership team.

Finally, the centre did something novel with telephony scheduling, creating flexibility by enabling workers to attend social events, or catch up on emails or learning when call volume was low. Workers weren’t locked into a phone queue, and with leader support, could make decisions and control how they spent their time. This improved relationships between leaders and workers by building trust and lowered work demands.

Work design outcomes

In an industry that is notorious for inflexibility, looking at work design changed lots of things for this contact centre. Worker satisfaction survey scores rose, and workers reported feeling more supported by their leaders and the workplace. The centre consistently recorded lower rates of unplanned absence compared to other contact centres in the organisation.

This approach to changing work design in a contact centre has remained in place for 5 years and has been adopted by other contact centres within the organisation.