Resilience through constant change

Ravensdown were looking for a solution to support their customer-facing staff. Together Disastrous and Ravensdown co-designed resilience and wellbeing training for their people.

“We like to be innovative about how we work with our teams, and Disastrous encouraged staff to rise to tasks and challenges in ways unique to them and our company culture.” -  KATRINA BENEDETTI FORASTIERI, RAVENSDOWN’S GENERAL MANAGER CULTURE AND PEOPLE.

Ravensdown could see that the pressure on their customer-facing staff was increasing, largely as a result of the changing world of agriculture and the need to help farmers with the strain of shifting weather patterns, legislation and public perception. 2020 and 2021 have also thrown their fair share of challenges.

Ravensdown weren’t looking for best practice, they were looking for ‘next practice’ for strengthening resilience, wellbeing and performance - something that would help set their teams up for the current and future challenges in the industry. They looked at several providers, but the innovative Doing Well tool really struck a chord for them. Ravensdown commissioned Disastrous to co-design a resilience and wellbeing approach for their people – and the Doing Well tool, with advice that's real and practical, has proven to be really popular. It has really helped their teams put practices in place for themselves so that they’re in a good space to be effective in their role and effective in their life as at Ravensdown – there is an appreciation that life doesn’t revolve purely around work. 

Ravensdown began rolling the Doing Well tool program across their 160 frontline staff, but in seeing the results, they have since extended the program to all their staff. There is a sense of relief that everyone has the permission to talk openly about these things with one another. With so many application-based support options in the wellbeing space, the uniqueness of the Doing Well tool being a physical tool has been positively received. Especially with digital overload being so common, employees can choose to switch off digitally and have the Doing Well tool deck of 100 cards with them as a useful tool – something they can physically share with others to initiate conversations, and something they can take away with them and come back to.

It creates a consistent message throughout the entire field team, including managers, and enables good conversations when someone is showing signs of stress or being under pressure. The Doing Well tool and the resources to support the roll out were a great fit with Ravensdown’s commitment to a positive employee experience. Ravensdown recognise their employees have pressures beyond the job and they don’t want to add to that. Working at Ravensdown is often likened to being part of a family. They want work to be part of their employee’s life, not to overtake it!

“We like to be innovative about how we work with our teams, and Disastrous encouraged staff to rise to tasks and challenges in ways unique to them and our company culture.”

- KATRINA BENEDETTI FORASTIERI, RAVENSDOWN’S GENERAL MANAGER CULTURE AND PEOPLE