With complex, technology-heavy operations worldwide, our client's large Technology team is central to the business, providing leading-edge technology solutions to complex operational problems.

The team, packed with highly talented and accomplished technology specialists, was highly regarded throughout the business, but within the team the pressure to deliver – and the associated stress – was beginning to take its toll on an otherwise high-performing environment and innovative culture.

The Technology team's leader engaged us to help his team manage the stress of work and establish a sustainable culture of wellbeing that would enable the group to remain productive and resilient during the inevitable ups and downs of working in the resources sector.

As this was very much a team challenge, our organisational wellbeing model was the focus for our solution. This involved assessing the team to identify areas of strength, as well as areas of weakness or risk.

Just as we were designing and then implementing our wellbeing program, the market changed significantly – a change that led to an extensive round of redundancies. Around half of the Technology team lost their jobs, making our work on wellbeing and resilience all the more important.

Against this volatile backdrop, we conducted a series of workshops designed to build wellbeing, stress-management and performance capability, with a particular focus on improving communication. Our wellbeing audit had shown communication to be rather poor within the team – it isn't unusual for high-performing individuals to have relatively poor communication skills.

Despite the unexpected redundancies and the uncertainty that the prevailing market conditions created during our 12-month engagement, our work on wellbeing had a palpable personal effect and a quantifiably positive impact on the Technology team as a whole.

In addition to equipping the group to weather a highly tumultuous time, with no apparent dip in performance and project delivery, our post-program audits showed that engagement scores had actually improved in the face of unexpected market volatility and adversity.

The ability to maintain effective communication was highlighted by the team's leader as the key to preserving and building on the Technology team's reputation for excellence during this challenging time.