Care at the touch of a button for Design and Build

Image description: consultant on the phone

Overview

24/7 chat support and safety alerts at your fingertips

%

of support cases occur outside of business hours (5pm-9am)

%

of team members used chat

About Design & Build and Public Sector People

Design & Build is a leading construction and engineering recruitment agency based in Australia. With extensive industry expertise, they specialise in connecting skilled professionals with companies in the construction, engineering, architecture, manufacturing, property and real estate sectors.

Public Sector People focus on delivering temporary and permanent staffing solutions to Local and State Government bodies. Focusing on business support, construction and engineering, planning and environment and search & selection.

The challenge

Design & Build/Public Sector People were using an EAP that was very traditional and relied on a referral service, where employees had to ask their HR team for a referral code for up to three counselling sessions. Due to the stigma surrounding mental health, especially in the workplace, this process created a barrier for employees seeking care and support.

"If I needed help, I wouldn't want to go via HR to get it."

This system also placed an unwarranted burden on the management team, as employees had no alternative avenue to turn to and would often unload on their people managers. As a result, managers were left grappling with challenging circumstances that they weren’t trained to handle, ultimately impacting both their effectiveness and own wellbeing.

The solution

In February 2023, Design & Build/Public Sector People implemented Sonder, empowering their workforce to prioritise their health and wellbeing. Besides its broad range of care beyond mental health support (including medical advice and safety assistance), one of the best aspects of Sonder has been its 24/7 accessibility via an easy to use app. This has been a significant improvement over their previous EAP, which required booking in advance and often resulted in long wait times for assistance. Now employees could access the highest quality, responsive care whether it was 2am or 2pm. This shift received overwhelming approval, with 65% of support cases happening outside of traditional business hours and 70% of employees reaching out via chat.

The implementation of Sonder has also brought benefits to managers who were feeling fatigued by employees coming to them with issues. Recognising that they are not counsellors themselves, they appreciate how easy it is to guide employees and their families to Sonder when they need help and support.

"Sonder has become a crutch for us to lean on when we are faced with challenges or are overwhelmed, Sonder allows us to help our staff in areas we are not qualified in."

The results

The feedback on Sonder has been overwhelmingly positive, both in terms of its business impact and the response from employees who have utilised it, with almost 50% of employees logging into the app within the first 3 months. The team at Design & Build/Public Sector People anticipates that the safety features of Sonder, such as ‘Check on me’ and ‘Track my journey,’ will be advantageous for their young workforce and those without a strong local network or family (particularly those relocating from overseas). To date, Design & Build/Public Sector People employees have received 160 real-time notices to help avoid safety-related incidents. Additionally, the implementation and roll out of Sonder has been praised by the HR team at Design & Build for how quick, easy and straightforward it was to implement.

Statistics:

160 safety alerts have been shared to date
65% of support cases occur outside of business hours (5pm-9am)
70% of Design&Build/Public Sector People team members reaching out for mental health support used chat as their preferred communication