Customer case study

Fletcher Building Australia

Photo of Fletcher office building on a clear blue sky's day

Background

Fletcher Building Australia is part of the wider Fletcher Building Group with 4,000 employees. Fletcher Building manufacturers and distributes a range of building products and materials for the building and construction industry. You will recognise them – Laminex, Fletcher Insulation, Tradelink and Stramit.

The company was introduced to Groov through its New Zealand Chief Executive Dean Fradgley, who had encouraged the use of the App in New Zealand and also wanted to see it adopted in Australia.

Rita Slogrove, Fletcher Building Australia’s Learning and Organisational Development Manager, said while resilience and wellbeing were front of mind, this year had been extremely tough and “we wanted to be able to provide some additional support to our employees and really assure them that its ok not to be ok.

“We were hearing that a significant number of our employees and their families were struggling with resilience and wellbeing and our leaders were reaching out to ask for advice on how to better support their people.

“We were rolling out a Safety Culture program and we’d identified mental health and wellbeing as our first key initiative in this program.

“We felt strongly that wellbeing and mental health played a huge part in safety so we introduced it as our first initiative. We called it Protect our Mental Health which is a nod to our Safety brand of “Protect”.

The launch

Sir John Kirwan and Dr Fiona Crichton participated in the launch of the Groov App through several virtual sessions. The first involved 220 senior leaders where several General Managers spoke candidly and honestly about their own wellbeing. “It’s probably the proudest moment I have ever had in my career, listening to these leaders step up and speak with vulnerability, encouraging the rest of the business to do the same.

“Several other sessions followed drawing on JK and Dr Crichton’s knowledge. One was for our leaders on how to support their teams and one for 250 Protect Ambassadors (self-nominated champions of wellbeing and safety). There was also a special event for our 1,400 staff in Victoria.

“to be honest, the feedback is overwhelming, more so than I had would have ever thought. JK is hilarious, honest and frames it in such a way that many of our employees love. Dr Crichton balances him beautifully the way she gives context and frames up concepts using Psychological principles.”

The results

“We have found that since we began our mental health initiatives back in April and then again more recently with Groov, that the conversations have increased, people are reaching out more and are feeling brave to talk,” she said.

“We have noticed a significant change, particularly in Melbourne with the increased lockdown. It feels like every person you speak to is doing it tough and has been for much of the year. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“It can be extremely stressful not to know what the future will bring.”

Ms Slogrove said the feedback had been amazing. “Many of our senior leaders have commented on the breathing part of the App. Most people love the daily wellbeing reminders and we’ve also heard great things about the worry map. It’s a favourite of mine.

“We’ve noticed a huge increase in conversation. People are talking and feeling brave enough to support each other to do so. Through Groov we have provided them with tools around how to have a difficult conversation with someone, how to ask if they are ok and how to support someone to get help.

“People are sharing their experiences, talking about the App and sharing it with their families. We have heard nothing but fantastic feedback and we feel it has been a strong factor in helping our employees through some of the toughest months they’ve ever imagined.”

“Groov has provided us an essential resource at a time where our people needed it most. The response from the interactions we have had with both JK and Dr Crichton and the experiences with the App has been quite remarkable. I’ve never been more proud to launch an initiative. Groov has been the catalyst for vulnerable conversations, increased wellbeing support and continued collaboration in our business and we feel it has had a significant positive impact on our people.”

— Rita Slogrove, Fletcher Building Australia’s Learning and Organisational
Development Manager