Project Overview

For the past 25 years, Shiftwork Solutions have been providing services to shift workers across a diverse range of industries, helping them get the most out of their time—both on and off the clock. From this experience, Shiftwork Solutions are uniquely positioned to offer new and innovative ways to identify and rectify issues of employee wellbeing.

One of the biggest problems faced by shift workers is fatigue. The nature of shift work can exert some serious physical stress on the body, and many shift workers suffer from the fatigue brought on by a mix of inconsistent hours, lifestyle factors, and poor sleeping habits.

This is not a fringe issue—nearly a quarter of all jobs in Australia in Australia involve shift work, or working outside of normal hours. If left unchecked, fatigue becomes a contributing factor in a range of serious incidents both on and off the job: fatigue can even make the morning commute a dangerous affair. On a day-to-day level, fatigue leads to reduced productivity and a lack of concentration, making it as much an issue for the employer as for the employee.

Shiftwork Solutions knew that these problems were corrigible through education and improved habits—and so, they contacted Croomo to collaborate on an online course that would give shift workers practical strategies for managing fatigue.

Project Commissioner

Shiftwork Solutions

Project Creator

Croomo

Project Brief

The focus of this module was to teach shift workers about the factors contributing to fatigue; and then, to give them easy, practical tips for managing these factors. Simply telling people to stop making poor lifestyle choices doesn’t work—in fact, it has the opposite effect of putting them on the defensive. Instead, we focused on giving people a more optimistic outlook on defeating their fatigue.

The module took users through three key contributing factors: their body clocks, the
impact of accumulated sleep debt, and an unbalanced lifestyle. After introducing these
issues, the user was introduced to a character affected by that factor, and then quizzed
on how their situation could be improved. In each case, the focus was not on the character’s
‘mistakes’, but on helping them make small changes for improved wellbeing.

Key objectives:
1. Contextualize the concept of fatigue.
2. Engage learners with well-crafted content.
3. Streamline content for efficient delivery, including for mobile devices.
4. Educate users on proactive steps for fatigue management, without accusing or lecturing
5. Convey that fatigue management is a highly personal process.

Croomo’s module was expected to have tangible results for users. Workers would learn to better manage their fatigue, leading to increased productivity, concentration, better work/life balance, increased job satisfaction, and improved physical/mental health. Additionally, workers that are well-rested have been proven to more carefully observe WH&S procedures and make fewer mistakes, reducing the number of workplace incidents and time lost to injury.

Project Need

A key part of Croomo’s strategy was to emphasise the benefits of proper fatigue management, rather than lecturing people on their bad habits—studies show that an optimistic outlook is much more likely to effect change than stern warnings. As such, we wanted to make this module light-hearted, inspirational and fun for the user. This started with conceptualising fatigue as a little green monster: it’s a comical image, but it also serves a rhetorical purpose in framing fatigue as an external force. Personifying fatigue in this way circumvents the ‘blame game’ and instead refocuses the module in an optimistic way, to how participants can improve their lives by defeating their fatigue monster. The design team also worked out a cheery, comic-book visual style with a strong colour scheme.

Finally, the soundtrack and audio effects were designed in-house to carry this same theme through the entire module. Previously, Shiftwork Solutions delivered training solely in a face-to-face format. With this new module, they wanted greater flexibility for the delivery of training, allowing them to scale up their services for delivery around Australia and beyond. Croomo’s training solution was delivered online, and optimised for use on mobile devices and tablets on both iOS and Android systems. Learners can now complete the training anytime, anywhere, and can access the training as individuals or through their organization—further reinforcing the personal nature of fatigue management.

User Experience

Users of this project were full of praise for the training experience. In conceptualising this project, we put a lot of work into ensuring that participants would not feel condescended to, but would instead have an experience that uncovered opportunities for enriching their life. This was the basis for the fatigue monster—by framing fatigue as a creature with its own malicious agenda, the user would feel like the training was help battle a common enemy, instead of feeling like the victim themselves. Users also loved the humorous edge added in images of the fatigue monster drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. The message behind these images did not go missed either—fatigue feeds off bad habits.

The training ensured that users would feel optimistic about change by making simple, realistic suggestions for improving their lifestyle. For example, rather than suggesting that a caffeine-dependent character simply ‘stop drinking coffee’, the module would suggest gradually scaling back coffee intake, and the timing of intake, to where it no longer interferes with sleep. By demonstrating these small, gradual changes, users are driven to trial them, and experience the positive impact on their own wellbeing.

Most shift workers don’t realise how quickly these small changes can add up to an effective fatigue management strategy that significantly betters their quality of life. By improving employees’ wellbeing, this project also helps to improve their productivity, job satisfaction, and safety at work—fatigued workers, fatigued tired drivers, are at risk.

Project Marketing

Management was extremely pleased with Croomo’s fatigue management training, saying that they were “impressed by the Croomo creative process.” Shiftwork Solutions loved the way characters were used to exemplify content and test understanding, and the little green monster of fatigue has become something of a mascot for the training module. Shiftwork Solutions were also pleased with the way in which the training motivated users by encouraging them to take small steps towards a better lifestyle. Shiftwork Solutions correctly believed that the push towards incremental improvement in lifestyle would be more quickly embraced by fatigued workers. The project was produced in close collaboration with

Shiftwork Solutions subject matter experts, and their decades of experience in wellbeing projects was an indispensable resource in crafting content. From a management perspective, combating fatigue in shift workers should be taken extremely seriously. Fatigue can affect anyone, but the difficulty of managing irregular working hours can magnify the problem in shift workers. Quite apart from the personal difficulties this can create, fatigues workers are significantly less productive and suffer from far higher rates of burnout than

other employees. They also have poorer levels of concentration, which impairs their ability to recall or perform workplace health & safety procedures. This can lead to serious injury to themselves, or others, and serious detriment to the business. This project may be focused on employee wellbeing, but the implications of improved wellbeing are much broader than may appear at first sight.

Project Privacy

Shiftwork Solutions made it explicit in their brief that a quality result was a priority over any deadline. As such, we worked in close collaboration to ensure that this solution met with exact specifications. Croomo’s diversely skilled staff developed the entirety of the project in-house—including all scripts, audio and graphic assets.

Set budgets were met on this project, and the online fatigue management module also presents enormous future savings compared to Shiftwork Solutions’ previous format of face-to-face meetings. It allows them to completely cut out travel and logistical expenses, while facilitating expansion of the business to a wider audience.

Online modules also promise a consistently high standard of training, compared to the variability introduced by human error. Finally, the module makes it much easier to update content as new information becomes available, which promises even greater cost efficiency in the future.

HealthTech

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