Like many companies, Cricket Australia saw the pandemic lockdowns cause additional strain for employees. Engage Squared recommended a trial of Viva Insights and helped Cricket Australia set it up to generate insights using real organizational data from select employees across the organization. Employees at Cricket Australia have changed the way they view their wellbeing and productivity after using Viva Insights.
The highlight of the cricket season in Australia is the Boxing Day Test, with more than 100,000 spectators attending the match in Melbourne each December 26. It’s just one of hundreds of events put on by the dedicated employees of Cricket Australia as part of their mission to promote cricket throughout Australia and manage the Australian national cricket teams. The work requires long days and extensive travel, which can lead to burnout, so Cricket Australia is dedicated to helping employees manage their workloads. The organization recently deployed Microsoft Viva Insights to help leaders and employees better understand how they are working and what changes they can make to improve work-life balance.
“Today, when we onboard someone, we are confident we are providing them the best tools and insights through Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Viva to help them be effective in their role and manage their wellbeing.”
Allison Robison, Executive General Manager of People and Culture, Cricket Australia
Supporting a distributed and mobile workforce
Cricket Australia is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, with about 300 full-time employees. Those employees are located across Australia as part of the organization’s six member associations and must also travel internationally to various matches. The distributed workforce and highly varied working environments led Cricket Australia to become an early adopter of cloud computing technologies.
Cricket Australia began its digital transformation in 2014 with the adoption of Microsoft Office 365. By 2018, it had closed its datacenter and moved all of its applications to the cloud. “We have a cloud-based tool set across all of our applications, which has enabled our employees to work anywhere, no matter what time of day they need to work, wherever they may be located,” says Emma Cashen, Senior Client Services Manager, Cricket Australia. “We enable employees to choose where they need to work for their particular day.”
Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone have proven to be especially helpful at keeping employees connected, especially during the pandemic, when everyone endured long lockdown periods in Australia. “All our employees have their phone on their computer, so it travels with them. Even roles like reception could continue to work from home,” continues Cashen. “Using Teams Phone while traveling internationally also helps us save on calling charges.”
“All our employees have their phone on their computer, so it travels with them. Even roles like reception could continue to work from home. Using Teams Phone while traveling internationally also helps us save on calling charges.”
Emma Cashen, Senior Client Services Manager, Cricket Australia
Improving the employee experience
Like many companies, Cricket Australia saw the pandemic lockdowns cause additional strain for employees. Cricket Australia monitors employee sentiment through regular surveys, and it saw employee satisfaction scores dropping. The organization worked with Microsoft partner Engage Squared to find a solution to help monitor and improve work-life balance. “We wanted to understand how people were being affected by the changes resulting from the pandemic and how we could prevent burnout as we returned to the office,” says Murray Newham, Head of Cloud Operations, Cricket Australia.
Engage Squared recommended a trial of Viva Insights and helped Cricket Australia set it up to generate insights using real organizational data from select employees across the organization. “We identified a number of different themes from the dataset and put together a roadmap of next steps to help solve some of the issues we identified,” says Claudia Piscitelli, Chief Marketing Officer, Engage Squared.
“Working with Engage Squared was a critical part of the success of bringing Viva Insights into the organization,” says Allison Robison, Executive General Manager of People and Culture, Cricket Australia. “They forced us to stop and think about what the data meant and how it related to the feedback we were getting from employees. They brought an independent viewpoint that helped to remove any bias we might have.” Some of the questions the team addressed are: How much time are employees spending in meetings? How are they collaborating? How many hours are they working across the span of a day, and is that sustainable? Using the data, the team worked together to create actionable campaigns to promote a healthy work environment.
“Working with Engage Squared was a critical part of the success of bringing Viva Insights into the organization…. They brought an independent viewpoint that helped to remove any bias we might have.”
Allison Robison, Executive General Manager of People and Culture, Cricket Australia
Developing a winning team strategy
Cricket Australia used the data from Viva Insights to see how many hours employees were working and where the peaks in work effort were. “Using the data from Viva Insights, we will be fine-tuning our workforce planning to ensure we have the right number of people to handle the workload throughout the year,” says Robison.
Another improvement was in leadership development. Much of Cricket Australia’s leadership comes from the sporting world and may not have experience in corporate leadership roles. “We received some great insights into the various leadership styles across the organization, and we’re taking steps to provide a more consistent leadership experience,” says Robison. “A great example of this is the frequency of one-on-one meetings with direct reports. That’s something we felt we could improve and track as a leadership metric.”
“Using the data from Viva Insights, we will be fine-tuning our workforce planning to ensure we have the right number of people to handle the workload throughout the year.”
Allison Robison, Executive General Manager of People and Culture, Cricket Australia
Helping individuals refine their skills
Employees at Cricket Australia have changed the way they view their wellbeing and productivity after using Viva Insights. Throughout the day, individuals receive helpful nudges to do things like set up focus time, take a break for a mindfulness exercise, or wind down their day. “Viva Insights promotes behaviors that enable our employees to better manage their activities to maintain their work-life balance,” says Cashen.
“Seeing how many days I’ve had adequate quiet time each month is a great reminder to establish firm boundaries to ensure my wellbeing,” says Robison. “The power that it gives to individuals is incredible.” Viva also helps raise awareness of how some work activities may affect other people’s work-life balance. For instance, employees will receive a notification to consider scheduling email deliveries to align with work hours when sending an email late at night.
“Viva Insights promotes behaviors that enable our employees to better manage their activities to maintain their work-life balance.”
Emma Cashen, Senior Client Services Manager, Cricket Australia
Simplifying activities within Teams
Since Teams was already widely used at Cricket Australia, it was natural for employees to access Viva Insights as part of that experience. Consolidating apps onto the Teams platform means that employees can access all their work apps in one place and no longer need to maintain a variety of apps on their phones and other devices. “Employees can just open the Teams app and find all the information they need, clearly presented and easy to consume,” says Newham.
The value of the Teams platform will only increase as the organization deploys the other Viva modules. Cricket Australia is already piloting Viva Connections to improve the intranet experience for employees, and it’s planning to use Viva Topics to simplify knowledge management. “We’re looking to bring our tool sets into Teams, which is where we spend our day,” says Cashen.
Seeing the impact
Cricket Australia is not only saving money from its Viva investment through increased productivity and reduced meeting costs; it’s also helping to reduce employee burnout. Employees now have more quality time to get their work done within regular work hours. “Today, when we onboard someone, we’re confident we are providing them the best tools and insights through Microsoft 365 and Viva to be effective in their role and manage their wellbeing,” says Robison. “While we still have very busy summers with lots of travel, our employees have the information they need to look after themselves and get the downtime they need.”
Find out more about Cricket Australia on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
“Employees can just open the Teams app and find all the information they need, clearly presented and easy to consume.”
Murray Newham, Head of Cloud Operations, Cricket Australia
Follow Microsoft