Industry
Mental Health Care
Company Size
1,001-5,000 employees
Region
Switzerland
Leaders and teams work autonomously with the teamwork assistant to improve their collaboration.
The introduction of Moodtalk led to a more open and constructive feedback culture.
Through structured communication, teams were able to make their meetings more focused and effective.
At the Psychiatric Services Aargau (PDAG), more than 1,300 employees work in a complex environment alongside diverse professional groups. A large portion of the staff operates in nursing roles, working with patients in shifts — a factor that significantly increases the complexity of leadership and collaboration.
A regularly conducted employee survey revealed that team cohesion is seen as essential, yet there was clear potential for improvement in structured collaboration and open communication. To address these challenges in a targeted way, PDAG decided to implement Moodtalk – a smart teamwork assistant that helps teams and leaders sustainably improve the way they work together.
“The employee survey was the trigger for using Moodtalk. The results clearly showed that the team and the way people interact within it are crucial sources of support for our employees. And yet, we realize how demanding it is and how important it is to keep working at it in order to build strong team dynamics.”
Beatrice Baur - Head of People Development at PDAG
Moodtalk was initially launched as a pilot project with five teams, both in administrative departments and on care units. Due to the positive feedback, its use was later expanded to the entire organization.
Leaders can use Moodtalk flexibly with their teams, allowing for individual adaptation to existing structures. Moodtalk facilitates regular, structured feedback, supports the planning of measures directly within the team to improve collaboration, and helps continuously document progress.
In doing so, it eases the workload of both the HR development department and all managers, as Moodtalk enables teams to independently work on improving their collaboration.
According to Beatrice Baur, Head of Peiple Development, a key advantage was the ease of implementation: The talks about teamwork were integrated into existing team meetings, so no additional meetings were required. This led to a high level of acceptance within the organization.
“I truly believe that the teamwork assistant speaks for itself. It's easy to use. I think that's especially important in our environment, where we have people who don’t work on a computer regularly.”
Beatrice Baur - Head of People Development at PDAG
Petra Meyer is a team leader on a care unit with fifteen employees at PDAG and introduced Moodtalk when she first took on her role as team lead. Moodtalk’s teamwork assistant helped her get to know the team better, identify challenges early, and develop solutions together.
In a shift-based environment where not all team members work at the same time, the teamwork assistant enables an early response to collaboration challenges and reduces the burden on team leaders.
“The challenge is that we work in shifts, and getting in touch with everyone—or staying in touch—was a big challenge for me as a team leader at the beginning. Then Moodtalk introduced regular collaboration check-ins and supported us in jointly developing rules for working together, with everything explained step by step.”
Petra Meyer – Co-Lead Nursing Station at PDAG
Moodtalk is used differently in every team, as the teamwork assistant adapts to each team’s specific needs. On Petra Meyer’s unit, a check with targeted questions is sent out once a month, and a “Talk” is conducted during the team meeting to discuss relevant topics in a structured way.
The teamwork assistant is seen as a valuable support tool for leaders in their busy day-to-day work and helps teams improve collaboration sustainably.
“We've learned to communicate more openly. Issues no longer get lost in the stress of everyday work but are addressed directly. As a result, we save time in the long run because we identify problems early and solve them together.”
Petra Meyer – Co-Lead Nursing Station at PDAG
In many organizations, it's unrealistic for every leader and team to be continuously supported closely by the HR development department. However, HR development must be able to provide timely and targeted support to those leaders and teams who need guidance and assistance. Moodtalk’s teamwork assistant makes this possible.
“I believe it’s unrealistic — that’s the case for us at PDAG, but probably also in other organizations — to support every team as closely as they are supported through the Moodtalk process. That’s just not feasible. You’d have to hire a huge number of people in HR development for that, and that’s simply unrealistic.”
Beatrice Baur - Head of People Development at PDAG
The teamwork assistant enables leaders to achieve sustainable improvements in collaboration without direct support from HR or personnel development. It ensures that teams continuously work on their core topics, stay engaged with them, and make visible progress.
“In my experience, focus on topics tends to fade when you just talk about them. With Moodtalk, we stay committed over the long term, see progress, and can even remove actions from our team charter/wiki because those principles have become second nature by now. It gives us an objective foundation and allows us to recognize together what we’ve achieved.”
Petra Meyer – Co-Lead Nursing Station at PDAG
Through this systematic support, the teamwork assistant creates a new form of guidance: it helps teams manage their collaboration independently, track progress, and ensure that important topics don’t get lost in the busyness of daily work. At the same time, it relieves the HR development team by empowering leaders to steer their teams autonomously, allowing resources to be used more efficiently.
The introduction of Moodtalk at PDAG shows that a targeted investment in collaboration with the Teamwork Assistant has lasting, positive effects. Managers are relieved and receive a support tool for the hectic and complex daily work routine. Teams report an improved feedback culture, which contributes to greater satisfaction and productivity in the teams.
The Teamwork Assistant enables early detection of challenges and therefore an early response directly in the teams. The Teamwork Assistant enables teams to be closely supported by HR development without the need to hire additional people. In addition, the structured documentation of measures has significantly improved traceability and transparency and made the development of collaboration visible. Another success factor is the scalability of Moodtalk. The solution can be used effectively in both small teams and larger departments without the need for extensive training.
“We have a people business. That always sounds so harsh when I say it. We work with people and, of course, with our patients and customers. But we also work together as a team. They are all people with their own needs, their own history, their own rucksack. You bring all that in. This exchange is important because I believe we can only do a good job if we have good cooperation and good communication within the team.“
Beatrice Baur - Head of People Development at PDAG
Moodtalk has established itself at PDAG as an effective tool that strengthens collaboration in the long term. Continuous use ensures that team dynamics and communication remain in focus - with positive effects on the entire organization. Petra Meyer gets to the heart of the matter:
“Especially in the care sector, where time is always at a premium, it is worth investing in collaboration - Moodtalk makes this possible.“
Petra Meyer – Co-Lead Nursing Station at PDAG
The positive experiences at PDAG show that Moodtalk's Teamwork Assistant not only simplifies processes, but also makes collaboration problems transparent at an early stage and takes the pressure off managers and HR development. The structured, regular reflection on collaboration ensures greater clarity, transparency and better cooperation.
