Prioritising Mental Health: The Key to Content Moderator Efficiency and Productivity

After the pandemic, the moderation team of a well-known video game platform faced tumultuous times after losing over 50% of its workforce, including key figures in leadership.

Moderators are tasked with protecting players from toxic content and behavior such as hate speech, sexual harassment, and violent threats. As digital first responders, moderators face an increased risk of conditions typically associated with police officers and EMTs. These conditions include compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout. These conditions don’t just affect their mental health and ability to cope with stress; moderators facing psychological challenges can become less productive and effective in their work, impacting their ability to safeguard online communities and support the growth and success of social game platforms.

Burnout was affecting this team; seasoned members were exhausted, while new recruits struggled to cope with the demands of the role while still undergoing training. 

To address these challenges head-on, the new Trust & Safety department at Keywords Studios developed the "Superhero Wellbeing & Resilience Program”, a trauma-informed and research-based initiative designed to improve moderators' working lives by fostering a culture of “everyday care". The program included a mix of mandatory and optional daily, weekly, and monthly activities, developed around three key pillars: mental health, training and upskilling, and leadership support. 

With the introduction of the program, moderation teams at Keywords Studios were encouraged to adapt and change the new practices based on their unique needs – which is exactly what they did. Leadership implemented two key initiatives aimed to support the struggling team: 

• Recurring mental health surveys. Surveys uncovered several team needs, with the most common request being an extra mental health break due to exposure to explicit content. Research shows that supportive work environments and healthy practices, such as encouraging additional breaks, greatly enhance moderators' mental health. Leadership quickly approved extra breaks for those in need.
• Frequent team bonding events. Recognising the need for team bonding, leadership introduced optional interactive group activities. Tailored to team preferences and based on survey results, these engaging events (which included social games, a walking group, and team bonding activities like “Guess my hobby!”) enhanced team cohesion, ensuring that veteran moderators and new team members felt heard, supported, and valued.

The Superhero Wellbeing & Resilience Program has proven incredibly effective at rejuvenating the moderation team's morale, wellbeing, and performance.

As one superhero said, "Group bonding activities are great and positively affect the team's togetherness and productivity in the long run."

“There's been a constant stream of mental health-related content coming from leadership,” said another superhero. “It's easier to feel safe if it seems like leadership cares."

Another superhero praised leadership’s generous approach to wellbeing-focused activities:"[Our] leads' attitude has helped people actually get excited for these activities, from being reassured that it's okay to participate and won't have a negative effect on KPIs or evaluations, to trying something new entirely. The no-shaming is very appreciated.”

Implementing the Superhero Wellbeing & Resilience Program has led to other tangible benefits for the team — and for the video game platform they protect. The following numbers highlight improvements observed over four consecutive financial quarters:

• Decreased attrition: After implementing the program and fully training new moderators, the team experienced 0% attrition. One team leader noted that, “Moderators who had previously considered leaving the role told us that they decided to stay with the team because of our focus on their wellbeing.”
• Increased productivity: As morale improved, so did the quality and efficiency of moderators’ work, as productivity (measured by Actions Per Hour) increased by 69.1%.
• Enhanced decision-making: The team's increased closeness and focus on mental health led to a 5.1% boost in decision-making accuracy, as measured by quality assurance reviews.

With the introduction of the Superhero Wellbeing & Resilience Program, in addition to regular team surveys and customised wellbeing activities, team leadership transformed the everyday experiences of the stressed-out moderation team. This strategic shift turned a potential team crisis into a success story.

"It's so important that leadership understands the true needs and daily challenges of a gaming moderation team,” said a team lead. “Leaders can start to build trust by creating safe spaces for superheroes to share their feedback openly. The next step is to find creative ways to make meaningful improvements. Moderation teams feel heard and supported when they see that their feedback has a direct impact on their work environment.”

By demonstrating empathy and compassion, along with promoting team bonding, team leadership not only boosted moderator morale, but also fostered a work culture where quality and productivity saw dramatic improvements.

These results demonstrate the benefits of grounding routine operations in Keywords Studios’ unique philosophy of "everyday care" for moderation teams. By prioritising wellbeing and resilience, superhero moderators are empowered to perform their important and challenging work to the fullest.