Culture to Cash: 68% Reduction in Sick Leave (15.2% to 4.9%)
Wolt chose Peaky to help set up a new department for success. Focusing on well-being, productivity, and Performance.
Wolt Customer Service: from 15.2% to 4.9% sick leave in six months
How team lead Kaspar and his customer service team at Wolt cut sick leave by as much as 68%, an estimated DKK 568,000 a year, by making it safe to say what was really wrong.
At a glance
Sick leave: 15.2% → 4.9% (February to August)
Estimated annual savings: DKK 568,000 (over €76,000) across 23 FTE
Resilience: 35% → 90%
Collaboration: 55% → 90%
A number without a reason
In February, sick leave in Kaspar’s customer service team at Wolt hit 15.2%. More than one working day in seven was lost.
Kaspar could see the number. He couldn’t see the reason. Everything he had to lead with looked backwards: by the time sick leave showed up in a report, the damage was already done. All he could do was wait for the next number and hope it was better.
“I was forced”
Kaspar started using Peaky that same month. Every day, people on the team checked in by name: how they were doing, and how they were working.
Within weeks, one comment said what no report had: “I was forced”.
People on the team hadn’t felt safe raising problems directly with management. Now one of them had. And because the comment wasn’t anonymous, Kaspar knew who to talk to. He didn’t take it to a team meeting and discuss it in the abstract. He followed up, person to person.
That reaction was the turning point. It showed the team that honesty was safe here, and that it would lead somewhere.
The month most leaders would have missed
Sick leave kept falling: 9.2% in March, 7.8% in April. On paper, the problem was solving itself.
The team’s own scores told a different story. Now that it was safe to be honest, people said how exhausted they actually were. Resilience and focus dropped to between 20% and 40%. Resilience bottomed out at 20% in April.
Most leaders would have looked at the falling sick leave and concluded they were on track. Kaspar saw the drop for what it was: the real problem, finally out in the open, before it turned into the next wave of sick days. He acted on it in one-to-ones, one person at a time.
The turnaround
From May, the team’s scores started climbing. Resilience rose from 20% to 90% by August. Collaboration went from 50% to 90%. Sick leave had a small bump in June, then fell to 4.9% in August.
“Peaky helped create a culture where it was safe to talk openly about ‘bad days’ at work... People learned it was okay to show up even if they were not at 100%, because the team atmosphere could lift them up.”
Kaspar, Team Lead, Wolt Customer Service
The change didn’t sit with Kaspar alone. The team took part of it on themselves.
“It has created a more open and honest culture... It feels like a shared responsibility and not just something Kaspar has to manage. I feel both seen and heard.”
Filippa, Customer Service Agent, Wolt
The results
February | August | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
Sick leave | 15.2% | 4.9% | As much as 68% lower |
Resilience | 35% | 90% | +55 points |
Collaboration | 55% | 90% | +35 points |
Estimated annual savings | DKK 568,000 (23 FTE) |
What made the difference
It was never about the software. It was about the conversation.
An anonymous survey would have told Kaspar that someone felt forced. It couldn’t have told him who to talk to. What changed the numbers at Wolt was a leader who could see the problem by name, in time, and chose to act on it.
Start with one team and see what they tell you.
Peaky helps me create a culture of accountability and continuous learning without feeling controlling.
Kaspar Hansen
Support Lead, Wolt