Introduction
Content Moderators act as digital-first responders, removing unwanted content before widespread exposure to platform users. Although many people greatly benefit from their work, repeated exposure to abusive, graphic, and violent content can take its toll on moderators. Coupled with the cognitive complexity and stressors associated with this type of work, the impact on mental health can be high.
To date, research specific to content moderation is lacking and efforts to support mental health tend to be more reactive than proactive. However, since the pandemic there have been an increasing number of companies prioritising the safeguarding of employee mental health, using wellbeing strategy to guide trainings and interventions, proactively assessing risk and train leadership and management to address and respond to psychosocial stressors. These companies are systemically addressing issues from an organisation-wide perspective to reduce work demands so that resilience is supported, not depleted.
However, not all companies are at a mature stage of wellbeing prioritisation and need to understand how, in the face of certain conditions can individual resilience be supported. Not only to help mitigate risk of trauma or stress-related illness, but also from an ROI perspective to help reduce the financial implications of absenteeism, productivity and attrition. The following blog will provide a best practice overview of how leadership and management can support Content Moderator resilience, with an exploration of some of the challenges with what we mean by ‘resilience’.
Work Design & Culture
The most crucial part of Content Moderator and any employee wellbeing is work culture: how people interact, how compassionate and understanding leadership are and attention to wellbeing is what makes the real difference. Initiatives such as workplace resilience training programs cannot address deeper psychosocial issues such as poor job design, work culture and unsupportive leadership behaviour. Facilitating actual behaviour change requires more than just training, though any training on the topic of resilience, mental health literacy, coping skills, stress management will be very beneficial to Content Moderators in preparation for the role and throughout their careers. At Zevo, we have seen the powerful effect of addressing work design and other psychosocial hazards on client wellbeing metrics including resilience and psychological wellbeing. Adapting the culture ensures that interventions, such as resilience training can work most effectively.
Therapeutic Support
Secondly, for those at risk of exposure to trauma, they should have access to 24/7 therapeutic support. Therapy is a very useful tool in supporting Content Moderator resilience and coping strategies, as it can help them manage reactions to content as well as manage stress or anxiety that may arise as a result of work. However, it is also crucial to regularly check in with employees to ensure that issues are being proactively addressed and to ensure they know that help is available before it is needed.
Flexible Workflows
It is recommended that moderation work is divided into different workflows according to content type (child safety, hate speech, violent extremism, etc.) while ensuring moderators time on egregious queues is kept to a minimum. Content Moderators should also be supported when asking to opt out of a workflow as certain types of content impact individuals differently. While some, for example may be more comfortable with child safety, for others it can be deeply disturbing and greatly impact their mental health and resilience. In addition to this flexibility, it is important to encourage regular break taking to allow moderators to cognitively recharge and recover from the physiological impact of certain types of content. Regular break taking is important for the health and wellbeing of all employees and therefore especially so for Content Moderators with additional psychologically demanding tasks.
Connection
Another important component of resilience is for moderators to feel connected with their colleagues, to be able to share experiences and healthy coping practices with others in the same line of work. Opportunities to connect and socialise can be supported through peer support or chat group channels during work, or off-site events after work. Building strong relationships is a key factor in resilience therefore organisations should foster a culture where employees can support each other and work together as a team using effective communication channels.
Sense of Purpose
Employees thrive when they have meaning and purpose in life which is particularly true for Content Moderators who carry out such important work. However, often they need to be reminded why what they do is important. Personal perspective and meaning can be the most important element of work fulfilment and resilience.
Conclusion
Many organisations tend to focus on individual employee resilience; the ability to withstand work pressure while remaining productive. This sends the message that employees must endure what happens at work yet not show any signs of distress. However, resilience exists in a system, not just in individuals. In the context of content moderation, resilience needs to be nurtured through therapy, training, social connection, flexibility and break taking in a culture that respects mental health, the challenges of the role and regularly demonstrates that it cares about its employees.
