Resilience training in the workplace is becoming a necessity for businesses today at a time when companies are grappling with challenges left, right and centre.
Thankfully, more and more employers have also realised that mental wellbeing and performance go hand-in-hand. This is why a growing number of companies are prioritising employee wellness initiatives as opposed to being reactive on the issue, particularly as far as mental health is concerned.
And justifiably so.
The current workplace is witnessing a generational shift as boomers gradually make way for Generation Z, who are joining their millennial counterparts in the active workforce.
And if a previous survey by the Harvard Business Review is anything to go by, mental health seems to be a big deal for the latter two sets of employees. The survey established that 75% of Gen Zers and 50% of millennials have voluntarily and involuntarily left their roles in the past due to mental health problems. [1]
In light of these revelations, it is important that employers change tack in order to get the best out of their employees. One way to accomplish this is by building resilience in the workplace.
Why is resilience important in the workplace?
Before we get to why resilience is important in the workplace, perhaps it would be in order to understand what employee resilience means.
Resilience, by definition, is an individual’s ability to handle stress and respond to pressure. It is a critical skill to master for both employees and leadership because it is what empowers you to overcome adversity and setbacks at work, as well as help you navigate other issues like stress and burnout.
Resilience training in the workplace helps in building an employees’ capacity to handle challenges and manage stress and change. This puts them in a better position to stay on top of their mental – and by extension physical – health in a bid to bring out the best in them vis-à-vis performance.
It is no surprise that work environments that have a positive culture, healthy team dynamics, and take staff wellbeing seriously tend to have happier, less toxic and more productive employees. Their staff is less likely to take days off due to burnout, stress and sickness.
By extension, the employer will also find themselves reducing costs associated with healthcare and absenteeism.
Employee resilience training has a direct bearing on the bottom line, and the cost justification for hiring a resilience speaker or coach will be easy to establish.
Benefits of resilience training in the workplace
Companies have in the past and presently continue to engage in various activities geared towards improving aspects like team morale and motivation. This has been through encouraging a positive work culture, investing in team building efforts, promoting work-life balance, employee recognition and so on.
Resilience training in the workplace is another measure many companies are embracing in a bid to boost performance while supporting their workforce to maintain their mental and physical health.
And it’s not without good reason.
The benefits of resilience training in the workplace you can expect include:
A less stressed-out workforce
Reduced presenteeism and improved mental health and wellbeing in employees and leaders
Rise of a growth mindset culture and better team dynamics
Employees embracing change and setbacks
Let’s look at each in more detail.
1. Resilience training reduces stress
The modern workplace is not short of ongoing stressors that are robbing employees of their energy and productivity. By training employees for resilience, they’ll be better placed to take things in their stride without having tasks or the pressures of work overwhelm them.
Part of this has to do with the fact that resilience helps individuals build emotional stability. And grit. As such, individuals are better able to deal with anxiety, stress and other setbacks. Rather than allow stress to engulf them, employees learn to remain calmer, think logically and be solution-oriented.
The second thing is that by establishing a resilient work environment, the culture of the organisation changes. It becomes a happier, more enjoyable setting to work in where employees exhibit a positive attitude and teams have good synergy.
The low stress levels everyone enjoys as a result in turn lead to less absenteeism, mental breakdowns, depression and physical sickness.
2. Resilience training curbs presenteeism and mental health problems
Presenteeism is the name given to the lost productivity that results from employees being physically present at work but not performing as they should due to underlying factors. This is usually due to health limitations – for example, it could be down to illness, fatigue or poor mental state.
Presenteeism might paint a picture that employees are busy, but in reality, busy doesn’t always mean productive. And it can be costly for employers.
Estimates show that since 2010, presenteeism has more than tripled in the UK. According to a Deloitte report, presenteeism is not only the biggest cause of mental health problems among UK employees, but also employers in the country soak up losses amounting to £27bn to £29bn each year. [2]
Addressing the issue of presenteeism involves relooking your workplace culture to ensure employees stay motivated and addressing underlying issues that could lead to stress, anxiety and depression – the main causes of presenteeism. One way to do that is through resilience training.
3. Resilience training promotes better teamwork
As a resilience coach and speaker, one of the most obvious ways I have seen companies gain from training their workforce for resilience is a noticeable shift in team dynamics.
One of the things resilience teaches is to shun a negative mindset and instead adopt a growth mindset.
A growth mindset encourages individuals to view setbacks and challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. As a result, employees with this mindset are more optimistic and tend to embrace imperfection in self and their colleagues positively. They have a sense of purpose and are goal-driven.
Related: The Power of Goal Setting
By entrenching this mentality in teams, the overall culture inside the workplace improves for the better. Individual employees begin to appreciate their place in the team as a cog in the wheel. And they understand that the efficiency of the wheel is only possible when all hands are on deck and everyone is pulling in the same direction.
Resilience teaches them to handle divergent opinions and differences amicably; and to work past issues for the benefit of the team (and their mental health).
4. Resilience training teaches people that changes are manageable
No role or workplace is exempt from challenges. Whether it’s daily stressors like unmanageable workloads or friction with co-workers, or company or industry-related challenges that impact on employees negatively, the modern worker has a fair share to deal with.
Left unchecked, issues that employees are dealing with can morph into uncertainty, stress, anxiety or depression. This has an effect on employee wellbeing and mental health, which can lead to some of the issues we’ve highlighted here – presenteeism, absenteeism, burnout, low morale, diminished productivity and low performance levels.
By building resilience in the workplace, however, employers can stave off these issues because what resilience coaching does is train employees (and leaders) to treat challenges with ease. Not to sink their heads in the sand in the face of challenges but rather, to acknowledge that challenges are part of life and they can be overcome.
This is easier said for daily challenges than bigger setbacks such as the prospect of losing one’s job or getting phased out due to industry headwinds such as the threat of AI.
Regardless of the nature that setbacks present themselves in, however, resilience training equips everyone from employees to company leadership with the mentality to keep going. It helps individuals develop grit and the mindset to bounce back after adversity.
This is what the growth mindset that we’ve alluded to above is all about.
Conclusion
Resilience training in the workplace has been found to offer multiple benefits for employers on top of the reasons we have outlined here.
Not only does it have a positive impact on employee mental health (leaders included), but the overall shift in organisational culture that comes with resilience coaching stands businesses in good stead with regard to staying on top of existing and emerging challenges, and thriving in a fast-changing world.
As such, you find that the cost of hiring a resilience speaker or coach is a drop in the ocean compared to the potential benefits that companies stand to gain.
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