Click here to read the article as published in the India.com September 2023

In today’s fast-paced and demanding work environment, stress has become synonymous with the workplace for many. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a quarter of all employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives. This rising level of workplace stress has significant implications on not just employees but the overall health of the organisation.

By cultivating resilience, employees can effectively cope with pressure, maintain their mental and physical health, and thrive in their professional lives. This eventually impacts the organisation’s productivity. But how do organisations achieve this?

Here are a few best practices that businesses can kick start with to increase resilience in their staff:

  1. Encourage Positive Relationship Building at the Workplace – A strong social network with support and understanding can make work more enjoyable for employees. Promoting team bonding activities, having one-on-one sessions with employees to understand their challenges and providing them with opportunities to upskill can strengthen the relationship between employees and the organisation.
  2. Encouraging the Practice of Self-Care – A healthy mind is the reflection of a healthy person. Encouraging adequate short breaks during work hours to recharge can bring magical differences in employee productivity. Facilitating group activities like meditation, yoga, games and reading rooms can also help staff re-energise and rejuvenate. Businesses can lead by example by setting standards about work flexibility and support to ease pressure on staff and strengthen the foundations of a healthy workplace.
  3. Prioritise Mental Wellbeing – Providing resources like mental health services where staff can speak with counsellors or psychologists anonymously, life skills training and stress management workshops underscores the organisation’s commitment to employee wellbeing and resilience.
  4. Being Adaptable and Collaborative – Change is the only constant. Hence, building a resilient team that can adapt and embrace change is the leadership’s responsibility. Cultivating such a flexible mindset empowers staff to focus on finding solutions rather than resist change or get embroiled with the problem itself. The shift to online from a traditional business is a case in point. Businesses that could adapt to technology in some form survived, and even thrived. Embracing challenges collaboratively along with the team instead fosters employee loyalty and a solution-oriented mindset.
  5. Celebrate Successes – Celebrations and appreciations go a long way. Acknowledge and celebrate successes to foster a culture of resilience and positivity in the workplace. Recognise and appreciate progress, no matter how small, as a cultural element within the company’s DNA. According to our studies appreciating staff efforts and achievements is one of the top drivers of employee engagement.
  6. Conduct Tailored Employee Engagement Surveys – According to an Engaged Strategy study, engaged employees show 70% more discretionary effort than disengaged employees. This has a massive impact on the bottom line. Typical employee engagement surveys are thinly disguised satisfaction surveys. You need a survey designed to drive engagement a higher order measure. Frequently measuring employees’ engagement via pulse surveys and scientifically designed strategic feedback mechanisms has always found to help businesses identify staff pain points and address them appropriately to build a healthy workplace that shows that it values its staff and cares about their wellbeing.

An empowered leadership equals empowered staff.

When it comes to creating an amazing internal culture where staff thrive not just survive all roads lead to leadership. Recognising that all individuals are inherently driven by Maslow’s basic needs, it is crucial for the leadership to meet these requirements of employees at all levels of the organisation. Knowing how to identify the core emotional and intellectual needs of individual staff and tapping into them to drive engagement is pivotal in fostering team cohesion and boosting productivity.

Investing in employee wellbeing and building workplace resilience yields numerous advantages for both individuals and organisations. Resilient employees exhibit enhanced productivity, reduced attrition, and lower healthcare costs due to their ability to handle stress effectively. Moreover, such initiatives foster positive employee recommendations, attracting top talent to the organisation.

NPS®, Net Promoter® and Net Promoter Score® are registered trademarks of NICE Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld.

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