A term that is growing in efficacy in work circles is resilience: one’s ability to withstand, recover and grow in the face of adversity. Resilience is an essential set of skills that not only buffers against the negative effects of stress, but is also linked to greater job satisfaction, work happiness, organizational commitment and employee engagement.
A catalyst for organizations prioritizing resilience training has been the immense stress brought on by Covid-19. A study by Ginger suggested that nearly 70% of employees indicated that Covid-19 is the most stressful time of their career. Even more troubling with the elevated stress is the risk of workforce accidents. Stress has been directly linked to between 60-80% of safety incidents. It’s because of these elevated risks that many leaders have sought the benefits of resilience training to help employees build these skills proactively, so they’re not as adversely affected by stress or any adversity that comes their way.
Where barriers have existed in the past of reaching the decentralized workforce, programs today are taking a data-focused approach to training that has been greatly aided through technology. Best-in-class resilience programs today live on mobile as the constant, personalized companion, and machine learning has made it so the training is tailored to each employee. Meaning – training is no longer a one-size-fits all. Modern programs are built for each employee and offer leaders a look at team-wide analytics to help them make data-driven decisions.
Armed with training that can reach employees anytime, anywhere, and data that represents their entire employee population, employers using resilience training can make proactive decisions that reduce the negative impact of Covid-19 on employee mental health.
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One thing we’ve learned through the pandemic is mental health resources need to be designed for more than those we perceive to be mentally ill in our workforce. It’s become clear that mental health is suffering from a huge brand problem. Mental health is a total workforce issue and each one of us experiences adversity, everyday. Where workforce mental health has met resistance previously, supports have been designed for the fractional ‘ill’ population, of which very few employees have self-identified.
With resilience training, these are inexhaustible skills that benefit and can be trained in each employee, and can lead to better mental health outcomes across a wider worker population. It has helped employers get around the mental health brand problem with a skillset that is universally coveted. Training that has less stigma, more reach and total workforce applicability, and data to help leaders make better decisions, has made the business case clear for leaders that resilience training needs to be an essential part of their employee well being strategy.