Two hospital staff in scrubs sitting together in a quiet corridor at the end of a shift

For employers

Resilience can be learned

We have the programme to teach it. Stress is among the largest factors holding employees back, and unlike most things on that list, it is modifiable.

Book a discovery call

Stress is a business problem, not just a health one

Employers face many different challenges in improving employee engagement, performance, and the bottom line. But they are increasingly realising that stress is among the largest factors holding employees back. No longer just a healthcare issue, managing stress has become a top priority for organisations looking to increase productivity, build culture, and improve the bottom line.

Psychological capital (hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism) is associated with important business outcomes, from absence to performance and turnover intent. Unlike traditional workplace wellness programmes, our approach offers an unintimidating transition for employees to ease into resiliency over time. Resilience is a state, not a trait: it is modifiable and can be improved through well-structured interventions. It is a practical strategy for dealing with stress and its workplace cost, and can improve employee morale, productivity, and outcomes.

The problem

Stress and other emotional factors are the leading causes of productivity impairment and absenteeism, as well as contributing factors for heart disease, obesity, and insomnia. It is well established that the physical and mental health of employees influence health care costs, disability, workers compensation claims, absenteeism, and work performance.

And yet, until recently, employers have done little to focus on the psychological and emotional aspects of health. They train employees to do their jobs safely, accurately, and efficiently, and offer optional health improvement programmes. Emotional wellbeing has conventionally been limited to those in desperate need and seen as the domain of crisis-based solutions.

Actively cultivating resilience in your workforce is not a nice-to-have but a business imperative. A happier, less stressed, more engaged, and more focused workforce means higher productivity, lower health costs, and less absenteeism, which means better overall financial performance.

What is resilience?

Resilience is defined as an individual’s ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity, or our struggle with change. Stress and adversity can come in the shape of family or relationship problems, health problems, or workplace and financial stressors, to name a few. Individuals demonstrate resilience when they can face difficult experiences and rise above them with ease.

Its components are

A positive self-concept, and confidence in one’s strength and abilities
Communication and problem-solving skills
The ability to manage strong impulses and feelings
The ability to make realistic plans, and the capability to take the steps necessary to follow through
Positive relationships: reciprocal support and caring

How resilience reaches your employees

There are three main mechanisms through which resilience influences business outcomes.

Morale
Resilience improves morale, which improves engagement and retention.
Performance
Resilience improves job performance by improving both effectiveness and efficiency.
Absence
Resilience mitigates stress symptoms and absenteeism, health costs, and the suffering that results.

What the research actually shows

Psychological capital (hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism) is a measurable state, not a fixed trait. The studies cited below associate it with higher job performance and satisfaction, fewer absences, and lower job stress and intention to leave.

Those relationships are real. They are not a per-employee dollar figure. What improved resilience is worth in your organisation depends on wages, headcount, baseline absence, and turnover, which is why we will not invent one here.

From the papers we cite

HigherPerformance and satisfaction: Luthans and colleagues (2007) developed a validated measure of psychological capital and found it positively related to both job performance and job satisfaction, across two organisational samples.
LowerAbsenteeism: In a field study at a high-tech firm, Avey, Patera, and West (2006) found that higher psychological capital was associated with lower voluntary and involuntary absenteeism, adding explanatory power beyond common job-attitude measures.
LowerStress and turnover intent: Avey, Luthans, and Jensen (2009) found psychological capital negatively related to job stress and to turnover intentions, with stress helping to explain the path from psychological capital to intending to leave.

The opportunity

We envision a community comprised of a workforce where individuals reach their full potential through physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. Building psychological capital is a supported way to work with workplace stress, and health coaching is a practical way to deliver that work.

When people improve their coping skills and become more resilient, the research above finds they tend to perform better, miss fewer days, and are less inclined to leave.

ResilienceONE offers an engagement and performance programme that uses personalised coaching and team training to build those skills inside the organisation. You can equip each of your employees with the capacity to work through obstacles, increase agility, and gain adaptive capacity.

References

Luthans, F., et al. Positive Psychological Capital: Measurement and Relationship with Performance and Satisfaction. Leadership Institute Faculty Publications, 2007. Paper 11: p. 541–572.
Avey, J.B., F. Luthans, and S.M. Jensen. Psychological Capital: A Positive Resource for Combating Employee Stress and Turnover. Human Resource Management, 2009. 48: p. 677–693.
Avey, J.B., J.L. Patera, and B.J. West. The Implications of Positive Psychological Capital on Employee Absenteeism. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 2006. 13(2): p. 42–60.

See what this looks like inside your organisation

A fifteen-minute video call is enough to walk through the programme, the evidence behind it, and whether it fits what you are actually trying to change.