Workplace Resilience Training: Finding The Right Approach for Your Organisation
Resilience at work has never been more important.
We live in a fast-paced world. Working hard. Meeting deadlines. Hitting targets. Constantly striving to do better.
With all those challenges to navigate, it’s no surprise that a whopping 79% of employed British adults regularly experience work-related stress.1
Stress is part of life. And being able to handle challenging situations or overcome setbacks is often determined by a person’s level of resilience.
Luckily, resilience isn’t something people are just born with. It’s a combination of learned behaviours and actions, and this skill can be developed through resilience training.
Table of Contents
What is resilience?
According to the American Psychological Association,2 resilience is defined as “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioural flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”
But, it’s important to remember that resilience means different things to different people.
To us, resilience is having the ability to positively adapt and grow with change. To bounce back when things don’t go to plan and to recover quickly from adversity.
Being resilient doesn’t solve people’s issues, but it does help them to work through problems, and deal with stress more effectively – rather than dwelling on failures.
They recognise the problem, learn from their mistakes, and move on.
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What are resilience skills?
When someone is considered to be ‘resilient’, they generally:
- Maintain a positive and optimistic outlook
- Handle challenging situations with ease
- View change as an opportunity or challenge
- Have a high level of adaptability
- Have a high tolerance for negativity
- Respond better to stressful or pressured situations
It has been demonstrated that various brain structures and pathways are involved in resilience3 and that resilience, like any other ability, can be strengthened with practice.
In addition, resilient individuals differ significantly in their neural activity compared with less resilient individuals.4
To better understand how building mental resilience works, we can use physical resilience as as a parallel example:
If you go out for a run every day, your muscles become more resilient to the demands of that type of exercise. This builds your strength and endurance which then means you can run faster and further.
Emotional resilience works in a similar way. It is a skill that can be learnt and developed.
Empirical evidence suggests that resilience is a skill that can be learned and acquired. The Harvard Business School5 has identified three aspects for building resilience, which include:
- Facing reality – It helps us to survive and endure when faced with adversity.
- Finding meaning – Searching for meaning during hard times which are aligned with one’s values.
- Improvisation – Keep going and do your best with whatever is at hand. Be inventive and innovative when faced with difficult situations.
Why is resilience at work important?
We spend a lot of time at work. So, it’s no surprise that it’s the most common cause of stress in people’s lives.6
Here are just a few of the benefits of investing in workplace resilience training:
- Enables your teams with the tools to deal with stress and anxiety more effectively
- Gives them a greater sense of control when things go wrong
- Enhances employee wellbeing
- Increases engagement, productivity, and performance
- Improves employee relationships
- Promotes job satisfaction
Common approaches to building resilience
Developing resilience doesn’t happen overnight. It’s complex and personal. It requires inner strength as well as external resources.
1. Mindfulness and emotion regulation.
Research has found that mindfulness training is positively related to effective emotional regulation; reduced negative responses, greater positive response and less emotional regulation difficulties.7 Emotional regulation has been considered a protective factor which buffers stress and fosters resilience.8
Fortunately, we all have an in-built system that helps us to destress and build our resilience. This is known as the parasympathetic nervous system.
This system, sometimes referred to as ‘the rest and digest system’ is responsible for relaxation. It also counterbalances the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the stress response of the body.
Research has identified a number of different activities that can activate our parasympathetic nervous system:
2. Positive psychology techniques.
Positive psychology focuses on the processes that help individuals to flourish. 15 Examples include techniques to foster optimism and gratitude which have been shown to increase positive emotions.16 This in turn contributes to greater resilience.17 18
3. Active coping.
Actively engaging in coping strategies and problem-solving helps to build resilience to stressful situations.19 20
Examples of active coping include:
- Effective planning
- Taking a pragmatic approach
- Facing challenging situations head on
When it comes to developing resilience specifically in the workplace, it’s important to:
- Equip employees to self-regulate when under stress – helping them to stay calm, grounded and level-headed in difficult situations.
- Reduce sources of stress – even the most resilient and stress-tolerant teams will burnout if they’re overloaded with stress so seek out and tackle route causes.
- Cultivate a supportive and responsive team and environment – knowing you’re not alone makes it easier to weather the storm when the going gets tough. Previous studies have found that social support is a protective factor against stress.21
- Encourage psychological flexibility – seeking out new perspectives, ways of thinking and problem-solving techniques can help us to navigate obstacles more readily when they arise.
Types of resilience training
There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to resilience training and the same method may have different impacts for different individuals.22
Challenges and stressors are not the same for all of us and may range from poor work-life balance, lack of autonomy, physical work environment, or relationships with colleagues.
The workplace stresses of someone working in finance are going to be different to someone working in healthcare.
So let’s take a look at some of the most common types of resilience training, the audiences they serve and how you can get the best results.
Workplace resilience training – employees and teams
To manage and sustain workplace wellbeing, both the organisation and the employee must work together and be proactive in their approach.
Employees who feel well supported, motivated, and equipped are best positioned to overcome obstacles and challenges.
It’s important to take the time to properly map out your current situation, what are your employee’s main struggles? Where would they benefit the most from extra support?
- Prioritisation
- Managing their workload
- Saying “no”
- Dealing with conflict
- Switching off from work
- Developing a positive mindset
- Regulating challenging emotions
- Staying calm under pressure
- Trying new things and getting out of their comfort zone
- Managing anxiety when dealing with change
- Taking breaks
- Building healthier habits
Once you’ve pinpointed the main struggles your employees are facing, you’ll be able to tailor resilience training to get you the best results.
Or you could take things even further by developing an Employee Wellbeing Programme.
Resilience training for companies – management and team leaders
Managers have to deal with all the typical stresses of work with the added pressure of having responsibility for other people. Not only do they have their team’s wellbeing challenges to navigate, but they must not neglect their own.
When leaders become overwhelmed by stress, they’re likely to be less present and focused. And passive leadership has a range of negative effects on teams, influencing employees’ attitudes and behaviours.
Successful leaders need to be able to push through challenges and stay motivated. Even when the odds are stacked against them, they must inspire their team to think positively. Research has even identified that optimism is an important predictor of resilience.23
Furthermore, resilient leaders tend to lead more resilient teams. Research shows that employees who positively rate their leaders’ handling of challenging situations also had higher levels of resilience.24
Investing in the resilience skills of your people leaders not only has trickle-down benefits for the team, but it also provides a foundation for further development. It can help managers to develop their approach to supporting and coaching their teams, ultimately developing their team members’ capacity to self-manage and improve their wellbeing and resilience.
However, particularly in the case of young and rapidly growing organisations, managers are often promoted based on technical ability without being supported to develop the soft skills they need to be successful leaders. It’s an easy trap to fall into, but the organisations do so expose themselves to significant risks – research shows that managers are responsible for 70% of the variation in employee engagement.25
- Gallup reported that only 30% of U.S. employees are engaged at work
- And, as low 13% worldwide are engaged
Everything improves when an organisation raises employee engagement levels across all business units. To make this happen, they must provide their managers with the skills required to successfully manage and lead a team.
Resilience training for university students
Resilience skills are essential for student success.
In particular, new students can benefit from support as they make the often bumpy transition to living away from home for the first time. On top of dealing with the stress of change, they also need to develop a healthy routine that works for them and supports their wellbeing.
There are the common stresses of coursework, exams, developing life skills and handling relationship troubles to consider. And, personal resilience and the ability to navigate these challenges plays a big role in shaping the student experience.
Young people who are more resilient have:
- Higher levels of social competence
- Improved problem-solving skills
- Greater sense of autonomy and self-efficiency
- Increased sense of purpose, hope, or meaning26
By beginning to develop resilience in the classroom, we are helping to ensure that students are better prepared to enter adult life and face life’s challenges.
Some key areas to help students thrive are:
- Practising gratitude – According to neuroscientist Dr. Alex Korb, practising gratitude “brings the capacity to enhance your physical and mental health, boost happiness, improve sleep, and make you feel more connected to other people”27.
- Tackling imposter syndrome – research from Study Hub found that two in five (43%) of university students may suffer from impostor syndrome 28, demonstrating how prevalent it is among the demographic.
- Building healthy routines and habits – getting into positive habits is absolutely integral to maintaining a healthy work-life balance and building student resilience.
Resilience training for healthcare professionals
There is no doubt that healthcare can be one of the most challenging sectors to work in even at the best of times. And through the COVID-19 pandemic, the resilience of healthcare professionals has been tested to the limit.
According to the NHS, anxiety, stress, depression, and other psychiatric illnesses are consistently the most reported reason for sickness absence.29 Between April 2021 and June 2021 it accounted for over 502,000 work days lost.
We’ve worked with many kinds of healthcare professionals, ranging from NHS workers in hospitals, to care workers in care services. It’s given us an appreciation of some of the specific challenges the sector faces, including:
- High levels of pressure and responsibility coupled with under-resourcing
- Burnout and exhaustion from long and intense working shifts
- The tendency to prioritise the needs of others over personal needs
- Handling conflict and abuse from patients and/or family members
- Risk of secondary trauma from caring for patients in extremely difficult situations
- Becoming emotionally drained and experiencing compassion fatigue and desensitisation.
Support that focuses on increasing self-compassion, creating more opportunities for self-care practices and reconnecting to the meaning and purpose of the role can be particularly impactful in these types of organisations.
Online personal resilience courses
If you’re looking for ways to incorporate resilience interventions into your personal life there are several free online courses available that you may want to explore:
- Deakin University developed a 2-week course focused on enhancing resilience among professionals who work in high-pressure environments. It helps to understand resilience and develop a personal resilience plan. This course has been certified by the CPD UK. It has a rating of 4.8 out of 5.
- The Open University offers a free 8-week course focused on developing career resilience by engaging in personal reflection, boosting self-esteem, self-efficacy, building support systems, focusing on one’s strengths and finally creating an action plan for incorporating resilience into one’s life. This course is also accredited by the CPD.
- The University of Pennsylvania offers a free four-week resilience course, based on positive psychology techniques. It aims to develop resilience in both your personal and professional life by enhancing the protective factors which buffer stress and enhance resilience. Examples of these factors include mental agility, optimism and gratitude. It has a rating of 4.9 out of 5, with almost 2,000 reviews.
- This 6-week course delivered by the University of Macquire aims to help leaders to increase personal resilience by understanding stressors, managing demands and goal-setting, time management and personal organisation. It has a rating of 4.8 out of 5, with almost 300 reviews.
Personal resilience coaching
Coaches can help people acquire skills that boost their resilience in a variety of ways. They can help people reframe their cognitive response to situations, helping them to see new possibilities. With this new perspective, employees can be better equipped to bounce back, grow, and overcome obstacles.
Whilst 1-to-1 coaching gives a more tailored approach to a person’s needs, the results largely depend on the coach and coachee relationship.30
To help you figure out if a coach is the ‘right fit’ for you, ask yourself;
- What do you want to gain from the experience?
- What do you want to achieve by the end of it?
- What kind of experience do you want the coach to have?
- How are the essential qualifications your coach should have?
This is just a starting point. Ultimately “fit” is one of the most critical ideas to focus on. Can you work with the individual? Can you open up to them?
Many of our facilitators work with individuals on a one-to-one basis, helping them to build resilience skills as well as improve confidence, work/life balance or career progression.
How to choose the right resilience training provider
When planning a resilience training or programme there are a lot of things to consider and it can feel overwhelming at times. As you’re evaluating your options and trying to decide which partner to work with, here are 5 of the top factors to have in mind that will help set you up for success.
1. A Flexible Partner
Look for a partner who does their homework. They should take the time to get to know you and your organisation and deeply understand the audience they’ll be working with. Based on this, they should be willing to adjust both the content and format in order to produce the best results. Generic, pre-baked presentations won’t inspire meaningful behaviour change and can even be counter-productive. Even the slightest whiff of a ‘tick-box exercise’ and participants will check out.
2. Sound Methods
A lot of training content can centre around catchy acrostics and buzzwords that sound great in a brochure but later prove to be lacking in substance. An experienced resilience trainer should be able to articulate a logical methodology and have reliable data to back it up. The research it out there so it make sense to make the most of it!
3. A Solid Track Record
There’s a litany of options when it comes to wellbeing training – it’s a highly saturated market. After all, who wouldn’t want to help the world to be happier at work? But it’s important to go with a provider who’s equipped to tackle tough corporate audiences who can be sceptical and even suspicious of wellbeing as a topic. Checking out past projects and even having a reference call are highly recommended.
4. Beware of Gurus
We’ve worked with a lot of clients who’ve had bad experiences with wellbeing training in the past. Here are just some of the things we’ve heard from them.
“The speaker was breathtakingly condescending.”
“A lot of the advice pretty much boiled down to do more meditation or meditate harder.”
“It didn’t seem like the content had much basis in fact. A lot of it was very vague and some things just seemed to be obviously wrong.”
Don’t be afraid to dig a little deeper in your conversations for red flags that might not be immediately obvious.
5. The Price is Right
Cost is naturally a huge factor in any purchasing decision. But the old adage of you get what you pay for is particularly pertinent when it comes to training.
Typically the biggest cost of training to organisations is actually the value of their staff member’s time. So skimping on the training provider saves less than you might think while running the risk of disappointing outcomes.
If you’d like some guidance about what resilience training would work best in your organisation, the Haptivate team is always happy to help. You can drop us a line here or even book a free consultation here.
Need a Hand?
If you’re searching for a partner to help improve wellbeing and happiness in your workplace, get in touch with a friendly member of our team. We’re here to help you reach your goals.
Aysha Frost
Digital Marketing
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