How to Reinforce Employee Resilience

While there is a normal level of pressure to be expected? in any job, it’s so important that? leaders are vigilant in ensuring that this pressure doesn’t exceed their individual team members’ capacities to cope and end up causing deeper wellbeing issues. It is essential that leaders are proactive in their approach to wellbeing strategy, rather than reactive when employees may already be on the road to burnout.

By taking these steps, leaders can help bolster employee resilience and maximise wellbeing, productivity and engagement.?

Make sure everyone is getting regular rest periods?

Humans aren’t computers. We need regular breaks to maintain cognitive ability. On average, the human brain can only concentrate on the same task for between 90-120 minutes before the quality of our work begins to sharply decline. It is the responsibility of leaders to ensure that regular short rest periods are implemented as standard practice. Going for a 10 minute walk after a 2 hour writing task, or taking a 5 minute break to grab some water and chat with a colleague after an intense meeting should be encouraged.

Regular recovery periods ensure that employees are operating with full energy tanks and will maximise the quality of their output while protecting their wellbeing. Leaders should keep an eye out for employees who make a habit of not taking breaks and gently encourage them to take a step back and recharge.?

Encourage self-protecting boundaries?

While some people may feel confident pushing back on demands to protect their own wellbeing, others will feel uncomfortable doing so. Whether it is because they are trying to keep everyone happy, or feel anxious about looking uncommitted or incapable, it can be challenging for people to prioritise their own work and energy reserves. This often finishes with employees taking on too much, which can lead to a decline in the quality of their work and creativity, and ultimately employee burnout.

It is important that leaders set a precedent that employees should indicate to others if they do not have capacity for a task or extra work. Saying no should feel normal, as well as communication about workload and capacity. When people start defining their own boundaries and protecting them, it also encourages them to be more conscious of and respect the? boundaries of others.

Build supportive communities?

A support network within the workplace is important to maximise wellbeing and ensure nobody is isolated. While support from management is important, building a culture where everyone supports each other will help promote emotional resilience and build a culture of psychological safety where employees feel comfortable voicing concerns, as well as asking for help from teams as well as managers.?

Encouraging teams to come together and have open, constructive conversations is essential. Hosting workshops focussed on collaboration or encouraging socials to facilitate this will help employees build these supportive and communicative relationships.?

Celebrate success together?

Sometimes in the midst of the busyness and bustle of work, we forget to take those moments to celebrate our wins and praise the team for their hard work. It can be so easy to forget how far a simple thank you can go. Or how much a shout out to someone for something helpful or impressive they did can increase someone’s motivation and engagement.?

Making sure that everyone knows their worth in the company and how appreciated they are is key to maintaining a resilient workforce. Leaders should remember to give praise when they are impressed and reward employees for hard work. This mustn’t be forgotten in the busyness of the day-to-day.?

Watch out for overworking?

Traditionally, overworking has been seen by many as a representation of ambition or dedication to a person's job. However it is important to debunk this misconception. Overworking should be discouraged to protect employee wellbeing and resilience. When employees get to the end of each day or week, the time that they spend fully detached from work is crucial to their recovery from workplace pressure and to recharge their energy levels for the next wave of performance.?

Leaders need to watch out for who is responding to emails regularly outside of working hours or often edits documents on weekends, and check in with this person to uncover why this might be happening. The benefits of rest periods must be made clear to employees, so work with them to understand the root cause of their overworking.

Building employee resilience is foundational to encouraging positive mental health among employees, and should be prioritised by leaders. To avoid the need for firefighting issues, adopt a proactive approach which promotes wellbeing in the day-to-day.

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