Dealing with Non-Resilient Employees

Importance of Employee Resilience

How can we as an organization ensure we are developing reliable and resilient employees? Every organization experiences times of stress, conflict, and challenge. During these times, organizations rely on employees to persevere and perform in difficult circumstances. The organization's ability to push through and succeed is dependent on their employee's resilience. This article will provide tips to help you build a resilient work climate.

Herrman et al. (2011) define resilience as "the ability to maintain or regain mental health after experiencing stress and adversity". Sahi and Raghavi (2016) understand it as "the relative capacity for healthy adaptation to life adversities" and "the ability of individuals to function successfully despite significant life adversities" (e.g., Werner & Smith, 1982; Rutter, 1987; Scoloveno, 2017). Hayes, Chumney, and Buckingham (2020) found that approximately 19% of U.S. workers can be described as highly resilient, which leaves 81% of workers in the less resilient or vulnerable category. This study also found that motivation and love for the job are contributing factors to being highly resilient.

Improving resilience in the workforce is crucial to addressing employees' work stress, considered one of the main stressors in employees' lives. Greater employee resilience also benefits the organization by increasing productivity, reducing turnover intention, improving workplace climate, and raising the quality of work (Darley., n.d.). Therefore, to ensure organizational success, it is important to recognize the signs of poor resilience.

Recognizing Signs of Poor Resilience

Psychologists have identified the five following signs of poor resilience:

1. Irritability and overreaction
2. Dwelling on problems
3. Trouble sleeping
4. Persistent illness
5. Substance abuse

A full research report on workplace resilience recommends using the following statements to assess resilience at the workplace (Hayes, Chumney, and Buckingham, 2020):

Self

• I have all the freedom to decide how to get my work done.
• No matter what else is happening around me, I can stay focused on getting my work done.
• In the last week, I have felt excited to work every day.
• I always believe that things are going to work out for the best.

Team leader

• My team leader tells me what I need to know before I know it.
• I trust my team leader.
• I am encouraged to take risks.

Senior leaders

• Senior leaders are one step ahead of events.
• Senior leaders always do what they say they are going to do.
• I completely trust my company's senior leaders.

Enhancing Resilience by Creating a Healthy Workplace.

1. Keep open and active communication with organization employees.

2. Get to know your employees.
Conduct an anonymous need and risk assessment across your employees to improve your understanding, including work satisfaction, stress factors, stress impact, and resilience-related questions.

3. Engaged leaders are more committed.
Demonstrate the organization's commitment to resilience. Involve leaders in resilience programs.

4. Consider Resilience Training:
Resiliency training elevates job performance and work engagement in a dynamic work environment. Fernandez (2016) and APA (2020) suggest including the following component in resilience training:

• Managing emotions
• Find life and work purpose
• Preventing burnout
• Coping with work-related stress
• Seeking help
• Improving and planning breaks and rest routines
• Stimulate mental agility
• Foster well-being by exercising mindfulness and cultivating compassion
• Dealing with interpersonal challenges and managing conflicts
• Improving communication skills
• Facing new challenges
• Improving physical and mental health

5. Look for ways to improve your work environment through the following:

• Allow degrees of autonomy
• Stimulate, reward, and recognize work well done
• Provide access to physical and mental health services when needed
• Allow flexible schedules
• Be reasonable and clear about work expectations

References and Resources

American Psychology Association (APA). (2020). Building your resilience.

Darley, E (n.d). Resilience: A strong workforce needs it. American Psychiatry Association Foundation.

Fernandez, R. (2016). 5 ways to boost your resilience at work. Harvard Business Review. 

Gavin. M. (2019). How to become a more resilient leader. Harvard Business School Online. 

Hayes, M., Chumney, F., & Buckingham, M. (2020). Workplace resilience study full research report. ADP Research Institute. 

Herrman, H., Stewart, D. E., Diaz-Granados, N., Berger, E. L., Jackson, B., & Yuen, T. (2011). What is resilience? The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(5), 258–265.

Manual for Maximizing Stress Responses.

Resilience training.

Suarez, F. & Montes, J. (2020). Building organizational resilience. Harvard Business Review.

Sahi, M. & Raghavi, M. (2016). A study of personality in relation to resilience and stress. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 4(2), 10–18.

Scoloveno, R., (2017). Measures of resilience and an evaluation of the Resilience Scale (RS). International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience, 18(4), 1–7.

The Mayo Clinic Handbook for Happiness: Discover 4 simple steps to live a resilient, joy-filled life.

The University of Massachusetts Global. Resilient leadership: Advice for navigating through organizational changes. 

Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (1982). Vulnerable but invincible: A longitudinal study of resilient children and youth. New York: McGraw-Hill.

7 Ways to Build Organizational Resilience.