I am sick and tired of talking to organisations who tell me that they have got this workforce resilience thing covered because they ran a workshop 6 months ago or they have kindly furnished their employees with an app that will support their mental wellbeing.

It’s absolute BS

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are some great apps out there and some great organisations running corporate resilience workshops. But without leadership commitment and action to create a foundation for resilience, it is a total waste of time and money.

Building resilience at work is an ongoing process. It is like going to the gym on a regular basis to build muscle and strength. An annual resilience workshop is like going to the gym once and expecting a 100% increase in fitness. Provision of an app alone is like giving employees a gym membership and then sitting back and hoping they will use it.

To make things even worse, your people know it too.

Workforce resilience has been part of the C-suite talkfest for many years. Along with ‘agility’ and ‘adaptability’ the words have been thrown around so often, they have become meaningless buzzwords. They are subject to lengthy discussion but with little or no resulting action.

Leadership commitment and action

Without leadership commitment and action, all the investment you make in resilience initiatives will be wasted.

It’s like casting seeds on concrete and expecting them to grow.

Leaders need to be committed to building a resilient workforce and take action to do so. These are just some of those actions.

Remove the stigma

Unless we remove the stigma around mental health in the workplace, the workshop, the retreat, the app will be pointless.

The only way the stigma is removed is through open and honest conversation and that has to be led by leaders.

When leaders speak up about their stresses and anxieties, others will be prepared to do the same.

Only when we remove the stigma, will people reach out for help without fear of losing credibility or their job.

Some organisations are very proud that they have Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Officers in the workplace. However, if a stigma around mental health exists, the people who really need the help are unlikely to reach out. MHFA Officers are great to have but the stigma has to be removed for the initiative to be fully effective.

Both in Australia and the US, roughly only half of workers are comfortable talking about their mental health at work.

Provide psychological safety

If leaders do not create an environment of psychological safety – an environment in which resilience can thrive – any investment in resilience building will be wasted.

If employees do not feel they can be their authentic self in the workplace, do not feel accepted and respected for who they are, do not feel it safe to contribute and challenge the status quo without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way, there will be no resilience.

Resilience means that employees embrace setbacks as learning opportunities. They bounce forward – not just back. Without psychological safety, they will not share their setbacks. The silence will kill resilience in its tracks.

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Empathy and vulnerability

Leaders can build resilient teams if they can lead with empathy. When leaders truly understand their employee’s feelings and concerns, they can be compassionate.

Empathy is the foundation that allows leaders to build resilient teams. Empathetic leaders listen effectively and respond appropriately. They pay close attention to how their employees are faring and support them accordingly.

Leaders can only create safe environments in which resilience can thrive, if they show their vulnerability. Many perceive vulnerability as a sign of weakness when actually it is a sign of extreme courage.

When leaders share their struggles, concerns and feelings, it gives others permission to do the same.

Continual and contextual

Resilience is like any muscle; it requires practice to get stronger. Building real workforce resilience is a continual process built into the DNA of the organisation – not something bolted on as an afterthought.

Leaders have to embed the practice of increasing resilience into the day-to-day activities of every team and every team member.

Resilience is not created with a one-off event or activity.

Resilience is a continual process of education, learning, development and access to supporting resources.

Resources for building resilience should be contextual.

When the struggle to solve a complex problem is diminishing my resilience, I need collaboration, communication and problem-solving skills – not a yoga session on a Friday morning.

When my resilience is diminished due to a setback, I need self-efficacy and reframing skills – not Monday morning mediation and reflection.

When feeling overwhelmed with stress and unable to make a rational decision, I need emotional intelligence skills and the ability to regulate my emotions – not a lesson in mindfulness.

Perception and prevention

One of the most important things leaders need to be equipped with is the ability to spot the early signs of low resilience in others and know what to do.

When leaders perceive low resilience, they need to reach out and ask the right questions. They need the ability to perceive low resilience in a virtual as well as physical environment.

They need to take prompt and effective action to prevent employee stress resulting in extreme fatigue and burnout.

Every leader needs to be comfortable starting the conversation about a change they have noticed in someone, and then keeping it going when that person says that they are not ok.

The implications

The cost of not doing it right.

The rate of change impacting organisations is not going to slow down. We need a workforce that is resilient in the face of constant and uncertain change.

If we don’t build it, the implications include:

· Lower productivity

· Lower profitability

· High turnover

· High absenteeism and presenteeism

· Low talent attraction and retention

· Employee burnout

Your organization will become irrelevant.

The Australian Productivity Commission report (2020) into mental health estimates that mental illness costs Australia about $220 billion each year.

The Thriving At Work review of mental health and employers in the UK (2017) revealed that ill mental health is costing employers between £33 billion and £42 billion every year, with the total impact on the UK economy ranging from £74 billion to £99 billion.

In the US , research suggests the cost to employers is between $31 billion to $51 billion per year in lost productivity.

The World Economic Forum reports that by 2030, the global costs of mental health problems will total over $6 trillion.

The return on investment from doing it right

Deloitte research in Canada (2019) found that organisations with mental health programs in place for one year had a median annual ROI of $1.62 for every dollar invested, while companies with programs in place for three or more years have a median annual ROI of $2.18 for every dollar spent.

PwC research in Australia estimated a return on investment of $2.3 for every $1 spent on mental health initiatives in the workplace.

A Deloitte systematic review in the UK, said that ROIs ranged from 0.4:1 to 9:1 with an average ROI of $4 for every $1 spent. The research indicated that those figures were likely to be conservative.

Summary

Stop wasting your money on resilience initiatives that will have absolutely no impact because you have not created an environment in which resilience can flourish. There is no one-off workshop or an app for that.

Building resilience in the workplace? Stop wasting your money.