I don't know about you, but the word 'Resilient' is often used but rarely really thought about. In fact, most people use the word to judge colleagues with sentences such as ' They need to be more resilient!" or "They are not very emotionally resilient are they?" Phrases that can be very thoughtless but have an impact nonetheless.
But it is a word that needs to be taken seriously within the workplace and if senior management teams do not, then this could be at their peril! Why?
Well, it seems that a lack of resilience amongst the workforce could prove to be costly in terms of the bottom line.
To start with, the same report from Aon stated that if 70% of the workforce was not feeling resilient (bear in mind this is data taken from 2019 before the Pandemic took place and the resulting impact on the workplace) then it is more likely that an employee:
💡 Will be up to 59% less engaged with their work.
💡Will be up to 43% less likely to stay with their employer.
According to Centric HR, it can cost a company about 20% of the salary of the role that has been left vacant not to mention the additional costs associated with that particular post being empty and so not contributing to the organisation in terms of productivity and profitability. Additional costs are incurred from the rest of the workforce compensating for that unfilled position.
For executive roles the cost of filling these positions has been known to rise to about 200% of the salary of the role.
So there is a significant cost to companies if their employees are not feeling resilient. This is avoidable but how does one spot employees who are not feeling resilient?
I am writing a series of articles looking at the signs of poor resilience within the workplace over the next few weeks and in this article we will be exploring the first sign. Read on!
Eight Signs That You Employees Are Not Resilient: Number One - They struggle to handle challenges effectively.
Challenges within the workplace will be approached differently by different individuals but in general if one is not feeling resilient, they are more likely to fear change or any judgement that they may be incurred from colleagues as a result of their handling of the challenges. This bears out in behaviour such as being reluctant to take responsibility or offering ideas or simply not prioritising tasks that are more urgent and important. Individuals may display behaviour that is seems like some kind of irrational pushback with a difficulty in those individuals being able to articulate why their pushback is justified.
Behind all the behaviour will be feelings of fear and overwhelm and if these feelings are being experienced then it is known that one's cognitive strengths are severely reduced thus reducing skills in creativity and innovation.
A resilient individual is less likely to feel overwhelmed and is more likely to relish an opportunity to tackle difficult challenges because they are confident in their ability to deal with those challenges. Individuals with a higher level of resilience will know what they need in order to be at their best and will take responsibility for ensuring that they get it. When that takes place they are more likely to work with purpose and energy and contribute at their highest level for their organisation.
A word about John Hicks.
Professionally I would describe myself as a neurodiverse aware therapeutic counsellor, performance coach and management consultant but I see my impact as being a catalyst for sparking higher levels of personal resilience across teams. I help organisations to help their employees to feel more confident and motivated and improve performance. Better resilience leads to higher performing teams, no doubt!
To date I have delivered my work within the NHS as well as for bioscience companies including large pharma.
If you would like to know more please feel free to message me directly or email me at hello@johnhicks.co .
Find out more about John's work at www.johnhicks.co
