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Can resilience be a critical point to boost employee retention? The answer is yes! A recent research from The Potential Project found that among employees who have a high level of resilience, burnout is 27% lower, turnover is 31% lower and job engagement increases by 26%. With data from 44 countries and 15 industries, the study shows that resiliency is key to changing the workplace experience and helping employees to remain happy and engaged with their jobs.
Stress triggers
Do you have trouble getting up in the morning? Are you irritable? Are you crying for nothing? Does the smallest task seem insurmountable to you? Do you lack focus? No doubt you are suffering from stress. The trick is now to understand what are the stress triggers. There are many all around us and they come with the job, whether we like it or not. They hit us 36% of the time over a work week.
We live in a world where taking our time is a luxury that we find it difficult to grant ourselves, as we are solicited by the surrounding life and its excesses. But what are the factors that push us to stress despite ourselves? What is a stress trigger?
A stress trigger is something that causes physical, emotional, or physical strain, such as:
- your work situation: too much or too little work, too much or too little demanding work,
- couple and family problems,
- lack of self-esteem,
- social isolation (e.g. elderly, disabilities, addiction issues, etc.),
- hectic life, chronic lack of time,
- general existential anxieties, specific fears (phobias),
- financial worries,
- lack of recognition (profession, partner, family),
- illnesses, chronic or acute pain,
- inability to relax regularly,
- death or illness of a loved one,
- natural disasters, war, accidents, crime, pandemics,
- smoking, alcohol and drug use, bad eating habits (too much or too little, at too irregular intervals),
- insufficient physical activity,
- etc.
Our super power to shield and help us
We all have a super power that can shield and help us: it’s called Resilience.
Resilience doesn’t remove stress but it helps us recover from it and enjoy our work. It is proved that high resilience:
increases by 21% job satisfaction,
increases by 26% job engagement,
decreases by 27% burnout,
decreases by 31% turnover.
Being engaged with your job is great but it can be dangerous too.
The more engaged an employee is with his or her work, the more stress he is likely to encounter.
The most at-risk population at work are those who are present and focused but who lack the resources to effectively manage stress:
- people with low job engagement and high resilience levels have moderate stress levels,
- people with high job engagement and high resilience levels have the lowest stress levels,
- people with low job engagement and low resilience levels have moderate stress levels,
- people with high job engagement and low resilience levels have the highest stress levels, more than double their engaged colleagues.
Resilience: like knowing how to ride a wave
Resilience is defined as the time it takes to recover after a stressful event, to return to your emotional baseline. It is like knowing how to ride a wave.
For instance, people with high resilience levels are able to experience a stress trigger and quickly return to their lives. After a peak in stress caused by the trigger, stress levels fall quickly back to normal, and the day goes on.
On the contrary, people with low resilience levels who experience the same stress trigger take longer to recover from it. The peak in stress kicks off a long wave of stress that goes on and on. It’s a long time before stress falls back to normal.
When you are resilient, you persist through adversity with openness and acceptance. You find meaning and maintain your interest even through the setbacks. You move forward with the next right step. Ultimately, you shorten the wave of stress and return to your emotional baseline.
4 tips to strengthen your resilience levels
1/ Embrace what is
Acknowledge the situation by seeing things as they really are, as difficult as that may be. Often, we resist seeing things as they are because we don’t want to experience uncomfortable emotions. When you feel an uncomfortable emotion, try taking 3 deep breaths to ground yourself!
2/ Make meaning
When a difficult situation arises, consider what qualities or capacities have emerged in you as a result. Ask yourself, “How am I emerging stronger because of the challenges I’ve faced”.
3/ Step back and move forward
Try to see the big picture clearly so you can determine what actions to take. This takes focus and awareness. Ask yourself “What’s important right now?” and commit to one small step you could take to move forward.
4/ Let go of fixed expectations
It’s easy to get stuck in this gap between what is and how we want something to be. Embrace setbacks as part of the process and let go of fixed expectations about how things should be.
My experience shows me every day that everyone has the ability to succeed. In my consultation, I help my clients building resilience by learning how to develop clarity, shift mindset and build trust as :
– developing clarity helps them manage stress and overwhelm, regulate emotions and sharpen focus,
– shifting mindset helps them broaden perspective and activate a growth mindset,
– building trust by growing empathy and enhancing change readiness.