How to build resilience in the workplace
It’s no secret that mental health has become a key conversation in the workplace in recent times, with employee well-being built into recruitment, company manuals, and even business pitches. While this is undoubtedly a positive step, there is still a fine balance between taking care of your staff and also making sure they work productively to meet business goals.
One way of ensuring these two things are aligned, which benefits both employee and employer, is helping your team members build mental resilience. This means that when challenges arise, they can acknowledge the impact it has on them, while also successfully overcoming those challenges – helping themselves and the business thrive.
So what are the key factors when we consider how to build resilience in the workplace?
Why is mental resilience important?
In setting out its vision for better mental health in the workplace, the World Health Organisation (WHO) looks at the bigger picture of working life: how factors such discrimination, poor working conditions, and inadequate pay can have an impact on employee mental health, and the need for employers to implement training and support, and recognise when employees have mental health conditions. But its key messaging also advises employees to ‘learn techniques to manage stress and stay mindful of changes in your mental health’. Building up mental resilience is one such technique. By recognising and acknowledging how you are feeling day-to-day, increasing your understanding of how you deal with challenges, and asking for help when needed, it is possible to stop smaller issues in their tracks, so they don’t lead to more serious mental health problems.
Case study: Take practical steps and don’t be defined by your mistakes
One example of something that most employees will encounter in their working lives, and that can cause stress, is making mistakes or errors. While it is obvious this will have bigger consequences in some work environments than others, the concerns it creates will be similar for many employees: will it affect my reputation with my employer, colleagues, or clients; will it affect my chances of progression; will it put my job at risk?
The best way to deal with mistakes is to introduce measures that stop them happening in the first place. Quality control is key – check, check, and check again. Do your research. And don’t be afraid to ask for advice if you are unsure. Being well prepared will help alleviate the stress of ‘will this go wrong?’
However, if a mistake does happen, how you deal with it can build resilience for the future. Be transparent; while this may involve difficult conversations, trying to cover things up usually makes them worse. Also, communicating the issue means you can get any help or support you need. Act quickly to rectify the mistake. Putting things off may compound the error and your mental distress. And learn for next time. What can you do better? Do you need to change your processes or bring in new tools to help you? Get feedback from others affected by the mistake or with similar experiences and act on it.
The above shows that taking positive practical steps can help you take ownership of how you feel when something goes wrong, giving you the tools to recover more quickly. And the more you do this, the more comfortable you will be, because you are building resilience.
Building your own resilience
Aside from taking practical steps, there are things you can do in your own headspace to make sure your workplace well-being is built on solid foundations.
Give yourself time and space to feel bad. If you’ve had a tricky client meeting, or received some negative comments on a piece of work, it’s natural to feel upset or angry. But how you deal with those emotions can have a longer-term impact on your workplace experience and your mental well-being. Allow yourself to have those feelings in the moment, but don’t dwell on them – that way you can move on in a more positive frame of mind.
Sometimes having the ability to adapt and pick up a task that you feel confident about or that is more creative can help change your mindset. Take a break, go for a walk, or vocalise your feelings if you need to – ideally to a sympathetic manager or your workplace mental health first aider (MHFA) if you have one.
Don’t take things too personally. It’s easy to blame yourself if things go wrong in the workplace or if you are struggling. But often we don’t have control over the situation. For example, your workload may have become too much, and so you beat yourself up for not coping. However, it may just be that it is a busy time, or you have a particularly demanding client, and your colleagues aren’t aware you are under pressure. When an issue arises that is directly related to your own work, it’s also important to realise it’s not a criticism of you as a person.
See constructive criticism as a positive thing. Ask ‘what can I learn from this experience?’ and ‘what can I do better next time?’ This growth mindset will not only allow you to move on from any issues, but will also help foster better relationships with employers, clients and colleagues.
One bad review doesn’t make you a bad employee. We all have different skills and sometimes workplace tasks can push us out of our comfort zone. We also all have bad days. Don’t be defined by one piece of negative feedback. Think about the things you do well and the value you bring to your role, and how those things outweigh any current criticism.
What can employers do?
There are also ways employers can support their staff when looking at how to build resilience in the workplace, and there are a number of reasons why this is important. Obviously employee welfare should be at the forefront of all employers’ minds; they have a duty of care, and it is enshrined in law as part of the Equality Act that employers cannot discriminate against employees on mental health grounds. But having a happy, healthy, and therefore more productive, workforce obviously benefits any business or organisation.
Creating the right company culture is key when ensuring good employee well-being. If staff members know they can talk openly about setbacks and struggles, then any issues can be dealt with quickly and transparently, without judgement. This can help avoid longer-term problems developing that will have a bigger impact on both the employee and the wider business.
Providing mental health resources for employees is another way employers can get involved. Having MHFAs on your team so staff can get immediate support from people they know and trust; or signing up to services like employee assistance programmes to provide external support are both things to consider.
Employers can also provide tools to help their staff develop mental resilience. This may be training programmes on crisis management or how to have difficult conversations, or 1-2-1 sessions with peers or senior staff talking about their own experiences of dealing with workplace challenges.
Looking after our mental health is not a fad or a generational quirk. And when it comes to the workplace, it should be as much a part of the employee manual as performance, hours, and benefits. If both employees and employers get onboard with this, then they can have open conversations about the topic, and ensure best practices and tools are in place so that building resilience and coping with setbacks become a natural part of working life.