We all know that work can be stressful and, for some people, very stressful.
Last year, a Statista report found that 40% of Britons felt fairly stressed at work, and 12% felt very stressed. Too much stress is dangerous, as it can have a serious impact on our mental and physical health.
Everyone deserves to be happy, healthy and productive in their careers, and employers need to take responsibility for creating a supportive work environment that prioritises employee wellbeing. Not just because of the human cost, there are broader financial implications for businesses themselves as well as the wider UK economy.
According to CIPD figures as many as 76% of organisations see some level of stress-related absence. We already know from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government figures on mental health that 17.1 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in the 2022-23 financial year. They estimate that the annual cost of workers experiencing a mental health issue, such as stress, depression, or anxiety, is £10.58 billion.
So, what can organisations do to help look after their employees’ mental health and wellbeing? As part of a holistic workplace mental wellbeing strategy, employers should look to empower their workforce by building their resilience skills.
Learning resilience is one of the best defences against stress because it equips people with the skills to navigate life’s inevitable challenges so that they can bounce back from setbacks. It’s a way to develop inner strength and flexibility, which can have all sorts of benefits in a professional and personal setting.
Below, we share five examples, which help to explain what it means to be resilient in the workplace while also highlighting how employers can help to support their workforce.
Examples of being resilient in the workplace
1. Being assertive
Sometimes it’s important to be able to say “no” politely. In work situations, not being assertive can lead to saying “yes” too often so that work piles up to the point of becoming overwhelming.
Being assertive doesn’t mean that someone is being rude; it means they’re being clear and setting boundaries with themselves, team members or clients. As well as having a stressful workload, not being able to set clear boundaries can lead to low confidence and self-esteem.
How employers can help: A workplace culture that piles on the pressure by setting unrealistic deadlines and overpromising to clients or customers will only make your employees feel that they can't set their own work boundaries. Organisations should foster a culture that values realistic workloads and invites healthy pushback as part of encouraging honest and open communication. Senior management must lead by example, which should also be reflected in policies. A simple example of this might be to offer email templates for managing the scope of a piece of work or laying out standard response times for certain activities.
2. Managing workload
Some jobs, by their very nature, have a heavy workload. Those who are successful in these roles can manage their workload so that they don't get overwhelmed and can still perform under pressure.
The good news is that being able to manage your workflow is a learnable skill. It involves creating a routine, prioritising tasks, setting realistic goals (and expectations), delegating and seeking support when things get too much for one person alone. It's worth saying that managing your workload doesn't just mean that work is prioritised above all else – it also means making time for breaks and creating a healthy work-life balance.
How employers can help: Employees who require support to manage their workloads should be guided by their managers. This is fairly simple to oversee, as tasks can be discussed and prioritised in weekly or monthly one-to-one sessions. Managers are also responsible for ensuring that workloads don't get too heavy and that deadlines are reasonable.
3. Recognising causes of stress
To be able to cope with stress, you first have to recognise the signs and understand what the causes are. Recognising what causes stress isn’t always straightforward, as everyone responds differently to challenging situations.
Some people are more likely to experience stress when faced with personal issues like money worries or strain in a relationship. Others might feel pressure more acutely when they come up against busy work periods or disagreements with colleagues.
Those who know what their stress triggers are, whether in home or work life, are better equipped to use positive coping strategies – most of which can be simple things, like talking to a friend or colleague about problems, doing some exercise, or practicing mindfulness.
How employers can help: One of the best things an employer can do is to normalise conversations around stress and mental health issues. A good place for this is during one-to-one meetings where managers can create a safe environment for employees to talk about their stress levels and offer support if necessary. It’s also important to raise employee awareness of what stress is, how it affects us, how to recognise the early signs, and how to put together a coping strategy for managing stress. A good tool for doing this is the Stress Bucket which is a visual aid to help employees better perceive their stress levels and identify coping mechanisms for emptying the bucket.
Download our free Stress Bucket template.
4. Managing emotions after criticism
We need feedback to help us learn from others and improve the quality of our work.
Sometimes, feedback can come across as critical, and that can trigger an emotional response. If those feelings aren’t recognised and managed, they can build up over time, potentially leading to stress, anxiety, or depression.
Criticism is a natural part of the workplace (as long as it’s respectful). There’s always first, second, third drafts or prototypes (and sometimes many more!). Looked at in a resilient way, criticism can also help us to learn from our mistakes and grow in our careers.
It's therefore important to learn how to handle feelings after negative feedback. That way, an employee can use the feedback constructively to plan for how to improve or solve any problems that were brought up.
How employers can help: Employers can train their managers on how to give feedback constructively and with empathy. One of the most tried and tested ways of helping employees manage feedback and criticism is to create a psychologically safe workplace culture where open feedback is encouraged and learning from mistakes is normalised.
Learn more by reading our article: How to build psychological safety in the workplace.
5. Celebrating achievements
Stress is the human body’s response to pressure, so low levels of stress that are properly managed can actually be helpful – pushing us to achieve our goals.
So, when those goals are met, even the small ones, they should be acknowledged and celebrated. Recognising achievements is a great way to build self-confidence, providing a healthy sense of perspective that helps to counter negative thoughts when things get tough. Learning to appreciate achievements can also lead to setting more ambitious goals to help drive career ambitions.
How employers can help: Recognition of good work should be part of every organisation’s culture. Saying something as simple as ‘good idea’ or ‘good job’ can do wonders for people’s self-confidence, but managers can go a lot further by celebrating wins in team meetings. Celebrating achievements can also be formalised through channels like employee award schemes and staff bonuses. At the very least, managers should recognise and reward good work in employee appraisals.
Resilience at work training
One of the best ways for employers to support their teams is by offering training. At Altruist, we run a Resilience and Stress Management training course for employees to help build resiliency skills and learn techniques to manage stress effectively.
We also offer Mental Health Training for Managers, which teaches awareness of mental health issues to improve managers' understanding of how their behaviour can have a knock-on effect on team members' stress levels. It also equips them to complete stress risk assessments to help identify stress triggers within the workplace.
If you’d like to discuss either course, you can find out more by emailing info@altruistuk.com, or you can drop us a message or call us on 0121 271 0550. You can also browse our full range of mental health training.