As our Resilience Week, in association with Aon, draws to a close, it is time to reflect on some of the trends and issues currently shaping employers’ strategies in this area.
There are few that would dispute that 2020 has been a challenging year. Very few of us are likely to be able to claim to have come through it unscathed; the effects of lockdown, juggling work and care responsibilities, concerns and anxiety around the Covid-19 pandemic and coming out of lockdown, grief and bereavement, isolation from friends and family members, financial worries or pressures, and concerns around job security, to name but a few factors, are likely to have touched the majority of the population to some degree during the past six months or so.
While the British are famed for having a ‘stiff upper lip’, the speed at which life as we knew it changed so significantly (and continues to do so as the pandemic progresses), means the year’s events have inevitably impacted the population’s resilience.
In many workplaces, employers may have noticed this manifest itself in a fall in productivity, engagement and staff motivation, for example. Many employees may also be experiencing mental wellbeing issues as a result, which may be more difficult to identify, particularly where workforces continue to primarily work remotely.
How to build employee resilience, therefore, is currently a key issue for many employers. While many businesses may be grappling with the difficult economic environment, many have recognised the advantages of investing in supporting their workforce, be this through quick and easy ways to build resilience, or a longer-term strategy.
At the time of writing, with UK officials reporting an increasing ‘R’ rate and more areas being placed under tighter local lockdown, this focus on supporting resilience looks likely to remain a key issue for organisations for some time to come.
So wherever you are with supporting resilience in your organisation, Resilience Week was designed to help you take this to the next level through exclusive insights and opinions uncovering best practice in this area. These included:
- How can employers manage the impact of change on their employees?
- Is employee happiness key to building resilience?
- Top tips for building resilience among employees
- Time Etc’s organisational culture builds resilience among employees
- Aster Group offer resilience training as part of its overarching wellbeing strategy
- NHS Property Services adopts flexible-working policy to manage change
- Professor Andrew Smith: The changing nature of work, resilience and mental wellbeing
- Francoise Woolley: Helping staff build resilience during challenging times
- Matthew Lawrence: How technology has a role to play in improving employees’ resilience
- Alison Bernard: Supporting employees through Covid-19
Debbie Lovewell-TuckEditorTweet: @DebbieLovewell
