A Focus on Resilience
As we look forward into 2021, it is clear that all organizations need to collectively invest in wellness strategies to help our employees avoid burning out. That is why WELCOA announced their focus in 2021 will be resilience.
According to Positive Psychology, resilient employees aim for success and help others strive for it as well. They are authentic, have effective communication and listening skills, and building trust is important to them. Most importantly, though, resilient employees are able to manage their stress levels by actively engaging in self-care and nurturing themselves when they feel stressed, and are able to more easily recover from difficult circumstances.
WELCOA states that without tools for resiliency, we let stress continue to wear away at us and we experience burnout. That is why they are taking a look at data from their Membership base and determining what resources they can create to best support all organizations.
Tips for Building Resilience
Be sure to visit their website often for new resources! In the meantime, check out these tips for helping employees become more resilient:
- Encourage Physical Activity: Research shows that regular exercise leads to a measurable decrease in both stress and emotional exhaustion. During this time, it is important to encourage your employees to stay active at home. Send out resources for home workout options, suggest everyone do walking meetings around the neighborhood, or even do online workout classes in a virtual group.
- Cultivate Connections: Having strong social connections and friendships is an amazing defense against the negative effects of stress. With a large majority of employees working remotely now, they have a higher risk of feeling lonely and isolated. As an employer, you should be focusing on fostering online social connection. We have created several infographics, such as “How to Stay Socially Connected While Distancing” and “How to Stay Connected While Working Remotely,” that you can send out to employees and use as a creative guide to help you and your employees stay socially connected.
- Support Mindfulness: Living in the moment, having present-centered awareness, taking the time to appreciate the small wins or moments of happiness; these are all aspects of mindfulness. Employees that are encouraged to be mindful are noticeably less stressed, more creative, and overall more resilient. To learn more about encouraging your employees to be mindful, check out our previous “Tips for Practicing Mindfulness During Uncertain Times.”
