Healthy, Resilient, Effective Teams-Transitioning to a Post Pandemic Workplace
To be successful in today’s economic climate, businesses and organizations must have an integrated approach to employee health, wellness, and resiliency, and stop seeing the organizational performance and the bottom line as separate line items from the less quantifiable physical and mental state of their people. Like an ecosystem, an organization’s success depends on the health of each part: it is only as good as its weakest link. Healthy workers are resilient workers, which translates to resilient organizations in times of change.
The Pitfalls of Ignoring Mental Health
If your organization’s investment into mental health has been to check off a lunchtime run club, yoga class, or free gym membership, then you must re-think your approach. Your people need and expect more to help balance and manage heavy workloads, rapidly changing work priorities, and personal work balance. Unfortunately, poor mental health results in lost productivity, low engagement, high absenteeism, and employee turnover. The economic cost of mental health globally is estimated by the WHO at $1 trillion globally in lost productivity. Studies have shown that organizations that work against this trend and invest in the mental health and resiliency of their workers experience a significant ROI on every dollar they put in.
What is Proper Health, Wellness & Resiliency in the Workplace Context?
Resiliency is about mental and physical health. Mental and physical health is about being happy, valued, looked after, and given the time, techniques, and tools to maintain the sustained energy, focus, and motivation it takes to do tasks well and efficiently. It must permeate all levels of the organization: planning, culture, leadership, business activities, etc. In addition to lunchtime running or yoga clubs, this can include everything from flex hours and mindfulness sessions to stress management tools and not allowing work devices at home.
When our leaders and employees feel their physical and mental needs are taken care of, then people are more resilient in the face of change, stress, and uncertainty. This means your organization can better fulfill its mandate, meet targets, and serve clients.
Sounds Good Right?
This would have been a great focus area before, but how do we develop Healthy Resilient Teams Post Pandemic? Needs have changed. People are different. Workplaces have to adapt and evolve.
The WORST thing an Organization can do at a time like this is to expect “business as usual”. Nothing is “as usual“ anymore.
Your teams (and you) have had to adapt to new parenting roles, home offices, technology, relationships, financial issues, quality control, and new work models. Understanding Physical and Psychological safety issues will be a critical step to a more resilient workforce.
If you are focused on helping your teams navigate post covid transition and would like some support, please reach out. We will sit down with you and your team to design exactly what you need.
Learn about our signature L.E.A.D. process to help build your customized CSR program
Times are rapidly changing. It’s vital to not put off yet another year or wait till the next business plan to show you care. New and no-longer so new generations are making their job- and purchasing choices based on very specific values: contributing to a larger whole, to making the world a better place.
Be part of a powerful corporate movement of giving back. We are all linked and play a role in each other’s success.