Building workplace resilience across the organisation

This is according to the latest research conducted by The Resilience Institute in partnership with Springfox, which analysed 23,990 employees from around the globe between 2018 and 2021. These employees completed a Resilience Diagnostic Assessment to determine their level of resilience and identify their strengths and weaknesses in the areas of personal and professional wellbeing.

Sleep is found to be a defining factor of, and contributor to, high overall resilience. Eight in 10 (86%) of the most resilient employees have mastered sleep quality, compared to just 7% of lowest performing employees. Professionals who receive formal resilience training experience a 25% improvement in sleep, including a 27% reduction in insomnia.

This is followed by fulfilment, which refers to a sense of personal and professional purpose and being aligned with this purpose in one’s role. About 94% of those with high resilience scores were found to have a strong sense of fulfilment, compared to just 18% of those with low overall resilience scores. Formal resilience training is proven to increase fulfilment by up to 25%. 

Third is bounce, which refers to a foundation of resilience that allows employees to recover quickly after dealing with change and disruption, and is linked to tactical calm, contemplation, and relaxation. Highly resilient individuals have a great capacity for bounce (91%), while only 23% of those with low resilience have mastered the ability to bounce forward after adversity.  

READ: Managing your workforce with organisational resilience and agility

Another factor is relaxation, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system, allowing for calm, connection, and focus. A large majority (83%) of those with high resilience have effective relaxation practices, compared to only 17% of those with low resilience. Stress mastery is the area of greatest gain for participants in resilience training programmes, with increases of 51% in contemplation for males and 43% for females. 

The last factor is focus, which is one of the top three characteristics of resilience and is key to high performance at work. Focus refers to the capacity to be present and pay attention to what matters and can be developed over time. While 29% of those with low resilience are strong in focus, a significant 95% of highly resilient individuals demonstrate strong focus.