2020 has already been an extraordinary year. We’ve gone through more collectively and individually than we ever would have imagined back at the start of the year, and all those events certainly leave their mark – both personally and also in a professional context at work.

You may have had to deal with potential redundancy, severe budget cutbacks, disrupted working patterns, and a whole heap of unforeseen circumstances – and a lot of change in very short succession. When we talk about ‘resilience’ we mean an ability to:
- Bounce back from setbacks
- Adapt rapidly to changing conditions
- Turn problems into opportunities
These traits are more relevant than ever as we move through turbulent times. The pressure and stress that businesses and those who run them have been placed under in recent months is really unprecedented. So taking the time to invest in building the resilience of both yourself and your employees is as worthwhile as looking at the resilience of your business model.
Think about how you can practice this in your own life, from receiving counselling to looking at the DTSS review. Encouragement to re-engage with work after a significant setback is crucial – there are health benefits, improved interactions with customers or clients, better productivity and workplace loyalty, and many other benefits. So how do you build workplace resilience for you and for those you work with?
Create A Sense Of Community
Togetherness is a really important aspect of working life, and it’s definitely something that can get us through adversity. Fostering a sense of it is especially important with fractured working practices, such as everyone being based at home.
Try to create it with great communications, regular virtual events, and insights into each other’s home lives. It’s actually the little, seemingly trivial things that help us to foster the connections and relationships that ease the path of working life, so small things like this aren’t actually unimportant – they are the basis of a sense of community.
Promote Healthy Behaviours
Health is really the cornerstone of everything that we do, and so prioritising that within the context of work is important. Encourage healthy practices and implement them in your own life – making time for exercise, knowing when to switch off from the working day, and making positive food choices.
These things are all fuel for a focused working day and become even more important when our workplace is also our home. As we slowly return to offices, we should aim to retain a focus on health as well, with green transport options such as cycling or initiatives like a lunchtime running club.
Safeguard Mental Health
Mental health is becoming a much higher profile topic and it’s also important to think about it in the context of the business as well. Review your provision of things such as occupational health, mental first aiders, counselling services, physiotherapy, and setting up an Employee Assistance Program.
These things all help to support the mental health of those working in the business and to normalise the conversation around the topic – and this can really help people in terms of issues not building up until they begin to affect other areas of health.