Putting Resilience to Work

Stress is the modern-day epidemic. As resilience building and mindfulness training programs continue to gain momentum in the workplace, meQuilibrium conducted a study of 2,000 employed individuals, ranging from age 18 to 64 to measure resilience against industry-standard psychological metrics and desired business outcomes. The report, “The Science Behind Resilience: A Study of Psychometric Measures and Business Outcomes,” highlights the impact of resilience on stress, absenteeism, intent to quit, job satisfaction, and physical health.

The survey focuses on the seven key factors of resilience – emotional regulation, impulse control, causal analysis, self-efficacy, realistic optimism, empathy, and sense of adventure. Empowering employees to take hold of these factors correlates directly with a workforce that’s healthier, more present, satisfied in their job, and engaged in their work. Key findings from the study include:

  • Stress: Highly resilient workers have 46 percent less perceived stress than lower resilience workers that were surveyed
  • Absenteeism: Twice as many employed individuals with low resilience have reported 1 to 3 absences from work in the past month, compared to their highly resilient workers
  • Intent to Quit: Participants with low resilience are twice as likely as those with high resilience to quit their job in the next six months
  • Job Satisfaction: Four times as many highly resilient workers are satisfied with their jobs, compared to those with resilience scores in the bottom quartile
  • Physical Health: Employees with low resilience are more than twice as likely to be overweight along with twice as likely to report a hospital stay within the past year

These results emphasize that employers who work to improve resilience within their employee base will produce a more engaged, healthy and productive workforce. Resilience is measurable and can be learned, and everyone has the ability to increase his or her resilience reserves—gaining better coping skills for work and life.

For more on the findings and to view the full report, please download The Science Behind Resilience.