We’ve been through challenging times before but in the last few years, we’ve been experiencing a perfect storm of stressors. These events include a pandemic that’s affected everyone in the world, continuing economic uncertainty, increased violence, major workplace shifts, from where we work to how we work, and widening social polarization. An estimated 4 million people have quit their job in search of better pay, a more flexible work schedule, and a greater sense of purpose. Amidst this upheaval, CHRO’s face the challenge of managing turnover and retaining talent.

The seemingly endless march of stressful events challenges ones’ assumption about the future, producing anxiety and psychological pain that can be difficult to manage. The result is both physical and emotional stress on the body, leading to illness and burnout. That, in turn, creates real problems for HR leaders – from culture issues to absence and turnover to increased healthcare costs.

HR is under pressure like never before to be agents of change. While there are day-to-day crises like absence, turnover, and burnout to deal with, they’re also looking to the future to strategically build a workforce that can adapt and embrace change—an empowered workforce that can thrive in today’s unpredictable world. To tackle these pervasive issues and discuss a way forward, meQ joined Evanta, a peer network of CHROs, in Chicago. Here are three overarching themes we took away from the event.

Your people perform better when they feel supported by you.

In one meQ study, we looked at the contrast between two groups about how well supported people felt by their employer. In the less supported group, there was a 33% increase in work stress, 20% increase in disordered sleep and about a 30% increase in burnout symptoms. Those who felt strongly supported by their employer experienced just a 3% increase in work stress, a 6% increase in disordered sleep, and 1% increase in burnout. Supporting your people creates a win-win situation.

Your managers need support.

Managers are under constant pressure to do more with less. Right now, 52% of employees report suffering from burnout, and managers must both lead with empathy and drive productivity. The way we work has completely changed—and the role of managers has, too, with more pressure and responsibility than ever resting on their shoulders. At the same time, the latest meQ self check shows this continuing, with managers being 10% less likely to feel supported by their leaders. You can’t have a resilient organization without resilient managers.

Resilience is the key to psychological safety.

Only recently has psychological safety begun to be recognized as a critical need in the workplace. The International Organization for Standardization has now created ISO-43003, offering guidelines for managing psychological health and safety risks in the workplace in the same way companies have long managed physical health and safety risks.

In an environment of psychological safety, your people feel safe discussing difficult issues, and taking risks. They feel included, valued, and respected by the team. Workforce resilience is proven to help build such an environment. Resilient employees report a higher degree of psychological safety than less resilient employees.

Everyone’s talking about resilience now, but few really understand the science. At meQ, we’ve been leveraging the science and psychology behind resilience for over a decade. meQ members that have the highest product usage have a level of protection against job stress and burnout. Burnout is reduced by an average of 25% among meQ users, and healthcare costs go down as well, by an average of $300 per person, per year.

A world of constant uncertainty and challenge is the new normal. There’s never been a better time to build resilience in your employees to provide a powerful, protective buffer against the negative impacts of constant change. With resilience, your people can not only survive today’s uncertainty; they can accelerate, and thrive.

Let us show you how resilience can make your workforce a force for growth. Reach out to a meQ specialist today.

About the Author
Andrew Shatté

Dr. Shatté is a heralded speaker, consultant, research professor and author at the vanguard of risilience training and education. After receiving undergraduate degrees in Pyschology and Philosophy, he completed his Ph.D. in Psychology at University of Pennsylvania where he worked on the first programs in positive psychology. Since, Dr. Shatté has trained tens of thousands of professionals to build their resilience and coping skills, with demonstrated long term success in productivity and performance. He is the Chief Science Officer and Co-founder of meQuilibrium.