Release Stress and Build Resilience

Workers are inundated daily with news about a struggling global economy, corporate downsizing, government cutbacks and strife, declining wages, growing health scares and political turmoil. It’s no wonder workers report feeling more stressed than ever. Between Jan. 31 and Feb. 8, 2011, a Harris Interactive survey done on behalf of the American Psychological Association (APA) found 36 percent of workers reported experiencing regular work stress.

Worse, stressed-out employees may be more prone to sickness and absenteeism, make mistakes, perform poorly, make bad decisions and engage in conflict. Teamwork and employee-management relationships also can suffer, and these factors can have a direct impact on engagement and the bottom line. A 2010 Gallup study of 42,000 workers found employee stress and disengagement could cost U.S. businesses as much as $350 billion per year.

Stress management programs can help employees better cope with the pressure. But there is growing evidence that suggests learning leaders can actually teach employees the skills necessary to bounce back from the negative impact of stress and build a more resilient workforce. Further, CLOs soon may have the ability to mitigate the human and organizational costs of stress.

Reading Stress Signs

But first, they need to assess the impact of organizational stress via metrics such as engagement levels, absenteeism, workers’ compensation, turnover and medical leave. This data provides the baseline to evaluate improvement initiatives.

Second, CLOs can implement processes that build resilient leaders such as employee wellness programs, fitness initiatives, internally sponsored team resiliency sessions, communities of practice devoted to creating resilient workplaces, individual leader assessment and executive coaching.

Identifying stress in the workplace is not as easy as one might think. In some offices phones ring off the hook, employees dash about clutching stacks of paper and music blares in the background. In other offices workers labor away in solitude, rarely exit their cubicles, and there is only the drone of clicking keyboards.