June 25, 2004—New national research conducted among U.S. employees from WFD Consulting, a management consulting firm with a focus on employee engagement and effectiveness, shows that employees are struggling to adapt to pressures and changes at the workplace.
While business conditions increasingly call for a high performance workforce that can quickly adapt to change, respond innovatively to competition, and even thrive under chronic pressure, the survey revealed that only half of employees currently have the resilience necessary to perform under today’s business conditions: only 52% of employees “strongly agreed” they can manage the pressures of their work and barely half (54%) “strongly agreed” they could maintain their job performance during times of change(1).
The results underscore the effects that a continually changing workplace and the relentless push for excellence have on both businesses and employees. Backed by years of research and experience in this field, WFD Consulting is announcing its “Resilience Services” to help organizations build more resilient workforces.
In its organizational services, WFD defines resilience as the ability to bounce back from difficulties, manage pressure, and adapt quickly to change while continuing to perform at a high level.
“Ultimately, resilience is about more than simply surviving change,” says Amy Richman, senior consultant at WFD Consulting. “The proof of a resilient organization and employees is that they thrive through successfully overcoming challenges.”
Conversely, the lack of support for resilience at the organizational level can lead to employee-specific problems such as stress-related health issues, reduced productivity, high turnover and absenteeism and an overall inability to adapt to change. The national study conducted by WFD found that less than half (42%) of employees surveyed felt that they consistently have enough energy to accomplish the tasks that are important to them.
However, highly resilient employees experience fewer of the physical and mental side effects of stress: only 18% of employees with high resilience reported feeling physically or mentally drained at the end of the workday “always or most of the time,” compared to 41% of those with low resilience who regularly feel drained and depleted. These results suggest that increasing resilience not only enables employees to remain productive and healthy during demanding situations, but that increased workforce resilience could also reduce the cost to employers of stress related illness, estimated at $300 billion annually.
For more information, contact WFD Consulting.
