With an estimated 17 million UK workdays lost every year due to stress, anxiety and depression, investing in employee wellbeing is essential and finding the right wellbeing trainer is critical to the success of the programme. Studies show an 85% positive change in workplace wellbeing as a direct result of having a wellbeing programme in place – which in turn increases company productivity and profitability. Understanding what a comprehensive wellbeing strategy is and where your organisation is at in terms of their wellbeing strategy will make finding the right Resilience and Wellbeing trainer easier.
This blog will illustrate that finding and working with the right Resilience and Wellbeing trainer will enable organisations to get results quicker and tie up less management time. Making the wellbeing cultural transition easier and simpler.
Why is resilience important in the workplace?
A substantial amount of time & money is invested in recruiting and hiring staff, the selection processes are lengthy and time-consuming, therefore, it is crucial to develop the potential of all new employees and retain them as critical players moving the business forward.
Currently, staff investment is front-loaded – at employee recruitment stage – retaining and engaging employees to remain within the business so that the business continuity is maintained – is considered less important.
And yet when organisations make the next step and develop a comprehensive wellbeing strategy – staff resilience is the long term outcome.
A resilient organisation increases team engagement and retains the best talent and attracts the best recruits for the best future of the company.
Deloitte’s study (January 2020) found that poor mental health costs UK employers up to £45 billion each year, which was a rise of 16% since 2016 – an extra £6 billion a year.
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- “Mental ill-health in the workplace costs UK businesses £45 billion a year.
- Proactive resilience training offers organisations a return on investment (ROI) 5:1 in some industries ROI 11:1
Find out more about this ROI download White Paper: How much is stress in workplace costing?
What is resilience in the workplace training?
Wellbeing is a combination of 3 other aspects in our working life: leadership, the working environment and the ability to bounce back: resilience. The basic equation for wellbeing:
Leadership x environment x resilience = wellbeing
This is a multiplication equation which means that any part near 0 or is low then the entire outcome of the equation is low. To be resilient is to manage pressure and minimise stress in the workplace
Wellness is high on the workplace agenda, recruiting and retaining the best staff is important for organisational resilience so that the organisations can bounce back stronger after difficult periods.
Team resilience training will decrease stress and anxiety so that sick days are reduced whilst performance, productivity and creativity are increased.
Where does resilience training fit into an organisations mental health strategy:
Can your HR team do resilience training in the workplace?
Following the guidelines outlined in previous blogs, I have outlined a very straightforward strategic format for HR departments to follow to put together in the first place a simple wellbeing strategy and then develop over time a more comprehensive strategy.
MHFAs signpost stress, chronic stress, burnout and other mental health issues to the HR department who in turn find an appropriate resource to assist
However, it is worth considering the overload and complexities of wellbeing issues in light of the substantial roles that HR already cover. Consider for a moment the breadth and range of activities that the HR team undertake on a daily basis. Human resource management includes:
- Job design and analysis
- Workforce planning
- Training and development
- Performance management
- Compensation and benefits
- Legal issues
HR is at best overworked and at times overstretched. Dedicated, hardworking and experts in many people-centred issues is a vocation. People Managers have a large range of responsibilities. When work disputes and issues are raised it is often the case that training or wellbeing coaching is signposted without diagnosing the initial issue. Whilst the overall aim is to improve employee wellbeing or to resolve ongoing disputes – the training is not dealing with the underlining cause.
Is wellbeing training always the best option?
Training is often seen as the easier route to problem-solving rather than a comprehensive understanding and audit of the company culture, management styles and individual issues.
When managers are in the thick of it and HR departments are overstretched – a 3rd party professional can take the strain and get to the heart of the matter quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively.
It is SMARTer to consider the overall organisational objectives before considering resilience training:
- Looking at the causes and symptoms of stress
- How organisations and individuals can manage these and create more success and happiness at work and at home
- Increase motivation and reduce the level of stress, so that staff remain focused, engaged and productive
Taking a step back and considering the overall objective and strategies will ensure high functioning, motivated, creative, solution-focused and engaged teams
Teams that are quick to respond to challenging problems whilst at work.
Overviews give the organisation the benefit of aligning company objectives with individual motivations. Alignment is key to employee engagement and resilience in essence is built around team engagement.
Why it’s better to hire a professional Wellbeing and Resilience Trainer
Hiring an outside source to help develop an organisational wellbeing strategy will ensure that the training is seamless and works with the corporate objective, an external supplier is often a more cost-effective route as their expertise can get to the heart of the problem easily – they have seen it before and have worked on the solution in different situations.
Why does a specialist Wellbeing and Resilience Trainer work better for the individual?:
- A professional wellbeing trainer is seen by the workforce as an independent. Speaking to work colleagues, there is still a huge amount of mistrust in telling the ‘boss’ why employees are going off sick; mental health still has a stigma.
- Reporting a mental health issue to a line manager has the inherent fear that it will affect that individuals jobs prospects in the future or in the very least the line manger will ‘see’ the individual in a different light.
- An independent trainer has no conflict of interests.
- An independent trainer can spot any self-destructive behaviours quickly and can bring them to the individual’s attention so to identify them, assess them
- A trainer will offer the individual a safe space to examine their triggers and ultimately learn how to better process them in a healthy way.
- Trainers have experience working with a wide range of issues in the wellbeing space. They are dedicated and trained to deal with unique personal challenges and creating positive opportunities.
- Rest assured that trainers are experienced and will know exactly how to handle the wellbeing issues and if they can’t work with the individual personally they will have a wealth of expert colleagues to call upon if needed.
- A trainer can screen individuals to provide targeted, early‑stage support to prevent their mental condition from worsening,
Why does a specialist Wellbeing and Resilience Trainer work better for the organisation?:
- A strategic overview is imperative, the helicopter view is a skill most leaders create, hiring in specialists in areas of wellbeing and resilience will give that overview quickly.
- Clarity of thought without feeling the pressure to stick to ‘groupthink’ an independent trainer is only as good as the measured solution. They are going o push for the right solution not the ‘easiest’ solution and are able to push back against company cultures.
- heart of the problem, whereas organisations often lie with problems for years and gloss over issues, using short term and even inappropriate solutions a third party will suggest solutions that aren’t the “norm” using their experience from previous examples
- or to identify problems others might want to sweep under the rug. A third-party consultant will also likely be viewed as more neutral by others in your organization.
- Resilience trainers have researched, trained and used the most update to date techniques and ideas, bringing expertise and new ideas to persistent problems. They propose solutions that are up to date, whereas an internal solution may be less effective or outdated, simply because organisations aren’t aware of a newer technique or technology.
- Fresh perspectives are a bonus when using an outsider trainer, they building a strategy is that it’s difficult for organisations to see the issues of stress and burnout,
- Sweeping these issues t get swept under the carpet will create bigger problems further down the line for the individual and for the bad publicity created for the organisation when they blame the line manager/organisation/workload for the issues they have faced. or it can lead to misidentified opportunities.
- Objectivity and neutrality are essential with mental health issues, trainers can identify issues and are well versed in implementing strategies to create change.
- Third-party Wellbeing and Resilient trainers are more cost-effective because they bring expertise and experience. Therefore they will quickly assess your company and help you devise or rework an effective wellbeing strategy. They can also help you implement that strategy more seamlessly. The work gets efficiently, effectively and with little disruption to the business flow – saving the organisation time and money.
- A simple and effective wellbeing strategy will ensure early intervention and prevention.
For a more detailed analysis of the 6 Core Levels of Organisational Resilience ™️
A framework for Organisational Resilience: 6C’s of workplace resilience
read more here: How to Build Resilience in the Workplace: The Ultimate Guide
Why does your team need a Resilence trainer?
Resilience allows teams to be ready to draw upon resources and cope with changes and new futures, ready to innovate and evolve into better, stronger, more profitable. Organisations that incorporate this type of training attract new talent and retain experienced managers who want to stay and be a part of that organisational culture.
What does a Wellbeing and Resilience Trainer do?
A specialist trainer can work with companies in a number of ways:
- Wellbeing strategic audit – cultural audit – what do you the employees think/say/do?
- cultural leadership in the organisation
- Internal transparency and communication within the organisation
- vulnerability leadership, is a strength which originates from leaders deep personal power
- Wellbeing awareness training – the foundation to creating change and a resilient managers
- Wellbeing and resilience training that provide the behavioural change – more indepth management training
- Empower employees with relevant skills and abilities to make timely skill decisions,
- Inspire employees to adopt a learning mindset.
- Providing training in a group environment where team members can contribute and feel inclusive, ‘you are not in this on your own’
For more details read: How to Build Resilience in the Workplace: The Ultimate Guide click here
How can you work with me as a Wellbeing and Resilience Trainer?
With over 20 years of experience, I have a unique insight with a powerful combination of personal experience and industry background means that I am ideally placed to understand the needs of businesses looking to improve wellness programmes and specifically tailor them to your requirements.
The workshops and training development have been delivered inside construction companies, law firms, technology and data management consultancies, commercial property developers as well as the financial sector.
Next steps
If you are interested in taking this conversation further, the best way forward is to book a call with me, Adele Stickland and together we can discover what stage your organisation is currently at, and how you can best implement the most proactive strategy that will serve your employees.
- Book a call, Adele Stickland
- Email me directly Adele Stickland adelestickland1@gmail.com
- Contact me via LinkedIn
- DOWNLOAD: White Paper: How much is mental ill-health in the workplace costing?
White Paper: How much is mental ill-health in the workplace costing?
Download my latest White Paper: How much is stress in the Workplace costing The paper discusses the impact of Covid-19 along with the mental health issues that organisations can foresee which will take a huge amount of managerial time, leading to lost productivity and stress, as well as increased absenteeism.
