Why resilience needs more attention

When we discuss workplace wellbeing, the common areas that come up include mental health and flexibility. However, resilience is an important consideration that could use more attention.

Some may even be unaware of just what resilience in the workplace means. According to Springfox’s co-founder and chief executive Peta Sigley, the general theme is “human functioning”.

“What we’re talking around is human functioning, and I think people have gotten to a point where they’re desensitised to the word and don’t actually appreciate the foundation that it has in its place as a pathway to wellbeing and to that place of sustainable performance,” said Ms Sigley.

“So, when we talk resilience, we’re talking about the positive adaptation and growth that happens post-event. Whether that’s adversity, a really big event that you have to deal with, those medium-sized events, or even just little setbacks.”

“It’s gone beyond this concept of how do I bounce back, to how do I bounce forward? What have I learned? Where am I going? How am I going to get there? So, if we look at a process, we have an event, we cope, there has to be recovery because that’s when we start to kick in cognitively. What are my capabilities? What are the limitations to those capabilities? What do I shift and change so that the adaptation and growth positively move me forward now I’m building resilience?”

A key component of being resilient is being agile. Having the ability to adapt to situations that may arise gives you a better chance of overcoming them.

Ms Sigley commented: “For a workplace, you want people to be mentally healthy, which is not the absence of ill health, but proactively building mental health, and you want resilient people. So, it’s about that agility.”

“We know as we go through life, we don’t walk in a linear line ... We get knocked over, we need to get up, we need to change the way we’re working. So that means that we need to sometimes change the way we think of things, change how our emotional response is to that.”

To do this, self-care must be acknowledged. Ms Sigley said that diet, sleep, and exercise all play a crucial role in this, and employees who want to perform at their mental best should consider these factors. Employers should also understand the power these parts of our lives have on our work capability.

“They all inform each other. It’s an integrated approach. So, we can target specific areas, and then collectively, then we get into a space that really starts to move us forward with motivation, with hope, with practical skills and strategies on how to sustain ourselves,” she explained.

How can employers utilise this to their advantage? Ms Sigley believes constant education is key, as without the proper knowledge, we’re unable to address resilience issues.

“It’s definitely about recency. It’s very similar to having your CPR qualifications or any health and safety certification you need, or professional standards that you need to adhere to and show proof of that,” said Ms Sigley.

“For a long time, we’ve gotten into a space whereby people think you do a two-minute course or watch a video. You set and forget. And it is not like that. This is very much not about how do I respond should something happen? This is very much how do I respond in the everyday because this is my lived experience. So, for organisations, it is about education.”

She continued: “We have an innate level of skill. We’re born with an innate level of skill around resilience, but it is very much a learnable aspect to the way we work and the way that we live. So, it is about having those robust courses or engagements or programs that allow people to ground themselves in the information.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Peta Sigley, click below: