Employees are feeling more anxious than ever in an increasingly volatile political and economic climate – made yet more tumultuous by the results of the snap general election last week. This has resulted in well-being and morale being a key concern for HR managers this year, a trend that looks set to continue with Brexit negotiations due to begin next week. With this in mind, how can HR managers work to ensure they are cultivating resilience within the workforce?
Look for long term change, not quick fix solutions
Employers ultimately need to be realistic about the rate at which improvements can be made to employee happiness and morale, resisting the temptation to go for ‘quick fix’ solutions like team drinks, company lunches or early finishes. New evidence from a OnePoll survey, shows that although employers are offering more of these perks in economic uncertainty, they’re not having a sustained impact on employee well-being: four in ten employees said that one-off perks don’t improve long-term happiness at work and only 15% of employees say that they would improve their happiness at work. To build sustained resilience, HR managers should be patient and target long term change. One way of doing this is through employee benefits programmes like Cyclescheme and Techscheme.
Encourage marginal gains (with practical examples)
Evidence shows that the majority of employees most value lifestyle benefits that incrementally improve happiness, by making their days that little bit better. By encouraging employees to adopt healthier lifestyle changes that make an impact over time – for example, a ban on eating lunch at your desk or replacing pastries in meetings with healthy fruit – you can cultivate resilience gradually through making ‘marginal gains’ to improve employee wellbeing.
Making small infrastructure changes such as providing staff with somewhere to store gym gear can make a real difference to them feeling catered for, valued and able to pursue interests that improve health and well-being. Evidence shows that these lifestyle benefits are preferred by employees too, with half of employees showing a strong preference for employee benefits that were focused on helping them become happier over the long term. Resilience can be rooted in feeling supported – offering ways for your employees to improve their long-term happiness is a great place to start.
Incentivise sustainable travel
Not only does sustainable travel have knock-on benefits of making businesses more environmentally sustainable, but encouraging good, active habits within your workforce helps to build resilience by combating conditions like stress and anxiety. While this may seem to be low down the list of priorities of the government, it is vital for them to do more to encourage active commuting – for our workforces and for our environment.
Cycle-to-work schemes are one example of greener commuting that not only helps the environment, but also improve employee fitness and reduce stress-levels. Twenty percent of people find it easier to cope with everyday challenges on days that they cycled or walked to work. Additionally, recent evidence has shown that half of cycle commuters feel they have enough mental and physical energy to get them through each day feeling happy and productive, higher than those that took the train, bus or that drive to work.
This is by no means an exhaustive guide that will suddenly make employees resilient, but implementing small changes to help build workforce resilience and improve employee health and wellbeing will ultimately pay dividends in uncertain economic times.
