Mental Health Awareness Month: Leveraging Resilience to Drive Efficiency Through Organizational Change

This year’s Mental Health Awareness month provides an opportunity to reflect on how change impacts employee mental health. During periods of organizational change, employees often face increased stress, uncertainty, and burnout, which can undermine productivity, morale, and efficiency. One strategy for maintaining performance during times of change is fostering resilience within employees. By building resilience, organizations can help employees navigate change more effectively, ensuring sustained productivity and improving employee wellbeing.

Resilience is the ability to adapt, bounce back, and recover from setbacks, adversity, or stress, playing a crucial role in one’s personal and professional life. It involves emotional and mental fortitude, enabling individuals to withstand challenges and learn from experiences while maintaining a positive, proactive outlook. Resilient people are skilled at managing their emotional responses, viewing challenges as opportunities to grow rather than insurmountable obstacles. They break down complex problems into manageable parts, seek input from others, and learn from both successes and failures. Resilience is linked to decreased stress, reduced burnout, and improved organizational employee performance.

Building resilience in an organization can be a key strategy to maintain performance and efficiency during times of change. Some strategies include:

1. Have leaders walk employees through breaking up a problem or goal into smaller, more manageable parts.

2. Regularly highlight wins and achievements in meetings and emails.

3. Allow for a healthy separation between work and personal life; consider scheduling after-hours emails to send during work hours.

4. Provide space for employees to express their needs and concerns and ask for help; proactively offer help and listen to others.

5. Foster social connections and information sharing in the workplace; employees can learn new approaches and strategies for managing change from the past experiences of their peers.

6. Share opportunities for professional development – perhaps a recent change presents an opportunity to learn a new skill!

Developing resilience is an ongoing process. Individuals can also build resilience by incorporating self-care habits into their everyday life, including mindfulness practices, physical exercise, and journaling. Identifying a support system, both at work and in one’s personal life, is invaluable for strengthening resilience. Nurturing one’s own wellbeing and mental health is crucial to combat stress caused by workplace changes.

Fostering resilience within employees is essential for maintaining productivity, morale, and overall wellbeing during times of organizational change. By implementing strategies that support resilience, organizations can help employees navigate challenges more effectively, ensuring a healthier, more efficient workplace for the long term. Learn more about how FMP supports change management and organizational effectiveness on our website.

Helen Laraia joined FMP in April 2023 and has a master’s in industrial-organizational psychology from George Mason University. At FMP, Helen has supported the National Science Foundation with technology implementation and data analysis and reporting. Helen enjoys going to concerts and finding new coffee shops and restaurants in the DMV area.