Employees may be able to beat the stress they report at work by taking resilience training, which can help overall health and help them bounce back from adverse circumstances.
That’s according to a study from the American Heart Association, which says that resilience training is a useful primary prevention strategy for employers to improve employee health and engagement.
As reported by HRDive, with the American workforce continuing to experience chronic health conditions and routine stress, including job strain and long work hours — two thirds of employees report that work is a significant source of stress — the resulting poor mental health ends up costing employers in absenteeism, lost productivity and low engagement.
An earlier AHA/Nielsen study found that 40 percent of employees reported their job gets in the way of their health, the report says, adding, “Stress levels were found to be high and unrelenting; more than one-quarter of employees in the study said they often or always experience stress because of work. Forty percent of respondents wished their employers would recognize the stress.”
Resilience training is intended to develop or strengthen a person’s ability to withstand, recover and bounce back from adversity, the AHA report says, and may improve the ability to cope with and recover from negative workplace stressors, thus providing a tool to combat workplace stress and depression.
The report says that employee participants in a Resilience in the Workplace study reported positive outcomes to the experience in an American Heart Association and Harris Poll. More than 1,000 adults participated in the resilience training, with 73 percent reporting their health improved as a result. Some said they had more energy, exercised regularly and experienced an improved quality of life.
“As employers are broadening their wellness programs to encompass well-being, this paper provides actionable strategies for effective workplace resilience programs,” Kathy Gerwig, vice president, employee safety, health and wellness and environmental stewardship officer at Kaiser Permanente, says in a statement.
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