Resilience is essential for businesses to ensure that they are able to compete globally as it would help them to bounce back from any organizational blow.
When you think about the most important skills that should be developed for a global workforce, is resilience up there? If not, why not?
Resilience is what a business needs in order to anticipate and respond to any changes it comes up against. It involves businesses and employees developing an ability to adapt as well as the capacity to get back up after a setback.
Companies have to be resilient to adapt to what the global market is doing or they’ll be left behind. Resilience isn’t about never failing; it’s about assessing failures and mistakes and learning from them to help your business thrive.
Importance to risk management
Resilience is one of the most important factors affecting risk management. Andrew Zolli, co-author of ‘Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back’, has said that it’s now essential for businesses “to become more agile - not just in the face of the risks we know, but in the face of the ones we won’t see coming”.
When you spend time working out your risk management strategy, it presents an opportunity to also take a look at how you can further develop your company’s resilience and your talent development programs. Establishing a number of strategies to boost resilience will lead to an increased ability to respond positively to challenges.
Knowing exactly what you’ll have to do in different circumstances can increase your chances of surviving frequent problems, which is something all companies should be thinking about in a world of high-profile data hacks and whistle-blowing. Not being aware of all the potential threats to your business leaves you at risk of not being able to overcome them when they do arise.
Focus on the individual
Fostering resilience individually in your employees will go a long way towards helping your company withstand any problems it unexpectedly comes across. So it pays to consider different ways to help ensure that your workers are equipped to deal with potential changes and organizational restructuring, something the world is currently seeing a lot more of.
You should try to encourage your employees to boost their resilience by setting the example yourself. Make sure that your leadership teams are displaying their own resilience in the face of challenges so your whole workforce is inspired by them.
Beyond development programs,one thing you can do without a lot of effort is to ensure that your workforce is supported. If someone is having a hard time at work, making it known that your door is open to them can help to support them. This can boost their individual resilience and help to maintain their productivity.
Keeping everyone engaged
According to Alison Taylor, director at Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), “building a resilient corporate culture is an excellent investment”. Highlighting the importance of resilience in a global market, she said that operating across “time zones, geographies, and product lines” has resulted in “a focus on organizational matrices and shared responsibility”.
She went on to say that this can actually help encourage resilience within companies as it increases cooperation and information flows. It means that in order for companies to remain globally competitive, they have to make sure that their organizations are as resilient as others.
Ms. Taylor added that resilient company cultures, “complement the benefits of shared responsibility and empowerment with a clear understanding of and responsibility for managing individual risks and reporting problems”.
Resilience often stems from empowerment and engagement at work. Engaged employees are more invested in their roles and the fate of their company, which means that they’re more likely to want to bounce back after a problem and ensure that their company does as well as possible.
Creating a resilient workforce doesn’t take place overnight, but businesses will see real advantages if they invest in it. To stay competitive, it’s vital that your workforce is able to withstand whatever comes up.