Last week, we looked at the debilitating effects of workplace stress and ended by suggesting a cure: hardiness. Amazingly, hardiness can be learned. But it is not a flavor of the month. It requires habituation and personal change. Let's take a look at why hardiness is so salubrious not just to individuals' productivity but to all aspects of their lives and what you can do to help your workforce develop the hardiness skill set.

Laurels for Hardiness

Research has shown that hardy individuals perceive less stress and thrive in challenging environments. Hardiness, first described by Maddi and Kobasa, provides the necessary skill set to address burnout. This is financially significant to the many companies that make huge payments to workers with disabilities resulting from stress related illnesses and accidents.

It is reported that by 2008, stress as part of mental illness will be the number one cause of workplace absenteeism. Companies that don't address this problem are leaving millions on the table. By decreasing unscheduled absenteeism alone, companies can increase the bottom line without spending a dime to increase market share. (Fig. 1)

Hardiness, a personality construct, consisting of commitment, control and challenge, has been shown to reduce unplanned absenteeism (or mental health days), increase productivity and decrease unwanted staff turnover by as much as 63% in a study of nurse managers by Judkins and Furlow.

Developing Hardiness

The development of hardiness requires organizational commitment from senior management. Policies and procedures that enhance and foster hardiness adaptive behaviors are an integral part of the equation. The process cannot be one-size-fits-all. Reaction to stress is unique, like an emotional fingerprint. So the solution must fit the needs of each individual participating in the course. This is done by incorporating, in the truest sense of adult development theory, the actual challenges faced by the participant and through structured learning with the facilitator and peers. Solutions for issues are explored and tested in a safe environment.

As with any change, hardiness development breeds resistance that must be overcome by spaced repetition and conditioned learning. It requires planned follow-up for monitoring goal setting activities. Hardiness is a learned skill that requires practice and follow-up at regular intervals to ensure that it has "stuck." Efforts must be made to ensure that individuals remember the skills they are taught and apply them to situations with which they're struggling both in and out of the workplace.

Hardiness development thus works like a 360 degree feedback loop with a twist. The use of skilled facilitators and peer interactions result in a dynamic learning environment where bonds are forged and participants are engaged in a fun yet powerful life transformation. Once it's developed, hardiness fosters teamwork and even friendship. It often results in the breaking down of "silos" within highly bureaucratic organizations.

Moreover, the hardiness factor can be applied in all areas of life thus enhancing an individual's ability to deal effectively with excessive amounts of stress in the family, home and in social activities. It may even prevent workplace illnesses, although more research needs to be done in this area. Hardiness development is thus an investment in the company's greatest resource - its people. As such, it pays enormous dividends in loyalty, reduced turnover and increased productivity.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Hardiness Development

To track effectiveness metrics must be identified before initiating any development process. These metrics should be client-specific and individualistic in nature. Assessment of hardiness and stress are the first steps in the process and are repeated throughout the training period. Improvements are monitored to verify their lasting impact. Such things as reviews of absenteeism rates, organization opportunities for improvement like high employee turnover, low job satisfaction score, negative corporate culture and ineffectual management can be tracked and improved.

Companies can show meaningful improvement and determine the success of the hardiness intervention. Scientific research methodologies can be applied to demonstrate validity and added to the body of knowledge in this relatively new and emerging field of human behavior.

Conclusion

For too long companies have ridden the process improvement wave. The time has come to address the behavioral patterns of individuals within organizations and provide personal improvement intervention strategies. Money spent to develop effective management is a sound investment because it provides a positive feedback mechanism to instill good coping strategies and model hardiness behaviors to employees. In hardiness, as in health and safety, modeling by management is one of the most effective strategies to ensure change. This leads to a positive impact on compliance with health and safety goals, and a positive impact on the bottom line of the organization.

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Source: Health Magazine

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