Resilience

Those who cannot balance stress at work, run the risk of burning out or of developing other psychosomatic symptoms. An increasing number of companies counteract this by providing their employees with a healthy work/life balance by way of flexible work times and home offices. “For business companies, work/life balance nowadays has evolved into a key criterion for location. In this context, resilience becomes an important factor in human competition“, explains Global Topspeaker and psychologist Dr. Brigitte Bösenkopf.

A recent study by XING and kununu also verified this. Both business portals pursued the following question: In which cities do enterprises pay particular attention to a balanced ratio of daily work routine and personal life. They evaluated a total of 65,000 reviews on employers in the 30 largest cities of Germany. The city of Karlsruhe was ranked first, followed by Münster and Stuttgart while Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen came in last.

According to burnout expert Brigitte Bösenkopf, enterprises with a favourable work/life balance have two major advantages: „In a competitive labour market, they are presenting themselves as attractive employers.” And in the opinion of the sought-after business coach, this is the first deciding factor as it not only gives these companies the chance to win over employees but to keep them in the long run, too. On the other hand, absences due to illness are reduced as these enterprises actively support their employees in staying healthy and in developing resilience with regard to stress situations - despite a permanently high workload.

In her capacity as a lecturer and keynote speaker, Bösenkopf demonstrates in her presentations how companies can implement effective stress management. Based on case studies, the psychologist holding a doctorate degree illustrates how employees can learn resilience and get into shape to face crises. For Brigitte Bösenkopf is convinced: Resilient people do not see a crisis as a catastrophe but as an intermediate step on the way to the next success.“ Executives with high resilience therefore offer their employees security and are role models for solution-oriented instead of destructive action in times of stress.