High Agility, Low Resilience Employees Have Higher Risk of Burnout, Depression, Anxiety and Absenteeism, Survey Reveals

High Agility, High Resilience Employees Are Much Less Likely to Quit

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Jun 27, 2019, 08:33 ET

BOSTON, June 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- High agility in combination with high resilience is a key factor in preventing employee burnout, depression and anxiety, which is one of the key findings from a national research study conducted by meQuilibrium. The scientific survey of 2,000 full-time employed adults found that 40% of those surveyed with high agility and low resilience show signs of moderate to severe anxiety and depression, while those with high agility and high resilience had very low anxiety and depression rates, with only 2% at risk of these mental health issues.

Employees with high agility but low resilience experience increased rates of depression, anxiety and absenteeism.

Burnout scores for employees who are both highly resilient and agile are 71% lower than those without these capabilities.

The study is the first to look at the implications of agility (the ability to quickly react and adapt to changes), and resilience (the ability to rebound productively in challenging situations), in the context of crucial burnout and work-related performance consequences.

meQuilibrium's research investigated the interaction between resilience and agility and their impact on absenteeism, burnout, engagement and intent to quit, along with stress, anxiety and depression. The study revealed that resilience and agility have a dynamic relationship; resilience combined with agility enhance and reinforce one another to such a degree that they multiply the effect of each.

Beware low resilience, especially with highly agile people
The study also discovered that building agility alone can produce unanticipated negative consequences. Findings revealed that highly agile employees who possessed low resilience had an increased risk of anxiety (+54%) and an increased risk of depression (+27%). In addition, these agile, yet low resilience employees had an increased absenteeism rate of 5.7 days per year.

Low resilience plus low agility equals high burnout risk
For those with low agility and low resilience, burnout can be a common problem. meQuilibrium's research found that 44% of those with low resilience and low agility are at risk of burnout, compared with 6% of highly resilient and highly agile employees.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) recently recognized burnout as a syndrome caused by workplace-related stress," noted Jan Bruce, CEO and Co-Founder, meQuilibrium. "One of the best ways to protect workers from experiencing burnout is for organizations to take steps to improve both resilience and agility among their employees," explains Bruce. "In addition to addressing the serious threat of burnout, our study also shows that high resilience and high agility double an employee's sense of purpose and work engagement."

Resilience plus agility means employees are less likely to quit
The positive impact of resilience and adaptive capability extends beyond burnout prevention and high performance to turnover intent. The study revealed that resilience and agility work together to double work engagement boost and those employees who are both highly resilient and highly agile are about half as likely as those with low resilience and low agility to leave their job in the next six months.

Resilience and agility signals openness to learning
The study found that people with a combination of high resilience and high agility are 78% more likely to seek out a new skill and keep up with relevant innovation and upskilling, compared to only 1% of low resilient/low agility employees. In addition, highly resilient people are 28% more able to adapt to changing circumstances, possess 30% higher creativity and a greater capability to work well with different kinds of people, which is critical for optimal performance.

To download the full report, visit meQuilibrium.

About meQuilibrium
meQuilibrium is the engagement, performance and human capital solution that harnesses behavioral psychology, AI, predictive analytics and neuroscience to help innovative businesses build workforce potential.

Editor's note: Please include a link to http://go.mequilibrium.com/dynamicduo.html

Media contact:

Beth Brody, BrodyPR
[email protected]
908-295-0600

SOURCE meQuilibrium