We encounter various challenges in our lifetime that we must adapt and bounce back from. The most recent example is the Coronavirus pandemic and resilience enabled us as individuals, communities, nations and as a country, to cope with the stress and uncertainty. 39% of the population in the UK said that the pandemic negatively affected their wellbeing. So why is resilience more important than ever?

The skill is important for a variety of reasons, including the ability to develop protective mechanisms against potentially overwhelming experiences, the ability to maintain balance in our lives during difficult or stressful times, and the ability to prevent the development of some mental health difficulties and issues. Thierry Moschetti, co-founder at the Resilience Institute comments, ‘’building resilience liberates the potential in people to be well, effective, and whole. It mitigates problems like depression, distress, and illness’’.

Resilience is not something you either have or do not have. It includes learnable behaviours, thoughts, and actions. It, like any other skill, can be perfected with training and ongoing development. So, if you are not as resilient as you would like to be, you can concentrate on developing your resilience by building on your existing skills.

Having a resilient workforce benefits a business in a variety of ways, it makes people more motivated with greater job satisfaction, capable of dealing with change, and less prone to burnout. It also improves employees' overall health, as resilience and workplace wellbeing are interconnected. Better mental health leads to less employee absence, which improves overall workplace performance. Thierry Moschetti adds, ‘’Resilient people are calm, energised, engaged, focused and creative. Resilient people enable resilient organisations because they have the skills necessary to meet performance challenges without compromising their wellbeing’’.

Testing resilience during a recruitment process can have many benefits, as it shows the candidates self-awareness, ability to reflect and adapt and their sense of optimism. A recruiter may look for resilience indicators on a candidate's CV or LinkedIn, which can show examples of dealing with change or successful problem-solving outcomes in their role. The most common approach is to use behavioural questioning during the interview stages; these questions typically begin with "tell me about a time" and can test the candidate's authenticity as well as display resilience indicators through their answers.

Start thinking about resilience more, at the end of projects reflect on what happened. What have you learnt, what went well, what have you had to change and overcome and where have you had to be resilient? Start thinking about challenges as your chance to prove your resilience during an interview.

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