The figures from the first Professional Resilience Barometer, provided by the Envie2Resilience association, suggest that French companies and the public service should be more prepared for the post-Covid period.

Confronted since the beginning of the crisis with the massification of teleworking and new types of professional vulnerabilities, employees are generally waiting for more answers from organizations. This is what the results of the barometer reveal, the preliminary surveys of which were based on interviews with workers in the public service, business and civil society.

On the employee side: professional resilience is an acquired notion, but...

When asked whether the workers surveyed are aware of the notion of resilience, the barometer notes that yes, most of them are. In fact, 86% of them make a link between performance and professional resilience and 74% have been confronted at least once with a break in their career path (redundancy, health concerns, etc.).

Before the lockdown, 65% of respondents had a good image of their company and 67% of them were satisfied with its overall strategic clarity. In fact, 76% of them felt involved in the life of their structure.

However, employees tend to point to the weakness of the support mechanisms put in place by their organization. Only 7% of them offer external support, 22% internal support and 16% training for managers, which does not seem to be enough for workers to feel supported and to be able to recover easily in the event of a personal crisis or a general bad economic situation.

Why has the health crisis changed the situation?

During the first lockdown, most of the employees surveyed experienced their change in situation well. 49% of them have switched to teleworking and 45% have reviewed their professional goals. While 97% of them consider themselves generally satisfied with the information provided by their structure on the crisis and 60% trust it, among those who have a negative feeling, 12% say they are plagued by a decrease in motivation, involvement and a lack of recognition. The end of lockdown has spoiled this situation.

Even though 82% of respondents think that their company is preparing for the " after ", 94% of them consider that the end of lockdown will be a negative step. This is due to restrictive health measures, the loss of meaning, the changes in mission to be expected and the economic pressure and its consequences in terms of dismissals. Workers are therefore waiting for answers and need to be reassured about their future and their prospects.

On the organizational side: more efforts to be made to prepare for the post-crisis period?

However, the barometer notes the gap that already existed before the crisis between the communication strategies of the structures, which give a large place to the " human ", and the reality on the ground. In fact, only 17% of them take into account the professional frailties of their employees (leave for serious and long-term illness, for example), 5% are attentive to the development of each employee, 10% are concerned about the quality of the atmosphere at work and 12% are concerned about the health of their employees.

However, for Harvard Business School professor of leadership and management Amy Edmondson, promoting a climate of psychological safety at work is conducive to the innovation that the company needs.

She advocates for a framework where employees, put in a situation of empowerment and responsibility, are less afraid to take risks and assume their mistakes. The crisis has therefore highlighted that it is in the interest of organizations to act and integrate professional resilience and emotional management in order to restore the confidence of their employees and generate new forms of individual and collective performance .