How to ensure employees thrive at work

When someone struggles at work, the problem is often presented as a development issue: they need to be more resilient or learn how to manage stress better.

“Responsibility, deadlines and accountability are part of meaningful work,” says Ashwin Rajah, founder of Mindset Matters. “Yet the strain people experience at work is often shaped by the environment they work in.

“Organisations often talk about culture as what shapes how people behave at work. In practice, however, it is the daily pressures and expectations people face, together with how work is organised and structured, that determine what people are actually able to do.”

Rajah advises:

• When reality conflicts with what organisations expect, people can feel they are failing despite how hard they are working;
• Organisations must build in time for recovery after sustained periods of intense effort;
• If the whole organisation is under unrelenting pressure, engagement declines, churn rates increase, and productivity and engagement fall;
• When workers can sustain their energy and think clearly, both the organisation and the workers thrive; and
• Work should challenge people, not damage them.