They supply a quarter of the world's vaccines, screen more than 65 million new compounds every year to search for new medicines, and distribute more than four million packs of pharmaceuticals and health products annually. GlaxoSmithKline needs employees who are agile, composed and energetic. But most of all, they need resilient employees.

An industry leader, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has a seven percent share of the world's pharmaceutical market and works to uphold a challenging and inspiring mission: to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.

This is a tremendous responsibility, and one that can't be accomplished without commitment from the company's 100,000 employees around the world. To ensure employees are up to the task, GSK focuses on organizational resilience, which they define as, "the set of skills and behaviors necessary to be successful in the midst of a fast-paced and continuously changing work environment."

The message for employees is to stay resilient
"The health of our employees is vital to our ultimate success," says Robert Carr, vice president of Corporate Employee Health Management, in GSK's annual Corporate Responsibility Report. "The company's performance depends on people who are physically and mentally able and available to meet our business goals. To attract, retain and develop the best people, we need to have the right culture; a culture that supports a resilient, diverse, healthy and performance-focused workforce."

To help promote the resilience message to employees, GSK partners with Ceridian's LifeWorks division and together they developed two CDs: "Bouncing Back: Staying Resilient Through the Challenges of Life," and more recently, "Keeping Your Team Resilient," which concentrates on management's important role in building effective and resilient teams.

"Building team resilience is about managing human beings and knowing how to develop their strengths and maintain their energies even in pressured, challenging times," says Arlene Johnson, vice president at WFD Consulting and narrator on the latest CD.

"We wanted to provide our employees and managers with tools that can help them build the skills they need to resist the negative impact of stress both at home and at work," says Annette Byrd, manager of U.S. Worklife Solutions at GSK. "Although we've always offered a stress-management program, we realized that once the course was over, employees soon felt intense pressures creep back once they returned to work. That's why we wanted to take a team approach to assessing where pressures come from and work together to eliminate them."

Employee resilience strategy
GlaxoSmithKline pursues the resilience strategy on a number of fronts, as follows:

• Personal resilience workshops are offered to all employees and special education materials are continuously developed and made available to employees.
• Managers and their teams have access to a Web-based resilience assessment tool. They are encouraged to review their results with Human Resources and develop action plans to reduce sources of pressure.
• Managers are supported in promoting team resilience and the psychosocial well-being of their employees. Managers are also trained and encouraged to promote open dialogue on the sources of pressure and to work with their teams to clarify roles, objectives and personal priorities.

More than 8,000 of GSK's U.S. and U.K. employees have completed the resilience workshop and Byrd says the company has already realized positive outcomes with improved management practices, higher levels of employee commitment and more flexibility to try things differently.

"We've also had some quick wins," Byrd explains. "In one instance, a group of U.S. employees were waking regularly at 4 a.m. for a conference call with their U.K. counterparts. It was a strain, but the employees were reluctant to mention the time difference challenge because they didn't want to come across as complainers. But as GSK worked on culture initiatives to eliminate undue pressures for employees, the U.S. group raised the issue and workers on both sides of the Atlantic found a more workable time that fit everyone's schedules."

Results
From initial data, GSK has learned that:

• Manager effectiveness, organizational effectiveness and employees' sense of balance and well-being are correlated.
• Workers with a supportive supervisor and culture are more committed to doing their jobs well and more likely to take initiative on the job.
• Supportiveness in the workplace is predictive of discretionary effort, job satisfaction, loyalty and job performance.

Give employees a voice
"We believe much of our success is simply due to giving people a voice and working to create a culture that promotes trust and eliminates assumptions," says Kay Campbell, U.S. manager of Employee Health Support and Resilience at GSK. "Things are definitely moving in the right direction."

The company is indeed doing something right. In January, GSK was recognized by Alliance for Work-Life Progress with a 2006 Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award for "Team Resilience," an employee stress prevention and intervention program.

GSK had exclusive one-year rights to the "Bouncing Back," CD, but now Ceridian offers it to all work-life program customers. Other programs offered to GSK employees include an employee assistance program (EAP), elder care, backup child care, retirement services, health education, wellness activities, and more. In the U.K., GSK offers Ceridian OneSource to its employees - both an EAP and a work-life program.

GSK and Ceridian have partnered on these and other programs for nearly 20 years. "We really appreciate Ceridian's partnership to develop CDs that support our program," Campbell says. "Our relationship with Ceridian has always been stellar, as has the quality of materials, commitment to customer service and overall expertise." For more information about Ceridian EAP and work-life programs, contact your Ceridian representative.

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U.K. requires employers to assess, control worker stress
In the U.K., it's not only a good idea to help reduce employee stress, it's the law. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999), employers are required to assess the risk of stress-related ill health arising from work activities. The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) requires employers to take measures to control the risk of illnesses due to stress.

The Health and Safety Executive enforces these laws and expects employers to conduct a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for stress and to take action to tackle any problems identified. The Health and Safety Executive produced guidelines and management standards to assist employers with this endeavor.

"Organizations recognize the importance of proactively managing absence due to mental health, yet also focus on how to prevent stress-related illnesses in the first place, similar to GSK's resilience program," says Paul Barrett, Ceridian account executive in the U.K.

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Practice being resilient
Hands-on resilience techniques for stressful times

• Choose a positive attitude. There are many things you can't control. For example, whether your company is sold and whether you lose your job. Likewise, you can't control your child's health or the likelihood that they'll face a serious illness. But, you can choose how to respond to difficulties and setbacks.
• Take care of yourself. The stronger and more fit you are physically, the more energy you'll have to draw on to manage life's challenges. Practice healthy habits. Make sure you get enough rest, eat a healthy diet, get regular exercise and manage stress. The more you do for yourself, the more resilient you'll be during times of challenge and change.
• Stay calm. During difficult and stressful times, matters can be made worse by pushing the panic button - by imagining the worst. Try to stay calm by telling yourself, "I'm in this difficult situation and the only thing I can do is manage it the best way I can."
Use "traffic light coping." It's an exercise that works like this: When you start to feel worried, panicked or angry - when you "see red" - stop and try to relax. Pause. Breathe deeply to help calm your body and mind. Soften your shoulders. Relax and release the tension in your muscles. When you feel calmer, you're ready to move forward.
• Do something different. Take a break, listen to music, go for a walk or enjoy visiting with a friend. It may help shift your mood and outlook.
• Decide not to be helpless. Try not to let things overwhelm you.
• Trust your inner strength. Experts agree that people have strengths they're unaware of until they need them. You have a well of inner resources. When you need to draw on them, remember that change can lead to personal growth.
• Take action. When you're faced with setbacks, the sooner you act, the sooner you can get control of your situation and feel better.
• Start with a single step. If you're faced with a challenge that feels overwhelming, start by taking the easiest step first. Ask yourself, "What's the smallest thing I can do to get started?" Once you've thought about it, do it.
• Let go of your anger. A difficult situation can cause anger and upset. These feelings are normal, but they won't help you move forward. Work through your anger by writing about it or talk about it with a trusted friend. Try to let go of negative feelings. This isn't easy. It takes practice and work. But try. You'll be surprised at the results you can achieve.
• Focus on solutions, not problems. Instead of focusing on what you may be losing, consider what you might gain. For example, if your job changes it could be an opportunity to reassess your career and find a new direction.
• Laugh. Even when things seem to be falling apart around you, try to find time to smile and laugh. It's healing and it will help you forget your worries for awhile. Rent a movie that makes you laugh or spend time with someone who has a good sense of humor.
• Don't give up. The bigger the challenge, the more effort you need to put in to overcome it. Try new ways of doing things and use your positive, constructive energy to keep moving forward. Keep telling yourself, "I'm going to get there. I'm not going to give up."
• Focus on the good things. Count your blessings. Focus on the things that are good in your life. Try to live in the present and appreciate good things that happen day-to-day. A sense of gratitude helps put things into perspective.
• Remind yourself that you will get through it and you will be stronger for it.

Source: Based on a November 2004 presentation by Stephen Williams, Ph.D. Dr. Williams was an organizational psychologis, author and expert on resilience, work and well-being. He was featured on the GSK CD, "Bouncing Back."