Enhancing Employee Resilience and Well-Being Workshops
Research
Parry Behavioral Consulting employs a 2 + 1 ACT training format (Barkham & Shapiro, 1990) that has been scientifically validated to decrease psychological stress, improve innovation, and increase psychological flexibility (Bond & Bunce, 2000; Flaxman & Bond 2010). This 2 + 1 training format has also been shown to reduce emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and employee burnout (Lloyd, Bond, & Flaxman, 2013).
The ACT approach to increasing employee well-being and performance is so effective, that there is scientific evidence supporting clinical gains after a 1-day ACT workshop delivered to health care workers. In this study, at 3 months post-intervention the group that received the ACT training reported a significantly lower level of psychological distress, with clinically significant change exhibited by 50% of participants. Later, when the control group received the ACT training, 69% went on to demonstrate clinically significant change (Waters, Frude, Flaxman, & Boyd, 2017).
A study in 2004 by Dahl, Wilson, and Nilsson demonstrated that participants who received an ACT intervention at 6 months post-intervention showed fewer sick days and used fewer medical resources than those in the control group, with a mean of only 1 sick day compared to 11.5 sick days for the control group.
ACT training delivered in the workplace performs as well, if not better than: a work-related stress intervention; CBT stress management training, personal development workshops, and mindfulness training (Bond & Bunce, 2000; Flaxman & Bond, 2010; Frogeli et. al., 2016).
Format
- Enhancing Employee Resilience and Well-Being workshop is delivered in 3 training sessions. The first two training sessions are delivered in consecutive weeks during working hours, with a third booster session delivered one month after session 2.
- For organizations where it may not be a possibility to release workers during work hours, the workshop can be made available immediately after working hours.
- Each training session lasts a maximum of 3 hours.
- Training Sessions are typically conducted with groups of 10 or fewer employees, but up to 50 employees can be accommodated.
- Participants are given assignments and practice exercises in between sessions to facilitate the development of the psychological and behavioral skills being trained.
Learning Objectives
There are two core skills that participants will be trained to use effectively that impact resilience and well-being: Mindfulness and Values-Based Action.
Employees will learn how to:
- Strengthen present-moment and situational awareness
- Notice and untangle from internal barriers to accomplishing tasks and engage in values-based behavior
- Clearly define values and translate values into specific, actionable tasks
- Strengthen their 'resilient self' and self-concept
- Willingly experience distressing thoughts and emotions in the service of their values
- Use their values as a powerful guide to achieving life goals and daily actions
- Strengthen perspective taking and awareness through experiential exercises
- Use defusion strategies to step back from negative or distressing internal experiences