For employers
Resilience can be learned
We have the programme to teach it. Stress is among the largest factors holding employees back, and unlike most things on that list, it is modifiable.
Stress is a business problem, not just a health one
Employers face many different challenges in improving employee engagement, performance, and the bottom line. But they are increasingly realising that stress is among the largest factors holding employees back. No longer just a healthcare issue, managing stress has become a top priority for organisations looking to increase productivity, build culture, and improve the bottom line.
Psychological capital (hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism) is associated with important business outcomes, from absence to performance and turnover intent. Unlike traditional workplace wellness programmes, our approach offers an unintimidating transition for employees to ease into resiliency over time. Resilience is a state, not a trait: it is modifiable and can be improved through well-structured interventions. It is a practical strategy for dealing with stress and its workplace cost, and can improve employee morale, productivity, and outcomes.
The problem
Stress and other emotional factors are the leading causes of productivity impairment and absenteeism, as well as contributing factors for heart disease, obesity, and insomnia. It is well established that the physical and mental health of employees influence health care costs, disability, workers compensation claims, absenteeism, and work performance.
And yet, until recently, employers have done little to focus on the psychological and emotional aspects of health. They train employees to do their jobs safely, accurately, and efficiently, and offer optional health improvement programmes. Emotional wellbeing has conventionally been limited to those in desperate need and seen as the domain of crisis-based solutions.
Actively cultivating resilience in your workforce is not a nice-to-have but a business imperative. A happier, less stressed, more engaged, and more focused workforce means higher productivity, lower health costs, and less absenteeism, which means better overall financial performance.
The spend is already there
The Global Wellness Institute puts the US wellness economy at $2 trillion in 2023, about a third of the world total. That figure covers the whole market: nutrition, fitness, tourism, spas, personal care. It is not what a workplace programme returns, and we are not treating it as one.
What it does show is that people already pay for well-being at scale. The gap on this page is narrower: employers still treat the psychological and emotional side as a crisis service rather than as something you build, on site, before people are in trouble.
- $2TUS wellness economy, 2023
- The first year the United States crossed $2 trillion. It is the largest wellness market in the world, and about a third of the $6.3 trillion global total.
- $6,000+Spent per person, per year
- What Americans spend on wellness annually, on the same measure. The spend is already a household line, not a perk waiting for a budget cycle.
- 8.3%Average annual growth, 2019–2023
- Faster than the wider US economy over that stretch, and 37% larger than in 2019. This is not a post-pandemic spike that has faded.
What is resilience?
Resilience is defined as an individual’s ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity, or our struggle with change. Stress and adversity can come in the shape of family or relationship problems, health problems, or workplace and financial stressors, to name a few. Individuals demonstrate resilience when they can face difficult experiences and rise above them with ease.
Its components are
- A positive self-concept, and confidence in one’s strength and abilities
- Communication and problem-solving skills
- The ability to manage strong impulses and feelings
- The ability to make realistic plans, and the capability to take the steps necessary to follow through
- Positive relationships: reciprocal support and caring
How resilience reaches your employees
There are three main mechanisms through which resilience influences business outcomes.
Morale
Resilience improves morale, which improves engagement and retention.
Performance
Resilience improves job performance by improving both effectiveness and efficiency.
Absence
Resilience mitigates stress symptoms and absenteeism, health costs, and the suffering that results.
What the research actually shows
Psychological capital (hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism) is a measurable state, not a fixed trait. The studies cited below associate it with higher job performance and satisfaction, fewer absences, and lower job stress and intention to leave.
Those relationships are real. They are not a per-employee dollar figure. What improved resilience is worth in your organisation depends on wages, headcount, baseline absence, and turnover, which is why we will not invent one here.
From the papers we cite
- HigherPerformance and satisfaction
- Luthans and colleagues (2007) developed a validated measure of psychological capital and found it positively related to both job performance and job satisfaction, across two organisational samples.
- LowerAbsenteeism
- In a field study at a high-tech firm, Avey, Patera, and West (2006) found that higher psychological capital was associated with lower voluntary and involuntary absenteeism, adding explanatory power beyond common job-attitude measures.
- LowerStress and turnover intent
- Avey, Luthans, and Jensen (2009) found psychological capital negatively related to job stress and to turnover intentions, with stress helping to explain the path from psychological capital to intending to leave.
The opportunity
We envision a community comprised of a workforce where individuals reach their full potential through physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. Building psychological capital is a supported way to work with workplace stress, and health coaching is a practical way to deliver that work.
When people improve their coping skills and become more resilient, the research above finds they tend to perform better, miss fewer days, and are less inclined to leave.
ResilienceONE offers an engagement and performance programme that uses personalised coaching and team training to build those skills inside the organisation. You can equip each of your employees with the capacity to work through obstacles, increase agility, and gain adaptive capacity.
What hospitals have already measured
The programmes began inside Denver hospitals, not as a thought experiment. Presbyterian/St. Luke’s – Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children opened a wellness lounge in 2015; Rose Medical Center followed in 2018. The numbers below are those hospitals’ own HCAHPS, engagement, and turnover figures from the years the work was running.
They are not a randomised trial, and they are not a promise that another site will move by the same amount. They are what was measured in buildings where staff could walk into a lounge mid-shift and, later, where coaches came onto the unit.
- 82%HCAHPS top-box, 2021
- At P/SL-RMHC the top-box score was 73.37% in 2019 (n = 1,101) and 82.08% in 2021 (n = 1,096). The percentile rank moved from 51 to 86 in those two years. In 2023 it was still 78.90%, 81st percentile (n = 365).
- 12.4%RN turnover, 2023
- Registered-nurse turnover at P/SL-RMHC, year-to-date annualised. It was 20.8% in July 2014 and 14% in 2019.
- 72Engagement index, 2023
- The hospital’s engagement index was 69 in 2019 and 72 in 2023. Overall engagement in 2014, before the first lounge, was 71.
What it costs to lose a nurse
NSI Nursing Solutions puts the average cost of turnover for a single bedside registered nurse at $44,400. The programme materials put the arithmetic this way: the system compensates in full when you retain five nurses.
That is a cost-of-turnover argument, not a price list. What it is worth in your organisation depends on your wages, your baseline turnover, and which units you start with, which is why we will not invent a programme fee here.
References
- Global Wellness Institute. The Global Wellness Economy: United States. 2025. 2023 estimates: US wellness economy of $2 trillion (about 32% of the $6.3 trillion global market); more than $6,000 spent per person; 8.3% average annual growth from 2019 to 2023; 37% larger than in 2019.
- Luthans, F., et al. Positive Psychological Capital: Measurement and Relationship with Performance and Satisfaction. Leadership Institute Faculty Publications, 2007. Paper 11: p. 541–572.
- Avey, J.B., F. Luthans, and S.M. Jensen. Psychological Capital: A Positive Resource for Combating Employee Stress and Turnover. Human Resource Management, 2009. 48: p. 677–693.
- Avey, J.B., J.L. Patera, and B.J. West. The Implications of Positive Psychological Capital on Employee Absenteeism. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 2006. 13(2): p. 42–60.
- Presbyterian/St. Luke’s – Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. HCAHPS top-box scores and percentile ranks, 2018–2023; engagement index and registered-nurse turnover, 2014–2023. As shown in ResilienceONE programme materials.
- Presbyterian/St. Luke’s – Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. Roaming Wellness on ICU and NICU, spring 2023: 200 staff; 144.5 hours of direct services over 10 weeks; 425+ nurse touch points; 82 massages and 32 acupuncture treatments on the unit. As shown in ResilienceONE programme materials.
- Rose Medical Center. Magnet narrative: nurse perceived stress 6.4 to 5.7, and awareness of stress-reduction resources 36% to 75%, October 2018–April 2019. As shown in ResilienceONE programme materials.
- NSI Nursing Solutions. Average cost of turnover for a bedside registered nurse, $44,400. Cited in ResilienceONE programme materials.
See what this looks like inside your organisation
A fifteen-minute video call is enough to walk through the programme, the evidence behind it, and whether it fits what you are actually trying to change.
Or write to us directly at releasenriseretreats@gmail.com