Building a resilient non-teaching workforce in the public sector organization is essential in surviving and thriving the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of general conditions and situations like the CoViD-19 pandemic in the world today. The non-teaching workforce in the government like DepEd needs to build resilience by doing reflection, investing time, and doing practice. The government can support its employees by providing training and tools essential in building their resilience in the workplace. When the organization and employees work together, the culture of organizational and individual resilience is developed. It demonstrates commitment between the government and employees.

It is important to understand resilience and the five (5) key pillars of resilience. As defined by Amit Sood, MD, the executive director of the Global Center for Resiliency and Well-Being, creator of the Resilient Option program, and former professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, cited in the published article of Hurley (2020), resilience is the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back and grow despite life’s downturns. According to Burton (2020), there are five (5) key pillars of resilience, such as emotional well-being, inner drive, future focus, relationships, and physical health. Emotional well-being, as the most fundamental pillar, focuses on how well an employee manages his/her emotions and thoughts, and how healthy and realistic his/her views are of him/herself and the world. Inner drive refers to an employee’s ability to set goals and motivate themselves, as well as adopt a forward-thinking approach to progress through life. Future focus considers an employee’s level of foresight, as well as an ability to focus on solutions and positive change; also encompasses acceptance of failures and adversity. Relationships pertain to having a strong social network with friends, family, colleagues, etc., which provides emotional and physical support. Physical health involves recognizing the importance of looking after an employee physically, as poor physical wellbeing can directly impact the other pillars. All pillars are interlinked and have their own individual building blocks that every employee must develop to strengthen the pillars as a whole. The non-teaching workforce needs to identify areas that they perform well and those areas that need enhancement.

A resilient non-teaching workforce possesses the ability to withstand the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous conditions and situations that are now having at the workplace. On one hand, every employee must put in a personal effort to become resilient. On other hand, the government must provide support like training and the right tools essential in building organizational and individual resilience. Building a resilient non-teaching workforce is a collaborative process between the organization and the employees. After all, the ultimate goal that prompts them to perform is to continue the delivery of effective and efficient public services amidst adversity and challenges.

By: Jojie L. Arias