Resilience Resources
for Organizations
These resources are intended to guide organizations in activities to increase resilience in their workforce. These tools are organized into the same four areas included in the resilience assessment: Organizational Practices, Leadership Qualities, Workplace Culture, and Workforce Temperature. If your organization scores lower on one of these areas of the assessment, you can use the associated tools to address that area.
Leadership Qualities
Leadership guides and motivates people to do their best work and reach the organization’s goals. Good leaders ensure everyone knows the vision, listen to their team, and give clear directions. They support their team, help make tough decisions, and ensure people have the necessary information and resources. Leaders also encourage growth by recognizing strengths, empowering employees to make decisions, and creating an environment where people feel valued and inspired to do their best.
Assessments
Peer Reviewed Articles
- Building a New Generation of Public Health Leaders Forged in a Public Health Crisis: This article identifies seven leadership capability themes for public health, including effective communication, partnership building, systems thinking, centering equity, and achieving resilience.
- Leaders supporting leaders: Leaders’ role in building resilience and psychologically healthy workplaces during the pandemic and beyond: This short article from the National Library of Medicine looks at the role leaders play in building resilience and psychologically healthy workplaces during the pandemic and beyond. Across about five pages, it lays out eight actions organized around the theme of leaders supporting leaders.
Organizational Practices
Organizational practices are the everyday ways an organization runs and how it handles things like decision-making, teamwork, and problem-solving. These practices help keep everything on track by making sure everyone knows their role, communicates well, and can adapt when things don’t go as planned. It’s about making sure the organization stays focused on what’s important, gives employees chances to grow, and quickly makes decisions when needed. Good organizational practices help the organization run smoothly and keep everyone working together toward common goals.
Resources
- Retention Recruitment Toolkit
- Starting a Workplace Health and Well-Being Committee: A Step-By-Step Guide for Managers: A Health and Well-being Committee (HaWC) is a participatory program developed in 2025 by researchers at MIT Sloan and the Harvard Chan School, built from what employees and managers had to say. This framework is for building a culture of voice and value where people feel supported, take ownership, and work as a team.
- Online Training – Understanding and Preventing Burnout among Public Health Workers: Guidance for Public Health Leaders: This online training from CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) helps public health supervisors and senior leaders learn practical ways to prioritize employee well-being and cut down on workplace burnout. The key point is that real organizational and policy changes, not just self-care, are what actually prevent burnout. It's split into 10 flexible modules of about 15 to 30 minutes each, totaling around 3.5 hours, and continuing education credit is available at no cost.
Workplace Culture
Workplace culture is the values, behaviors, and attitudes that shape the work environment. A positive culture means that employees are open to learning from mistakes, communicate well, and work together as a team. In a positive culture, employees feel valued, take ownership of their work, and are motivated to do their best.
Resources
- Joy in Work Toolkit
- Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being, Office of the Surgeon General: This framework from the U.S. Surgeon General lays out a simple plan for supporting workers' mental health on the job. It's built around five basics: keeping people safe from harm, building real connection and community, balancing work with the rest of life, making sure folks know they matter, and giving them room to grow.
Peer Reviewed Articles
- Key Elements of Psychologically Safe Workplaces in Healthcare Settings: Research identifying the elements healthcare workers value for psychological safety: effective communication, organizational culture, leadership practices, performance feedback, respect among colleagues, staff development, teamwork, and trust. Based on qualitative data from workers across public, private, and aged-care settings.
Workforce Temperature
Workforce temperature is a measure of the overall mood, engagement, and well-being of employees within an organization at a specific point in time. It reflects factors such as job satisfaction, morale, and stress levels, providing insight into employee sentiment and organizational health.
Resources
- Putting Our People First
- NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire (WellBQ): This questionnaire from NIOSH/CDC measures worker well-being across five domains: quality of working life, circumstances outside of work, and physical/mental health status.
- Resiliency Toolkit: A Comprehensive Guide for Health Centers & Their Staff (2022): The Resiliency Toolkit from the National Health Care for the Homeless Council is a guide built for organizational leadership teams at health centers. It walks through the Job Demands-Resources model, supervisor-employee relationships, change management, and building out training and development programs, with discussion guides and reflection activities along the way.