Staying Engaged in Challenging Times
World renowned Professor Wilmar Schaufeli specializes in work and organizational psychology. He has researched work engagement for more than twenty years and his work is widely used by Human Resources specialists around the globe. Prof. Schaufeli’s Job Demands-Resources model helps individuals, teams and organizations identity key stressors and energy resources that can hinder or enhance wellbeing and performance.
Key insights
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The positive aspects of work count more than the negative ones: To stay fully engaged, it is not enough simply to reduce the stressors (e.g. workload). To stay fully engaged, look specifically for those energy resources that actively and positively boost your engagement. These key positive drivers will help you stay engaged and at the same time buffer the effect of the negative demands.
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Right now the human aspect is of the utmost importance: While employees still need to perform their work in the current situation, this is not the time to push for enhanced performance. Currently, showing care for the other and interacting socially, much as you would around the coffee machine in the office, matters most.
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Job autonomy may matter now more than ever: Granting employees autonomy in their job means showing trust; and trust gives room for creativity. In times of crisis creativity flourishes. Therefore, allowing for space and trust within a team or organization, especially in the current times, is likely to facilitate innovative, out of the box solutions for an out of the box situation.
The Energy Compass
To help you further, Prof. Schaufeli’s Energy Compass is temporarily available for free. Evaluate your mental energy and gain insight in your personal engagement, work stress and their drivers.
Dive deeper
Can you do what Martin can?
To help you keep your energy levels high and stay positive throughout your day it is essential to take breaks regularly. To help you get more out of your downtime, Martin Pet, a seasoned sport and performance psychologist and physiologist, will challenge you to perform a wide range of exercises that will do just that.
About the crew member
Wilmar Schaufeli • Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology
Wilmar is professor of Occupational Health Psychology at Utrecht University and distinguished research professor at Leuven University. He is acknowledged as an expert in burnout, and for the past 20 years his research focused on work engagement as well. Together with his colleagues he developed the widely used Job Demands-Resources Model as well as a reliable and valid scale to assess work engagement, known as the Utrecht Engagement Scale (UBES), which is the single-most used scale to measure work engagement in the academic world.
Your journey until now
Staying Engaged in Challenging Times
World renowned Engagement expert Prof. Wilmar Schaufeli on the key job engagement drivers
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