Today I'm coming to you with some powerful insights about "organizational resilience". As a former Big Four auditor turned wellbeing consultant, I've seen firsthand how companies struggle with maintaining their workforce's health while pursuing business goals. Today, I'm sharing crucial insights about why organizational resilience isn't just a "nice-to-have" – it's a business imperative.
Want the full series? Click to read the 3-part Organizational Resilience series I recently wrote for Thomson Reuters.
The True Cost of Ignoring Organizational Resilience
Here's a shocking statistic: according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), replacing a highly trained professional can cost anywhere from 50% to 200% of their annual salary. Think about that for a moment. If you're losing a manager making $100,000 annually, you could be looking at up to $200,000 in replacement costs alone.
But what exactly are we paying for? The costs include:
Advertising and recruiting fees
Hiring processes
Onboarding new talent
Training programs
Lost productivity during the learning curve
Hidden costs of knowledge transfer
The Budget Myth: Finding Money Where You Least Expect It
One of the most common objections I hear is, "We don't have the budget for resilience programs." But here's the truth: you already have the money – it's just in the wrong bucket. When I ask companies about their hiring budget for 2024, they always have a number ready. But when I ask about their retention budget? Crickets.
Here's my suggestion: Take just 5-10% of your hiring budget and reallocate it to retention. This isn't creating new expenses – it's making smarter use of existing resources. Think of it as preventive maintenance for your human capital.
The Strategic Framework for Implementation
Once you've committed to organizational resilience, you need to make three key decisions:
1. Scope Decision: Wide vs. Deep
Wide: Company-wide initiatives that touch everyone
Deep: Focused programs for specific groups or issues
2. Direction Decision: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up
Top-Down: Starting with leadership and cascading down
Bottom-Up: Beginning with employees and building upward
3. Approach Decision: Tactics vs. Mindset
Tactics: Concrete tools and strategies
Mindset: Fundamental shifts in thinking and resilience
The Dirty Fish Bowl Analogy
Think of your organization as a fish bowl. When the fish (your employees) are sick, do you just medicate them, or do you also clean the water? The answer is both. You need to address both individual wellness and organizational culture. A toxic environment will keep making your fish sick, no matter how much medicine you provide.
Taking Action: Your Next Steps
1. Calculate Your Current Costs
Assess your turnover rates
Multiply by average replacement costs
Include hidden costs like lost productivity
2. Review Your Budget Allocation
Identify your current hiring budget
Calculate what 5-10% would look like for retention
Document potential savings from reduced turnover
3. Choose Your Strategy
Select your scope (wide or deep)
Determine your direction (top-down or bottom-up)
Pick your approach (tactics or mindset)
Wrapping Up
Organizational resilience isn't just about making people feel good – it's about protecting your bottom line while building a sustainable, thriving workplace. The companies that understand this aren't just creating better places to work; they're creating more profitable, sustainable businesses.
Ready to take the next step? I'd love to help you build a customized organizational resilience strategy for your company. Visit the Contact page and let's discuss how we can work together.
Hey! Have you subscribed to my weekly newsletter? It's made for hard-working professionals like you in accounting, finance, law and consulting who are ready to up-level their careers and enjoy the hours spent out of the office. Each week, I share simple, practical advice that gives you the tools to enjoy the life you've worked so hard for. Subscribe here.
What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
Why organizational resilience is critical for your bottom line
How to reallocate your budget for maximum impact on retention
Three key strategic decisions for implementing resilience programs
The true cost of employee turnover (it's more than you think!)
Watch The Full Episode:
Full Episode Transcript:
We are going live. Hello.
How's everybody doing today?
It is the lunch hour in Eastern standard time.
Happy Wednesday, everybody.
Billable hour burnout episode 31 2.
Episode 32 happening.
Organizational resilience series part two happening.
Let's get this started.
Happy Wednesday, everybody.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to another
episode of Billable Hour Burnout.
If you need some helpful tactical advice that actually gives
you the career of your dreams without the stress or
the overwhelm, you are in the right place.
If you want to finally enjoy the life that you
spent decades building, you've come to the right place.
If you're here today, it means you're ready.
Experience more work, life balance, more ease,
more confidence, more success at work.
And you're ready to make it happen without having
to quit your job or burn down your life.
My name is Lauren Baptiste, your big
four auditor turned life coach, and you're
listening to Billable Hour Burnout.
On the show, I share simple tactics and
mindset strategies specifically catered to the modern accountant,
consultant, attorney, and those equipped in finance.
You ready, 32, let's go.
It's been. I can't believe it.
Can you believe it is Halloween tomorrow
and it is the end of October?
Q1 is already a third.
Oh, Q4 is almost a third.
Over the year is like clicking away, but that's okay.
I am celebrating all the beautiful foliage.
It is peak foliage around here, so I've just been
getting out, trying to do as many hikes as I
can, taking advantage of every nice day that I can
because I know indoors is coming soon.
I actually like indoors for other
reasons, but I love being outside.
So really taking advantage of that.
Recently I celebrated a friend's 40th birthday.
That was last night.
So it was fun to have a midweek little
party thing and I'm looking forward to what's ahead.
I've got some good stuff happening.
And for any of you that are
halloweening trick or treating, happy Halloween.
I hope you have fun.
I took my niece out and we did some trick or treating.
It was really fun.
So I hope you have fun too.
Let's get into today's episode because we've
got a lot to talk about in
today's second part of Organizational Resilience.
But I always love to share
a little client success story.
So this one comes from Beth.
She's a tax managing director, and she
says Lauren's coaching truly saved my career.
I came to her exhausted, at a crossroads
and ready to walk away from the profession
I had spent decades in investing in.
She helped me See that I didn't have
to choose between my health and my success.
The program taught me to set boundaries, start my
day in a positive way, and find balance, which
has not only transformed how I show up at
work, but has improved my relationships with my family.
I've learned I don't have to be
exhausted to be an effective leader.
I'm now re energized, genuinely excited about my
path, and more confident than ever in my
ability to succeed without sacrificing myself. Woo.
That one feels good.
Celebrating Beth.
Amazing, amazing, amazing.
There is so much benefit from my program. Freedom.
And when you enter, what happens is everybody's like, okay,
this is what I think I'm going to get.
I think I'm just going to
like break through my burnout.
And like, breaking through burnout is just the first
milestone so that you can hit your career goal.
I shared on my Instagram stories another day and I
know it's like a little bit of an anecdote, but
a different client graduated this week and it was just
so powerful to see her shifts in what she changed.
She came for goals of wearing more of the
other hats in her life as a friend, as
a wife, and even at more time for self.
She was looking to like
break through her imposter syndrome.
And she was also working, looking to get clarity at
work because she was having this stay or go feel.
Am I in the right place?
Is this really what I care about?
Am I purposeful?
And then at the end of six months, she's like,
whoa, I totally forgot that I was in that place.
I just, I'm in such a different state of mind now
that I can't even imagine what life would be like otherwise.
So that's what I love.
That's what I am like celebrating is these
clients that are hitting it, not just like
a little bit, but a lot of it.
And so I'll stop there, but I just really love.
So Beth's story gives like detail my
client who graduated earlier this week.
It's just to see the impact that they're making by being
in this program that you couldn't get on your own.
That's what I just love about the program.
Love, love, love.
All right, but let's talk about today's
topic because this is what I really
wanted to spend time with you today.
So if you joined me last week, we
went through the first part of Organizational resilience.
Organizational resilience, if you weren't here for the
first part of this three part series is
all about how do we find function and
bounce back from setbacks at work.
And my answer as the wellbeing consultant that
spends time in companies is the answer is,
when you're well, your company does well.
That will always be the stance that I have.
When you're good, then you can. Right?
We always say, put on your oxygen
mask first before you serve others.
The same is how organizational resilience is.
In order to serve our company, we need to
make sure we're taking care of ourselves and we
need to do it in meaningful ways.
So in the last episode, I talked about
the problem that a lot of companies are
experiencing on the path to organizational resilience and
that they're not quite hitting it because they're
focused on transactional solutions, not transformational solutions.
So today we're going to go a little deeper.
Now that we know what it is, now we know
the problem is, now that we know the solution is
focusing on these transformational solutions, we're going to get a
little bit more clear in what that means.
So there's three things that I know
after doing this for a really long
time is that companies don't embrace organizational
resilience or prioritize it because three things.
One, they don't actually see it as a priority.
They see it as a wellbeing initiative or something
that would just be a nice to have.
They're not seeing it as critical.
The second point is that they don't
make space for it in the budget.
So they're just like, well, it doesn't fit.
We don't have budget for this, Right?
And then it doesn't take hold.
The third reason why companies haven't
implemented or aren't implementing organizational resilience
is because they don't know how.
So today I'm going to talk to you about
each of these because as you are an empowered
leader, we're going to take care of ourselves so
that we could take care of our company.
But you need to see the value of it, right?
I talk to a lot of clients
and this is on an individual level.
If someone's like, you know, I'd really
love to exercise more, it's like, why?
And they're like, well, because I'd
like to be 10 pounds lighter. Okay. Why?
Because then maybe I'd feel a
little bit better in my clothes. Okay, why?
Like, why does that matter? Right?
We were like kind of digging like a child
would to get to the essence of the truth.
But if we're not fully connected to
the reason, then it just never gets.
Becomes prioritized. I Can't tell you.
Time and time again, I've heard clients
who just like, don't then exercise because
they're not seeing it as that priority.
So we have to read, we have to
pivot the mindset behind how we operate.
So we need to make
organizational resilience a priority.
And how are we going to do that?
Well, businesses like making money.
Actually, businesses are only businesses
when they're making money.
Otherwise it's a hobby. Right.
So we want to make sure
that your business is making money.
So if you're considering this a wellbeing initiative or
a nice to have, what I know that you're
not seeing is the actual cost that's happening, that
that's accruing every day, the money you're losing every
single day by not being organizationally resilient.
And so we're like, wait, what
costs are you talking about?
Well, have we thought about the cost of
what it takes when we lose somebody?
Right, we're going to talk about that when we talk.
Well, we can, you know, let's
just talk about it right now.
So when we're thinking about organizational resilience
and we're thinking about a lost person,
it's very expensive to replace them.
Especially for someone who's manager and
up, highly educated, highly trained, experienced.
That's expensive.
So according to SHRM, the Society of HR Management, they
say that cost could be anywhere from 50 to 200.
But I've seen other studies that say the
average is actually around that like 150%.
Especially 150%, let's say of, of their annual salary.
So, excuse me, just so you know, so
150 to 200% max of their annual salary.
That's expensive.
That's a lot of money, right?
Think about how much you're making and think
about, wow, twice that just to replace me.
And so we think about like, what are the costs?
The costs are advertising, recruiting, hiring, onboarding,
training, getting that person up to speed
and that learning curve that's experienced.
It's expensive.
It's very expensive to lose people.
So the problem is that we're
seeing people drop like flies.
We're seeing this rage quitting trend.
We're seeing, you know, we're kind of at the
other side, I guess, of that great resignation.
Nobody's really talking about that term anymore more.
But I will say people are still leaving.
They're very much over the, like going through the,
like the rigor, rigor, whatever the word is the
intensity of the job and they want something better.
And there's A point where, like, all
the money isn't even worth it anymore.
So, okay, we know now that how
expensive it is to lose somebody.
So then is this now a priority? Right?
Can we start to prioritize this?
When you have people that are in
your company that aren't happy, right.
You might even be one of them. Because this is.
You're here because you're likely
engaging with the messaging.
You're an empowered leader and you're also a
professional, a burned out professional, and that's okay.
So I want you to think about
whether it's yourself or a colleague.
But this idea of a fishbowl with
a fish that's in dirty water.
I remember I was talking to chief wellbeing
officer at Big four accounting firm and we,
we talked about this analogy together.
And the idea is like, if the fish is in the
dirty fishbowl is sick, how do you solve the problem?
Do you just give the fish medicine?
Do you change the water?
What would you do?
The reality is likely both, right?
You would change the water, hoping it would
be the water can maybe make it better.
You would also try to give the fish medicine.
But I want you to think about that person
who's staying at the job that they hate longer.
Like, that creates a toxic culture.
Over time, it builds resentment.
You have a leader who's not as
compassionate or empathetic or well, listening.
They give, like, very curt demands
of like, this isn't good enough.
Are you thinking what's happening?
Like, why do you keep doing this wrong?
Right Versus someone who's able to hold space.
Okay, what is it that you don't understand?
What training can I provide?
What can we do to help bridge the gap from
where you are to where you need to be?
Can you feel the difference?
So we need to equip our
leaders, ourselves with these tools.
So this is why organizational resilience is critical and
that we need to make it a priority.
We need to solve for the fishbowl and the sick fish.
We need to stop losing. Right?
We don't want dead fish.
We don't want to lose.
Our fish are our fish that we
love so much, our hardworking professionals.
And so if we don't make this a priority,
that cost is going to continue to rise.
It's rising every second that
you're sitting here right now.
And so what we want to do is really
catch that and figure out then how can we
create a budget and take the next steps.
So let's move into point number two.
So the first point was all about making it a priority.
So now that we understand the need to prioritize
this, then usually what comes up is, well, Lauren,
like, okay, we didn't budget for this.
Like, we see that there's value in
this, but we haven't budgeted it.
I'm like, okay, no problem, no stress.
Actually, you already have the budget.
So one thing I've been doing as I've been
speaking to firms is like asking, so tell me
what your hiring budget is for 2024.
And they'll give me a number and I'll say,
okay, well, tell me what your retention budget is.
This is where I get crickets.
There is no budget for retention. Usually. Usually.
So there are sometimes renegade cases, but, okay,
so there's no budget for retaining your people.
So you're just focusing on new fish, but you're
not trying to like, save the fish that you
already have that have been providing for you and
working for you and supporting you. Right. Why?
What if we took. Let's just.
If we're going to even take a gamble, take 5 to
10% of your hiring budget and put it into retention.
It needs to be meaningful enough so
that there is something to work with.
But for that, usually, yeah, if you could take 10% to
start and shift it from hiring to retention, then what we
can start to experience is a way to something better.
So let's think about what is
that way to something better.
This is where the transformational solutions come in.
So I want you to be thinking
this is like the easiest way. Right.
It's hard to make budget out of nowhere.
But what we want to be thinking about is
when we take a budget that didn't exist, then
we reallocate funds from hiring to retention.
What we're actually doing is focusing on the
same goal is a fully employed staff where
there's enough resourcing to get the work done.
So it's really all hitting the same goal.
So it's not even like a creating a new budget.
It's just a reallocation.
And so all my accountants here know that and know how to
can know how to figure that out on the P and L.
But what I also like to say too, and
the difference is not just assuming, okay, I'm taking
this 10% and I'm throwing it in the garbage.
It's this idea of having a plan
to create a return on your investment.
So I'm looking in the chat right
now and Instagram and I love it.
And it's like, yes, and a more motivated staff.
So I think that's really valuable to like, kind
of hear that it's going much deeper than just
saving your people or having enough resources.
It's about creating a more motivated to workforce.
It's about saving that person.
So let's say, okay, Hypothetically, we take 10% of
your hiring budget and let's say that's $100,000.
That $100,000 can be used.
And like, and I've seen it in different situations
and clients that I've worked with is that that
money can then it saves people from leaving.
And that money then is like instead of that
200% that we're spending on someone who just left.
Right.
Which ends up being way more
than the 10% you reallocated.
You use that money to save the people
that you have that you appreciate that you
want to keep for the long run.
So I just wanted to say that I
think there is totally math that supports this.
Feel free to reach out.
I can, you know, I know I'm just like
kind of sharing with you as we're speaking right
now, but there are numbers that support this.
And what we're going to speak about next week is
the return on the investment that you can expect.
So this isn't just money that we're throwing away
towards a happy hour or a bowling night.
No, we're focused on a transformational solution
that transforms the life of your employee
and the life of your business.
It is an absolute win. Win.
I can go on and on for this for
a long time because I think there's so many
ways that we can like, talk about this.
But I'm going to take a few minutes really quickly
to share a couple of strategies to think about. Right.
So if you are committed and now you're saying,
okay, I understand it's a priority, okay, maybe I
can make that work in the budget. Right.
So now I'm starting to see that there's a
way I can create a business case for this.
Then the third step is how do I help?
Like, how do I break through that? I don't know how.
Well, I'm going to tell you right now. This is how.
Now there's a lot of ways to do this, but
I'm going to say I created some general ways to
think about it of a few different strategies.
These are a couple decisions that you have to make.
So we're going to go through kind of like
this or that, like A, B or C.
And you have to choose one from A, choose
one from B, and choose one from C.
And that will be your strategy to Set things in motion.
Okay, so the first strategy, the first consideration,
the first decision you have to make.
Are you going to go wide, meaning firm wide, company wide,
or are you going to go deep and focus on a
select number of people, a select problem, a select situation.
Right.
So identify wide or deep.
Neither is better or worse.
They all have their pluses and minuses,
which we'll talk about next week.
But think about that. Right?
So a, wide or deep solution or decision B, top down.
Right.
So focusing on leaders and working your
way down or bottom up, starting with
your employee workforce and working up. Right.
So now you think, okay, if I wanted to go wide,
am I going to do something that feels more grassrootsy?
Am I going to do something that
then has a leadership down momentum? Right.
So see how that works and play with it from there.
The third consideration is tactics or mindset.
Tactics or mindset.
Tactics are learning the things. Okay.
In order to be better at time management,
I have to do these three steps, right?
We can create classes and workshops and things to help
build tactics, or are we trying to build mindset?
Mindset is then focusing on more
resilience, building confidence, helping to be
more organizationally resilient, to handle uncertainties.
So this is what you have to think about.
Wide or deep, top down or bottom up or T. And.
And tactics versus mindset, again, neither is bad.
There's no perfect permutation.
The permutation that's perfect for your firm
is the one that's going to work.
And so this is why I love
getting involved in helping make the plan.
Help evaluate the plan, make adjustments to
the plan, and repeat the plan until
you meet the goal of organizationally resilient.
So the truth is that we're never going to get
it right 100% of the time on the first go.
That's just not how it works usually.
But we can do a lot of things to
be directionally going where we want to be.
Like, I always think about this idea of, like, I'm from
New York and if I'm flying to the west coast, like,
directionally going to the west coast is like making my way
from Chicago or across or, you know, if I'm flying, then
I'm just going to try to take one flight all the
way to the west coast and not pit stop anywhere else.
But if we're off, then I'm heading
to Europe and I don't even know.
So we want to make sure that
we're really focused on what we want.
And that's why I walk my clients through this process,
when we're doing more organizationally resilience, focused work to get
them where they want to go, do it within budget,
make it feel like a priority and have the step
by step plan to get there. So I love that.
That's what I'm doing.
That's what I'm sharing.
So as we come to the end of today's episode,
here's a few things that you could think about.
I gave you next steps on the last episode
because I really want you to be thinking about,
okay, here's a tangible thing I can do.
And so this is what I want you to do now.
So if you did all the ones from last week, amazing.
Now you're here.
If you still need to do those, go
back to last week, watch that come back.
So here's what you could do. Three steps.
One, identify your goals. Right?
What are the goals of the employer and the employee?
We talked about this a little bit last time,
but something you really need to be thinking about
is making sure that you're creating a win win
solution that supports both of you.
Not just engagement, not just loyalty, not just retention,
but their goals of not crying in the shower,
not panicking at night, less heart palpitations. Right?
So we need to find goals that help both parties.
Number two, start to finalize that budget.
Now that I've given you an idea of, where can I
reallocate from that is operating to support that same goal.
Now you can start to have something to work with.
You'll have some force behind
the machine that you're building.
And then the third step is to take action.
I know how challenging this can feel when you're like,
wow, I have to save my company all by myself.
No, that's why you get to bring in me
and my firm and we can support you.
And going there, the only thing you'd
have to do is reach out.
So that's where I'll leave it today.
Make sure you do those three steps.
If you want more information about my corporate consulting work,
you can reach out to me on all the places.
HelloLowness.com is the email you can go
to Akaloa Wellness.com on the website.
You can find me on LinkedIn.
There's all the places you can find
me, but you can reach out.
And that's where we get this party started.
We get to build organizational
resilience for your company.
But don't forget, you got to put your own mask
on first if you want your company to be there.
It starts with you and this is where I've been sharing.
If you want to take action, right.
I really want you to be engaged on my newsletter
because November is going to be a good month.
It's an end and it's November in two days.
We've got, I've got a surprise coming for you.
We got a webinar coming up.
We have things and I there's something
that I'm only sharing on my newsletter.
So if you're not there, you're
going to want to join me.
Go to aloha wellness.com newsletter make sure
you're on the newsletter to take advantage
of what's coming in November.
You're not going to want to miss it.
So this is your warning.
But in the meantime, if you are ready to
take action and you're like, you know what?
I feel like I need coaching.
I need coaching for myself so that I
can build my organization resilience for my organization,
then now's the time to book a consultation.
I am taking consultations now.
So if you want there is limited spots because
a lot of actually I have a lot of
consults on the calendar in the coming weeks.
But if you are ready to take action on your,
on your next level, on your 2025, if you want
to finish the year strong, now is the time.
I have a partner who's transitioning
from one firm to another. Right.
She's re engaging this work because
she gets the value for it.
I have a senior manager who's looking
to promote who's also seeking like more
boundaries as she gets her new title.
She's continuing this work.
I have clients who are coming in who
are getting the you who just got laid
off who are getting ready to get started.
They see the value of this work.
There are regardless of the situation, there is for you a
return on your investment and when again you put your oxygen
mask on, this is where you benefit, those around you benefit
and then we get your company to benefit.
So that's the, that's the name
of the game this week everybody. Let's do that.
So thank you so much for joining today.
I love having these.
These are like I just have so much
joy each week bringing this to you.
So thank you for listening to today's episode.
If you found it helpful, drop a
comment, let me know what you think.
Come find me on Instagram, LinkedIn,
Facebook, YouTube and wherever you hang.
Thank you for listening.
If you want more information about me,
Lauren Baptiste Aloa Wellness or my one
on one coaching program Freedom that is
changing lives daily, visit acoloa wellness.com.
that's a C H e L O a wellness spelled out com.
All right, great episode.
See everybody next week for 33, which
will be organizational resilience part three.
This is all focused on the ROI.
All right, everybody, great week.
I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
