Imagine being stranded in the desert and thinking that if you just had water, all would be okay. After a few days, you realize that shade, food, and sunscreen would all be helpful too.
That is how stability is. It isn’t all about money. It is also about these additional resources:
- Emotional
- Mental/cognitive
- Language and formal register
- Social capital and support systems
- Physical resources
- Spiritual resources
- Integrity and trust
- Motivation and persistence
- Relationships and role models
- Knowledge of hidden rules
The more resources each of us has, the more we can contribute—personally and professionally. If you have employees who have lived in daily economic instability for years, they have not had the chance to grow some of their resources. That is where you come in.
You can help your employees grow resources with internal training programs, mentor programs, benefits, policy shifts, and more. Many times, we will pay for graduate credits, so why not pay for a GED or ESL program? Both will create more stability for an employee, which will allow them to contribute at a higher level.
Ruth Weirich is the author of Workplace Stability.
