April marks Stress Awareness month! This is the perfect opportunity to ensure your employees are happy in their job roles & revisit your organisations stress management.
Employee wellbeing should be at the forefront of any organisation. Ensuring employees are performing well in their job, whilst having a good work life balance is critical to creating a positive work environment.
Causes of workplace stress
Workplace stress can occur at different times, for different people depending on their workload, environment, and other contributing factors. Some organisations consider stress to be a motivating factor to get things done quickly, however stress can cause low productivity rates and quality of work can often slip in high stress environments.
There are a number of common causes of workplace stress:
- Long working hours, with lack of flexibility
- High workloads and short deadlines
- Lack of support from management or lack of guidance when dealing with issues
- Lack of resources or access to adequate training to meet the needs of the job
- Poor physical working environment
- Periods of change in business operations or leadership
- Workplace bullying and discrimination.
Workplace stress is something employees often struggle to talk about or voice, in fear of judgement or embarrassment. Research carried out by Mind highlights 1 in 5 of us take a sick day as a result of stress, but the startling issue is 90% of people cited a different reason for this sick absence.
Overcoming work place stress
Offering employees, a flexible work environment is key to help your employees balance work and personal life. It helps employees easily book appointments and take care of their wellbeing, while still completing all tasks for their work day.
Ensuring employees receive adequate training to carry out their job role is critical to reducing stress. New members of staff should receive onboarding training to familiarise themselves with the operations of the business. All staff should receive training on the software they use, as well as upgrades and changes to organisational software. This will allow employees to become more productive and efficient.
Keeping employees informed during periods of change will ensure all staff are aware of the impact these changes may have on their job role directly. Informing staff of these changes eliminates any worry or stress that may arise from rumours about change in the organisation.
Help employees identify signs of stress
As an employer it is extremely important to educate and inform your employees on common signs of stress. There are a number of signs including:
- headaches,
- feeling irritable or easily upset,
- becoming less sociable with friends, family, or colleagues,
- feeling panicked or overwhelmed with your workload.
Employers should look out for high staff turnover rates, an increase in complaints or grievances as well as staff withdrawing from the work environment. Management should also look out for signs of staff burnout, or employees overworking.
Three in five people said they would feel more motivated & loyal to their workplace if their employer actively supported the mental wellbeing of all their staff.
This April, why not check in and ensure your employees are managing their workload and taking care of themselves!
