In today’s world, stress has become an inevitable part of work life. Stress levels at work have increased in 15 different countries over the past two years, according to a study conducted by the Regus Group. Employees around the world experience an unbearable workload. The sad state of affairs requires employers like yours to take proactive measures to manage worker stress. This is very important for the well-being of your employees and your organization.
5 top reasons why managing employee stress is so important to you:
Employee stress causes loss of employee engagement:
As you know, employee engagement is the key to your company’s success in this competitive business world. But when your employees are stressed, they can’t focus on work. As a result, their engagement remains low. Thus, employee stress leads to loss of employee engagement, which is absolutely not good for your company.
Employee stress causes loss of employee productivity:
How can your employees be productive when stress is consuming all their energy? Thus, employee stress causes loss of employee productivity.
Employee stress creates a hostile work environment:
When employees are stressed at work, they exhibit negative behaviors such as anger, resentment and feelings of frustration. Also, the negative energy they emit spreads throughout the workplace making the work environment negative.
Employee stress is inversely related to the quality of work:
Stressed employees develop a confused state of mind that affects their ability to focus on work. This has a further negative impact on the quality of their work. Employee stress is therefore inversely related to the quality of work.
Employee stress leads to higher employee absenteeism:
Stressed employees tend to suffer from various health problems such as headaches, stomach aches, and high blood pressure. These health problems make them often take time off from work. Employee stress leads to higher absenteeism among employees.
These five reasons adequately illustrate how employee stress can affect your organization’s well-being. That’s why you need to get started right away with actionable steps to manage stress in your employees.
5 steps you can take to help your employees manage their stress levels:
Free your organization from micromanagement:
Nothing annoys your employees more than micromanagement. That’s natural because no one likes to be controlled by others too much. So the first thing you need to do to manage employee stress is free your business from micromanagement. While not an easy task, you must do it for your people and your organization. You need to train managers at all levels to avoid micromanagement and let each employee work in their own style.
Set up a stress management program at work:
Organizing a stress management program is one of the best ways to help your employees manage stress. These programs are designed to provide them with a variety of stress management techniques they can practice to reduce their stress levels. Some of these techniques are such that they can even be practiced at work, such as breathing and mindfulness exercises. Therefore, as a responsible employer, you should set up a regular stress management program at work.
Give flexibility to your employees:
Flexibility is an important aspect that can help your employees deal with stress. Because it promotes proper work-life balance, a shortage of which is a source of stress for most employees. Therefore, you must provide your employees with a certain degree of flexibility. You could try introducing flexible hours or letting your employees work from home one or two days a week. Even if you cannot allow flexible work arrangements because of your organization’s needs, you should try to offer flexibility to your employees in other ways. For example, you can let them work in the sun during the winter, or you can change their jobs whenever you want.
Let your employees play some games with each other every day:
Playing games is a great way to relieve stress. When you play, you completely immerse yourself in it. In addition, the pleasure you experience triggers the release of happiness at work and happy hormones in your body. This significantly reduces stress levels. So, to manage employee stress, make your employees play games together every day. On the Internet, you can learn about many office-friendly games such as Pictionary, Bingo and Music Chairs.
Make group exercises or dances an integral part of the work plan:
Movement and physical activity such as dancing triggers the release of various hormones such as serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin in the body. These hormones relieve stress by lowering the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the body. So they have to do exercises or dance together, a regular part of the work schedule. Every morning when your employees come into the office, you can start the day by dancing together. This will give you a very positive start to the working day. You can also set up a separate relaxation room in the office and let your employees move around and dance there or exercise when they’re feeling stressed. This way you achieve a significant reduction in the stress level of your employees.
As mentioned above, employee stress has increased significantly over the past two years. This is absolutely not good for employees and business organization. Stressed employees are prone to many health problems, and companies with stressed employees suffer from lost productivity, increased employee absenteeism, and decreased employee engagement. So, as the leader of your organization, you are responsible for reducing the stress levels of your employees. For that, you can follow the various employee stress management steps above. Now I wish you all the best and may your colleagues be blessed with peace of mind.
