Should You Be Worried About Stress?
There’s no question that running a business is stressful, but you might be surprised to know that a typical UK employee spends more than a third of their time at work feeling stressed and anxious, according to a recent report from Star Consultancy. And around two-thirds of those questioned said that these feelings reduce their motivation, productivity and self-confidence, and mean they can’t perform at their best.
Another concerning statistic from the research was that only 6% of staff had told their manager about their stress and anxiety issues. So even if your employees aren’t talking to you about it, you can’t assume stress isn’t your problem.
While you can’t eradicate stress from the workplace, you do have a responsibility to your employees to ensure, as far as reasonably practical, their work doesn’t make them ill. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publish a helpful set of Management Standards for work related stress. These cover the six areas of work design that can lead to workplace stress if not effectively managed:
1. Demands of the job – workloads, work patterns and the environment staff work in,
2. Control the worker has over the way the work is done,
3. Support provided by an organisation,
4. Relationships – particularly how conflict is managed and how positive relationships are encouraged
5. Role design and how well post-holders understand their roles,
6. Change, and how it is managed and communicated in the workplace.
I can work with you to you plan and introduce simple, inexpensive actions to understand the causes of stress in your organisation, help you and your staff manage your own stress levels, and reduce the risks associated with workplace stress for you and your team. And the resulting improvements in productivity and profitability, as well as staff engagement and motivation, are likely to be priceless.
Tagged as: Better HR, Managing People
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