A recent poll found half of the surveyed employees had cried due to work stress. Low levels of stress are normal – but employee tears, alongside a shocking 58% of staff considering quitting due to mental health, shows that unmanaged stress can snowball into something truly detrimental.
It goes further, of course: stress doesn’t just impact your staff – it could damage your business. With Mental Health Awareness Week just around the corner, why not learn how to manage employee stress to boost your business?
Why managing staff stress matters
A stressed workforce can have an unwanted ripple effect across your entire company.
Stress inhibits your staff’s ability to perform: making them exhausted, unable to concentrate and even at risk of developing more serious health conditions.
In the workplace, these states can reduce productivity, morale and performance. Outside the office, you’re likely to see an increase in absence, from stressed staff – or, worse – issues with retention. Low staff retention rates can have serious consequences for the output, reputation and functionality of your business. So it’s a consequence you’ll definitely want to avoid.
How to support stressed staff
You’ll want to build your staff’s resilience so they can manage their stress levels and maintain their ability to perform. Employee well-being options might seem costly, but they’re ultimately an investment that will save you money in the long run – helping your business thrive.
Establish a positive company culture
The overall culture of your company can have a real impact on employee well-being. But how do you work towards a positive culture throughout your business? Start with your leadership.
Train your management to cultivate an open culture of support: educating them on best practices like sensitivity and respecting confidentiality. You should incorporate this, too! If anyone in your workforce reaches out to you, support them by really listening to what they have to say.
Adjust your workplace
Where possible, look for ways in which you can adjust your workplace to alleviate stress. Think about noise, layout, lighting, for example. Is it all conducive to effective working? It’s also essential to make reasonable adjustments for staff facing certain medical difficulties, lest you be found to be discriminating against a protected characteristic.
Offering increased flexibility for struggling staff, through remote work options, may be worth more than any disruption it causes to the business, but weigh this up. Can it make them better equipped to navigate stress in their daily life – ready to properly focus on their workload?
Having a healthy work life balance is another effective way to alleviate stress. You should encourage your workforce to use their time off. Management should set an example by initiating conversations about their own time off – eradicating any culture of guilt that may have surrounded taking time away.
Offer well-being support
One of the most effective ways to alleviate stress for your workforce – current and future – is to invest in proper well-being support. As much as 95% of staff reported feeling better after using company provided mental health resources in one survey.
The best well-being support will help employees in and out of the office, like Employee Assistant Programmes. EAPs offer 24-hour access to confidential support, professional advice and short-term counselling.
You could also tailor your employee benefits to help staff control stress: with complimentary or discounted gym memberships or health support packages. Despite the name, employee benefits should directly benefit your business in the long run by cultivating a happy, healthy workforce that want to help your business succeed.
How managing staff stress can benefit your business
By helping your staff effectively manage their stress you’ll cultivate a healthy, motivated workforce that actively strive towards accomplishing your company goals.
Happy staff are productive staff: they’ll want to achieve – and you’ll see this reflected in their productivity, performance and overall morale. This can boost your reputation, attracting skilled staff who want to be part of the positive company culture you’ve cultivated.
But it can be hard to know where to begin when tackling staff stress; from spotting the warning signs to effectively reducing it – that’s where we come in.
Helping you help your staff
Here at The HR Dept, we provide personalised solutions that are tailored to your specific business. Whether you’re looking for specialised support, keen to implement an EAP or would like help with company culture – we can help. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you reduce staff stress to help your business thrive.
