Create A Stress-Free Work Environment For Your Employees !

As quoted by a Public Body Health & Safety Official, nearly 10 million working days were lost. Reason being the most talked about issue- STRESS!

In usual working scenarios, modern workplaces have more distraction for employees than ever. Distractions being the chain of events occurring on regular basis, such as scolding from manager, complaining clients, issues with co-workers and what not! It is because of this reason that around 40% of adults are plagued by the stressful events that take place at their workplace every day. Even the data from Twitter disclosed that in every 2 seconds people post about stress and 17% of them being related to workplace stress.

While these events are in no way going to stop as they form the basic process in which the work is being done in corporates. But, this does not mean that the employers need not to do anything about it! Employee wellbeing is one of the basic responsibilities of the employers and they must adopt strong measures to manage the workplace stress:

Recognize the Stress Inducing Matters:

Have a preemptive approach by proactively detecting the risk factors or the matters that may lead to stressful environments. Being aware of the upcoming situation in advance can really help employers take measures to control the situation and reduce the stress levels to minimum.

Usually, these factors include the upcoming workload, project deadlines, restructuring of teams, power plays, etc. that may lead to some tiffs among the employees or lead to more stressed teams due to missed deadlines.

Orient Supervisors & Team Leaders On Such Matters In Advance:

HR pros have the key responsibility to stay aware of these upcoming situations and inform managers or team leaders well in advance so that timely actions could be taken.

Since managers come in daily contact with employees, they have more chance of detecting any symptoms of stress and discuss with HR pros so that the situation doesn’t get worse and respective employee could be eased out of stress in time.

Managers must also be given a session on how to tackle stressed employees and how they can help them. They can have one on one discussions, listen to their problems and then recommend some solutions as well.

Such active involvement can help employees in avoiding major stress-related illness and costly treatments. If the reasons for stress are located on time, quick fixes can also be made to eliminate it.

Educate Your Employees:

Sometimes, even the employee himself/herself doesn’t know that she/he is stressed! Thus, it is your duty to make them aware where they need to draw the line. They just can’t keep on taking the load or being subject to stressful situations. Educate them about it, about the common symptoms and what they can do at their end to stay free from stress.

Closely Monitor The Impact:

Once you have helped an employee get free from his/her stress, this simply doesn’t mean that your job is over! You must closely monitor the impact and effectiveness of the measures that you took for them.

Check if the symptoms come back or still your employee is demonstrating the signs. If the problem persists, you must advise them to take medical assistance.

While these are a few helpful tips to keep your workforce stress free, there are a number of ways how employers can help. Having a Performance Management System or review system can also help detect the individuals who have suddenly started performing below average or whose work reports are over-exhausted with work. This will help you closely monitor every individual’s behavior and take appropriate actions before the situation gets worse.