Handling stress in the workplace
Why it's important!
Stress costs money!! Individuals
and organisations suffer when stress occurs. Other stakeholders
connected with your organisations or individuals who are stressed, are
affected too! By thinking about what you can do within your
organisation to handle stress in the workplace you can reduce the cost
of stress and improve productivity and profitability.
Executives running organisations have a duty of care to their staff and this includes protecting them from stress as well as other dangers in the workplace! The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) encourage organisations to do a simple audit. Questions in these areas will help to get an immediate sense of where the organisation is in terms of meeting the HSE criteria. It will also highlight where issues may occur and stress management prevention steps can be taken.
- The culture of your organisation - how does it approach work-related stress?
- Demands on people, such as workload and exposure to physical hazards. Is work sensibly scheduled so that the workload levels are right?
- Control over their work and the way they do it how much say do staff have? Are managers reasonable in their expectations and treatment of their teams?
- Relationships how do you deal with issues such as bullying or harassment? (Another point, up to 1 in 5 people report they have been bullied at work.)
- Organisational change how is it managed and communicated?
- Understanding of role do individuals understand their role in the organisation? Does the organisation ensure that individuals do not have conflicting roles or challenges? (Is there a clear definition of roles?)
- Support and training from peers and line managers for the person to be able to do the core functions of the job do you cater for individual needs and differences?
When you can identify where the causes are, you can target where to take corrective action. Stress management prevention at work is not just about learning coping strategies or relaxation techniques, it is about tackling the causes. Manage the pressure sources and you can reduce the potential stress. Handling stress in the workplace is a key responsibility for good managers and leaders.