The purpose of Stress Awareness Month is to highlight the ways that stress affects us all in the modern age
74% of adults have said they’ve felt stress to the point of not being able to cope at some point in the last year.
79% of adults say that they experience stress in the workplace.
Stress can be damaging to your mental and physical health, so it’s important to recognise factors that contribute to stress and think of ways we can work avoid it.
What are Some of the Causes of Stress in the Workplace?
A long working hours culture has gone from being the number one cause of stress in the workplace in 2018, to the 7th highest cause of stress.
The most common cause of work-related stress in the UK is “Work-related office politics”, with 37% of people saying that this is a major cause of stress in the workplace.
34% of people say that lack of interdepartmental communication is a major factor towards workplace stress is another major cause of stress. Many issues can be caused by a breakdown of communication.
How Can We Recognise Stress in the Workplace?
One of the best ways to help reduce stress in the workplace is to make sure that we can recognise the symptoms of stress in ourselves and others.
Some common signs of stress at work:
- a drop in productivity
- an increase in complaints and grievances
- higher rates of sickness absence
Obviously, these are all serious issues for a business, that shouldn’t be ignored, but it would be much better for the business, and the employees, if the potential stressors could be spotted at an earlier stage.
One useful way of doing this would be to ensure that there were people in your organisation who have some training to be able to recognise the potential signs of stress and an increased awareness of mental health issues.
How Can We Cope with Stress in the Workplace?
Employees can make sure that they take their proper holiday entitlement. Annual leave is intended to provide some rest and relaxation away from work and to allow employees a proper break from work.
An employer who provides flexible working arrangements to employees can be beneficial to managing individual and workplace stress. Good and clear communication is also a great way to minimise stress.
Regular one to ones, checking in and offering welfare meetings and providing counselling services during the global pandemic clearly showed that these were good ways to minimise what has been a stressful situation for many people.
19% of employees say that their workplace has no measures in place to alleviate stress in the workplace.
What measures do you take in your workplace to deal with stress at work?
Do you need some assistance to put in place some policies and procedures around stress at work? Or perhaps you need some support to put together a Well-Being plan for your employees?
Our Employee Wellbeing and Managing Stress Policy is a helpful start for you to put some policies and procedures in place or to update your existing policies.
Check it out on our HR Webshop, here, drop us an email at hello@effective-hrm.co.uk or call us on 03300414589 for a chat.