Stress In The Workplace

Stress in the workplace - A guide for employers

These days most people have extremely hectic lifestyles made up of a variety of work and family pressures and commitments. In accordance with health and safety laws, employers have a legal duty to make sure that employees are not being made unwell by their work. Combating stress in the workplace is vital to ensure the wellbeing of both employees and employers and, in turn, this will help to ensure the smooth running of your business. If your employees are stressed and feeling under an incredible amount of pressure this is likely to affect the quality of work they produce and the overall performance of your business.

Causes of stress at work are numerous and include:

• unmanageable workloads
• unachievable targets
• disharmony amongst staff and colleagues
• competition for promotion
• long working hours
• inadequate staff structures
• bullying and harassment
• weak management systems.

It is vital that you speak to your staff to ensure that they feel capable of dealing with the amount of work being allocated to them and are able to discuss any concerns with you before they become out of hand. Employers should ensure that they maintain a good method of communication with their employees and are regularly talking to them about their workload, targets and working relationships.

It is important that employers are able to identify stress in the work place and often this can be seen from high staff absence levels, an increasingly high staff turnover, deterioration in the quality of work, tiredness and low mood, withdrawal from groups, poor time keeping, and inability to cope with the workload.

What can be done to reduce stress in the workplace?

Often employees who are highly stressed (to levels which are effecting their health and wellbeing) will not have the confidence to go and speak to their line manager or other member of staff and it is therefore important that employers are vigilant in looking out for signs of high levels of stress in the workplace so that this can be identified and dealt with and measures can be put in place to resolve the issue.

Performance reviews and appraisals should be used constructively to ensure that achievable goals are set (and are in line with the employee’s professional ability), with adequate resources available to achieve these goals. Targets must also be discussed in detail with the employee and must be challenging yet achievable. It is good practice for managers to operate an open door policy so that they are approachable to employees who may be experiencing the early signs of stress and anxiety.

Employers should ensure that good staff structures are in place so that employees feel able to go and discuss any worries or concerns with a member of staff they feel comfortable with. Employers should encourage their employees to have a work/life balance and ensure that they know how to achieve this.

Every employer should have disciplinary and grievance procedures in place for members of staff that have been affected by stress in the workplace and have not been able to resolve the matter by taking the measures discussed above.

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