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Stress Management

Are your employees hiding something?

Can you tell if your employees are stressed? Research by the consultancy firm Aon has highlighted that many employees are reluctant to speak to their managers about feeling stressed. This is mainly due to the fear of losing their job.

Stress management expert Professor Cary Cooper, believes that work-related stress will be “driven underground as employees fear for their job security, creating a ticking health time bomb”.

In this month’s How To Guide we share some quick and easy ways to help you find out which employees are suffering from stress and how you can help them tackle it.

The Stress Signs!

Tiredness:

Continual late morning starts

Performance dip:

Uncharacteristic errors

Missed deadlines

Poor concentration

Poor memory

Anti-social behaviour:

Short temper

Bullying other work colleagues

Alcohol or drug abuse

Emotional outbursts

Nervous habits

Loss of appetite:

Skipping or working through their lunch

What you can do to help!

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) suggests that companies adopt Management Standards that cover six key areas of work responsible for stress:

Demands: Assess employee workload, work patterns and work environment. Are some employees carrying out less work than others? And if so, could it be distributed more evenly?

Control: How much autonomy do you give your employees about the way they do their job?

Support: The encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the company, line management and colleagues. Maybe try adopting an Employee Assistance Programme or Wellness Coaching.

Relationships: Promoting a positive working environment to avoid conflict, and dealing with unacceptable behaviour.

Role: Do your employees understand their role within the organisation? Are there any conflicting roles?

Change: How is organisational change (large or small) managed and communicated in the organisation?

According to the same study by Aon, only 30% of staff admitted that they would approach their manager when feeling stressed. Worried or tired workers would rather tell GPs (53%), friends (51%), family (50%), and even colleagues (34%) before approaching their boss.

Whether it be work-related stress or personal worries, it’s important that your employees have someone they can confide in and to support and advise them through their difficult time. We suggest adopting an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), where your staff can have the opportunity to vent their problems and seek expert advice on a confidential basis

Ceridian’s EAP, LifeWorks, helps your employees manage personal and work related issues around the clock, helping to increase efficiency and commitment, reduce costs due to stress and absence and improve overall business performance. Give your employees the support they need!