Top 10 Actions to Take to Manage Employee Stress Successfully
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Stress is common at work. Spending hours working to earn your keep is stressful on its own. It’s a repetitive task, which can make it even more challenging than it already is. So, if you thought you’ll read an article telling you that ‘if someone loves their job, they won’t be stressed, this is not it.
Truth is, some stress is to be expected. People aren’t only stressed because of work. They often bring their personal stress wherever they go. Some get stressed when their work doesn’t turn out as they wanted it. Others are frustrated over their peers’ behaviors and moods. According to research, 40% of workers find their workplace to be stressful.
Still, no one wants their employees to be stressed all the time. When this becomes frequent, it harms their productivity and affects the office morale.
While you cannot eliminate stress from the workplace altogether, you can do a lot in managing and minimizing it. If you take the actions listed below in this article, you’ll find that people are happier – and less stressed in your company.
1. Add employee engagement activities to your perks program
It all starts with your perks program. Over the years, perk programs have expanded to include a lot more than just a nice salary. They include great healthcare plans, paid days off, perks at the office, and much more.
If you want to make your company stress-free, you need to add some employee engagement activities to your perks program. Perkbox is a great place to do this. Companies use this tool to create attractive and affordable programs for their teams. Thanks to Perkbox, you can figure out what to use not only to attract more people to work for you, but also to keep them happy and willing to stay in your company.
2. Focus on fair and inclusive performance management – and invest in it!
Not being appreciated for your hard work is a giant stressor. Truth is, even if you try to be a fair employer and keep track of what everyone’s doing, you can still miss the hard work of someone in your team.
If you want to learn more about it, read this guide on performance management. Leapsome, a leading PM tool on the market has a way of keeping track of everything, and it can help you greatly in rewarding the right people with the right incentives.
3. Offer them optimized corporate travel experiences
Corporate travel is bigger than ever. People travel all the time for work and very often, they are stuck at airports or must waste their personal time handling accommodations, organizing their trip, and trying hard to stick to a budget.
If you want to make this a stress-free experience for your employees, you should invest in corporate travel services. We are talking about TravelPerk, a website that will offer you the biggest database of accommodations and flights, plan your team’s itinerary, and solve unexpected issues with ease.
On this site, you can save a fortune by finding the best deals, as well as making sure that everyone sticks to the budget. It’s a win-win for both sides.
4. Offer mental health perks to your team
In many organizations, healthcare benefits are focused on the physical health of employees, which is a big mistake. If you want to deal with stress before it harms your team’s work, you should offer them great mental health benefits, too.
That’s not all. In addition to making this an option, be very transparent about it. Let your employees know that they have the option to speak to a professional and share their problems. In fact, encourage them to do so.
5. Use training to fill their skill gaps
A lot of the time, your employees are stressed over not being able to complete a task. No one is born knowing anything, and at some point, every person that works with you will have a skill gap of some sort.
Your job is to detect those gaps and offer them opportunities to fill their skill gaps. Use TrainingIndustry to offer your team courses and materials they can use to boost their skills and do their job more efficiently.
6. Encourage a healthier lifestyle
Physical fitness and group activities benefit the functionality of people, reduce health risks, and strengthen the body. It makes people less stressed and happier. That being said, try to encourage participation in a wellness program in your company, and consider promoting group activities at work.
You might want to incorporate healthy lifestyle opportunities in your company too. Create a wellness room, have a gym that people can visit during breaks, and create places where they can simply go and socialize.
7. Give them more flexibility in where and when they work
Flexible work hours and remote work are the two biggest trends of today. Over half of the employees, these days say they prefer flexibility over a higher salary, and this tells us a lot! It means that you can make people happier by giving them more freedom in picking their work hours, giving them a chance to work from home, or offering them remote work opportunities.
8. Add comfort to the workplace
People feel better in places that are warm, well-lit, clutter-free, and have all the amenities they need. Small things like a good coffee machine, some plants in the office, and more space for people to work can do wonders for their mood. Use your team’s insight and renovate their workspace to make it more comfortable.
9. Promote meditation classes
Many businesses don’t have the funds to hire a meditation trainer or equip an entire room in the office for people to meditate. But meditation is a great way to reduce stress. If you don’t have the space or the funds to offer this in-office, make sure to get memberships for your team to give them access to it.
10. Encourage more breaks
You might think that people taking breaks all the time will cause them to do less work, but you’d be very wrong. People that are overwhelmed and too tired cannot do their jobs effectively. If they are rested and stress-free, they’ll do more work and do it better. That being said, encourage your team to take breaks when they feel too tired.
Want to make your team more productive? Get started today!
It costs businesses over $300 billion in annual losses in the US due to reduced productivity, collaboration, and creativity, as well as healthcare costs for numerous health problems that result from – you guessed it – stress! If you want to reduce the stress in your company, these 10 tips are your starting point.
Author bio
Nadica Metuleva is a freelance writer who’s passionate about creating quality, original content. She holds a Master’s degree in English teaching and a Bachelor’s degree in translation. With 8 years of experience in the freelance writing industry, Nadica has become proficient in creating content that captivates the audience, drives growth, and educates. You can find her on LinkedIn.