Insights

How to help your employees manage stress

Stress Awareness month has begun, and it’s a great opportunity to talk about stress and its effects.

The more people you speak to about stress, the more you’ll realise the various kinds of impact it can make.

Is your workplace getting involved in the conversations?

Our team help employers manage workplace stress every day. You would be amazed at the difference a single conversation can have.

Below you’ll find a handy guide to all things stress – from what it is and how to look out for it, to how you can support your employees and the benefits of effective stress management.

Defining stress

According to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) stress is ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them.’

Stress can come from a variety of sources, from our personal to professional lives. Plus, the symptoms and signs of stress will vary from person to person.

Spotting the signs of stress

As stress impacts everyone differently, how are you able to spot signs within your workforce? HSE listed the following as signs of stress:

A change in the way someone acts can be a sign of stress. They might:

take more time off
arrive for work later
be more twitchy or nervous

A change in the way someone thinks or feels can also be a sign of stress, for example:

mood swings
being withdrawn
loss of motivation, commitment and confidence
increased emotional reactions – being more tearful, sensitive or aggressive

These signs can also be the symptoms of other conditions. If you are concerned about one of your employees, you can encourage them to see their GP.

If work is the cause behind the person’s stress, you should take action to resolve what is causing their stress.

Work-related stress

HSE research showed that in the UK, work-related stress, depression or anxiety represented 50% of all work-related illness in 2020-21. YouGov research shows half of workers in Britain (52%) say they feel “very” or “fairly” stressed at work.

What can we do about this?

Managing stress

Your team may feel stressed when they can’t cope with pressures at work. As an employer, to ease stress levels you should match demands to employees’ skills and knowledge. For instance, does someone in your workplace feel like they don’t have enough time to meet their deadlines? By providing planning and support, you can help bring their stress levels down.

Another example – there could be someone who doesn’t feel like they have adequate training to complete a task. You could look in to training options for this employee.

Remember, what stresses one employee, might not bother another. Skills, experience, and age can all play a factor into stress levels at work.

According to HSE, there are six main areas of work which can affect stress levels. These are:

demands
control
support
relationships
role
change

It’s worth assessing these areas of risk and seeing how you can help manage them.

Offer support to your employees

How can you help manage stress in your workplace?

The Access to Work Mental Health Support Service is available to people at work who need support with their mental health, coping skills and workplace adjustments.

Funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, it is a cost-free service that you can promote to your workforce to help reduce absenteeism, presenteeism and workforce attrition.

Your employees can be signposted towards the service where they can receive easy-to-access, confidential, one-to-one support to improve their wellbeing and help them to remain in work.

Your organisation will benefit from having a more productive, engaged and resilient workforce. Contact us to discuss how we can help you to sustain a happy and healthy workforce.

Creating a supportive culture

A good way to monitor your employees’ stress levels is to have regular check-in meetings, which can be weekly or biweekly. These meetings create an opportunity for your employees to talk about their workload and how things at work are going for them. This can allow you to address pressure points before they develop into something larger.

Plus, regular check-ins help to create an open dialogue in the workplace, where people feel more comfortable talking about their wellbeing. This can encourage wider conversations in your workplace and help boost your team’s morale.