Box:
- Around 35% of workplace absence is caused by stress
- Pressure and stress is inevitable in the workplace
- But employees can be helped to beat stress and prevent it becoming a problem
- Organisational resilience and wellness strategies will cut stress and boost productivity
The World Health Organisation has identified stress as the “health epidemic of the 21st century” and everyone in the group risk and employee benefits market will be wearily familiar with studies on the impact of stress at work.
The facts may be familiar but they are still shocking: more than a third of workplace absence is caused by stress costing 9.9 million working days a year with 234,000 new cases recorded annually. [Source to come]
For individuals, the health and financial impact can be devastating leading to long-term depression and being unable to work and support themselves and their families. That increases costs for employers from recruitment and insurance costs, as well reducing productivity as stressed-out staff fail to perform to their best ability.
Stress can be good in the workplace and to some extent is inevitable. We all probably feel stressed at some point at work and we all need, to some extent, targets and goals to stretch us and drive us to perform.
The key is to strike a balance and to help staff to cope with stress, which is why organisational resilience is such an important area. Resilience is defined as the ability to cope with setbacks and to be able to perform while under pressure.
Training staff and helping them to cope with the inevitable stress of work can help to enhance performance and, ultimately, to enhance productivity and profitability. Analysis of more than 225 academic studies found that people with positive mental and stable mental health perform better: they have 37% higher sales, 31% higher productivity and three-times more creativity. [Source to come]
Tackling stress and building resilience
Employers recognise that stress is an issue in the workplace and are taking steps to improve wellness. Around one in five employees have access to counselling services and one in 10 are offered medical advice at work, while 9% are offered subsidised gym membership and 7% even have workplace gyms. [Source to come]
However around half (49%) of employees say they receive no specific health and wellness benefits highlighting that organisationss need to consider action to promote good mental and physical health.
Cost is clearly a factor in driving organisational resilience but the crucial point to recognise is that it does not need to involve heavy investment. It is as much about recognising the issue and taking simple practical actions.
The role of the manager and actions to take
A supportive leadership culture is an important first step. Managers can make a major contribution in building teams and ensuring staff are helped. In turn, managers themselves may need support from their organisation to adapt their styles.
Stress audits will establish what issues there are within an organisation and what support is needed. This can be conducted as part of an organisational health survey in order to not raise concerns.
Internal communications help employees become more engaged; if staff understand the organisational strategy they are less likely to become stressed. But communication should be two-way because employers need to listen as well as to explain.
Employee benefits and group risk’s increasing focus on wellness support will help tackle stress before it becomes an issue and a clear, well-understood flexible-working policy adds to the mix.
Formal resilience training can tackle the root causes of stress and give staff the tools to be able to cope with stress before it becomes a problem.
Prevention is always better than having to cure a problem and focusing on organisational resilience is a practical strategy that employers will genuinely benefit from. Stress may be inevitable and unavoidable but it is not inevitable that it needs to become a major problem and cost for an organisation.
Tom Gaynor is employee benefits director at MetLife UK
