Too much stress can restrict the productivity and performance of employees, and it has also been shown to affect overall health. Conversely, stress-reduction initiatives in the workplace have been associated with greater productivity, lower turnover and other positive business outcomes.
There are many common causes of workplace stress. According to a report from The American Institute of Stress, 46 percent of workplace stress-related issues are due to workload, while 28 percent of issues are due to interpersonal issues and 6 percent are related to job security.
With this information in mind, consider the following five ways you can reduce stress for your employees.
1) Set Clear Goals
When you set clear goals for your employees, it means they don’t have to do a lot of thinking about what they’re trying to achieve in the course of a day or a week. Developed in collaboration with employees, clear objectives both help employees maintain focus and can serve as motivation.
Ideally, these goals should speak to both employee motivations and company objectives. For instance, having an employee take on an important new responsibility both helps their career and increases the workers productivity.
2) Promote Mindfulness
The term ‘mindfulness’ refers to discipline that involves remaining present, self-aware and focused in what you are doing. Research has shown there are many benefits to practicing mindfulness techniques and exercises.
In the workplace, you can promote mindfulness by introducing employees to apps like Headspace, which is specifically designed for mindfulness in the workplace. You can also encourage employees to take a few minutes out of each day for meditation, reflection and even prayer. Make sure you explain how taking just a few moments from mindfulness can make you a better employee.
3) Offer Flexibility
Let your employees have autonomy and flexibility in their jobs. Avoid micromanaging them and trust that their work will be done correctly, as well as on-time.
Also, consider letting employees have flexibility in their schedules or work remotely. Schedule flexibility is particularly important for working parents, but you should support schedule flexibility for everybody, not just those with small children.
4) Have Employees Get Up and Move
Encourage your employees to get up and move around as much as possible. ‘Walking’ meetings, short yoga classes and anything else you can do to get employees’ blood flowing will go a long way to cleansing stress from your staff members.
5) Workplace Recognition
When employees receive recognition for a job well done, it makes them feel calm and confident moving forward, as opposed to feeling stressed out and insecure. Be sure to reward consistency as well as top performance. If the same top performers are the only ones getting rewarded, it can have a demoralizing effect on those who reliably meet expectations on a daily basis, year after year.
Are Your Employees Overworked? Let Us Help.
At SMCI, we help our clients deal with all kinds of workforce challenges by providing them with custom-fit talent solutions. Please contact us today to find out how we can help your company.
