Chill pill for businesses

It could be time for businesses to take a deep breath and swallow a chill pill. According to a study done by Medibank Private, the number of stress claims by Australian workers has doubled in recent years. As these statistics grow steadily, workplace stress is a concern for both employers and employees, costing the Australian economy $14.81 billion a year. Workers are becoming increasingly more insecure about their future causing stress to pile up at work and at home. The latest Lifeline Australia Newspoll indicates nine out of ten Australians feeling stressed blame work for the way they feel.

Stress is defined as a physical or psychological influence that causes a state of severe tension on an individual. Stress builds with the exposure to stressors, the elements within an environment that cause stress. Physical stressors include loud noise, overcrowding and ergonomic problems. Psychological stressors can be tight deadlines, job insecurity and long work hours. Each year these stressors contribute to the loss of 3.2 days per worker. The combination of high demands within a job and a perceived amount of low control over the situation result in workplace stress. Joannah Bernard NLP practitioner from JLB & Associates says the cause of stress is not always one specific event.

“Taken one at a time, the most common 'stress activating' events may seem like minor issues, and simply a reality of the work place,” Joannah says. “However, because the effects of these events accumulate and escalate over time, they can eat away at relationships, overall performance and health.”

Stress is not always undesirable. Small amounts of stress help to keep staff motivated. Positive stress often ensures employees rise to the challenge and meet goals such as sales targets, deadlines and finding new clients. Once stress develops from a little to a lot and fulfillment turns into fatigue, frustration or dissatisfaction, it is no longer positive stress and can have negative repercussions.

Occupational stress is evident in all professions and has the potential to affect each of us at one time or another. Stress does not always result in absenteeism it also effects workers as they are on the job. Whilst staff are turning up to work and not requesting days off, it does not mean they are not stressed. Stress related presenteeism and absenteeism costs Australian employers $10.11 billion a year.  

Presenteeism causes staff to work ineffectively and not fully function whilst they are at work. On average six days of productivity are lost each year per employee due to presenteeism, costing $25.7 billion annually. On the positive side healthy unstressed employees are three times more productive than unhealthy employees.

Sally Desch from HRM Contracting and Consulting says one stressed employee can affect the whole workplace environment. “Stress in a team member can have a snowball effect,” Sally explains. “If a team member is feeling stressed and having time off work or not coping with their current workload, this then adds stress to other team members or management as they need to get the work done.”

To enable employers to treat and prevent future stress amongst staff, they need to first recognise the signs and symptoms of stress. Physical symptoms of stress include; headaches, muscle tension, sleep deprivation, loss of appetite or weight gain. Psychological symptoms are; frustration, depression, mental fatigue, low self-esteem and anxiousness.

The physical and psychological signs transfer into symptoms at work. If employers begin seeing these signs in their staff, stress is evident in the workplace. Frequent lateness, increased absenteeism, accidents on the job, decreased productivity, excessive worrying and presenteeism are all work related symptoms of stress. Early recognition is ideal as employers can put actions in place to combat stress before it becomes a serious issue.

To detect stress as early as possible employers can give their workplace a stress assessment. The aim of stress assessment is to determine the specific causes of stress and their effects on the workplace as well as the individual. As unhealthy employees take nine times more sick leave than healthy employees it is important that employers involve their staff in the detection process. Employers can ask their staff to identify stressors they feel cause unnecessary stress in their jobs and rate them to ascertain priorities for intervention. Employees should be asked to communicate their concern about any situation that causes stress at work.

Sally says that employers should ensure there are open communication channels between management and staff. Business owners need to talk to their employees about the direction of the company and where it is headed. Employers can also help prevent stress amongst staff by making sure new and existing staff have adequate training and access to new products.

“Employers can ensure they have adequate staffing numbers. This is one of the main stresses placed on workers. Job security is another large contributing factor to stress,” said Sally.

Recognising the seriousness of the issue the Australian Government has issued a new Disability Discrimination Act. The legislation requires employers to modify their workplace to accommodate any form of disability including conditions caused by stress. As a result of the new laws employers have offered staff access to help from third parties such as counsellors as well as reducing work hours and workloads.

“External support can offer some of the most effective techniques for removing common barriers to performance, clearing the emotional effects of stress and assisting people to change their beliefs about what is possible,” Joannah says. “It can also be used to improve communications and cooperation between team members.”

Intervention should be conducted by employers once stress has been recognised and the stressors are identified. It is important that management commit to combating stress as it takes a lot of time and effort. There are several strategies that can be used to decrease stress in the workplace although, improving employees ability to cope with stress is just as important as reducing stress itself. One option is improving the diet of employees by providing them access to healthy alternatives in the lunch room as well as encouraging them to exercise.

Occupational stress workshops are a good tool that can be used to show staff management is concerned about their stress levels. It is important that the topics of organisational change strategies and personal stress management be included. After the workshop staff can be asked to evaluate the training, Feedback is highly useful in highlighting the need for future programs to reduce stress.

“Look at grievance procedures, monitor unplanned or unexplained absences, look at OH&S reports and Workers Compensation Claims,” Sally recommends. “Conduct a workplace survey or conduct interviews with staff and managers to gain feedback.”

Staff meetings are a good method of getting employees to participate and provide input in solving the problem of stress. Work groups also help to minimise stress as staff members’ work together setting themselves achievable benchmarks along the way. Increased levels of social support will benefit workplaces dealing with stress such as; conflict resolution and team building exercises.

“Working with staff on how they may or may not be responding for the benefit of all is a great step,” Joannah says. “Not only can it empower the individual you will also see productivity increase and that’s going to impact your bottom line.”

Changes to improve physical working conditions should be implemented such as temperature control and reducing noise levels. Office equipment such as computers should be in good working order. These tools can increase stress levels if they are not performing properly. The elimination of small unnecessary or low priority tasks need to be identified. This will save time and reduce the workload of each staff member aiding in the elimination of stress.

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