7 workable solutions for companies to manage workplace stress in employees

Employees are the building blocks of your organization. The stronger the building blocks are, the more strength your organization possesses. But, alas! The building blocks of your company -- i.e. your employees -- are constantly being drained of their energy and strength by the ominous clouds of workplace stress. No doubt, a little amount of work stress is normal, but according to a report presented by the American Institute of Stress, workplace stress has far crossed the boundaries of normalcy. It is because of the elevated levels of work stress that nearly 120,000 workers lose their precious lives every year. This makes it crucial for you as employers to understand the gravity of the subject and work on ways to manage workplace stress. By doing so, you’ll not only be shouldering your responsibility towards your employees’ overall well-being but also ensure the good health of your organization.

Given below are 7 workable solutions which you can implement to successfully manage workplace stress in your employees.

1. Creating an optimistic work culture:
In order to relieve your employees of elevated levels of work stress, it is imperative for you to create an optimistic work culture in your organization. An optimistic work culture fills your employees with rays of positivity, and thus enables them to deal with different work-related challenges with firm courage, without buckling under pressure. As a result, your employees do not get overwhelmed by stress; rather, they take progressive steps towards overcoming the challenges in a hopeful manner. Their hopeful demeanor further gives a boost to their self-confidence, which ultimately empowers them to maintain their happiness level even in the midst of complex challenges at work. This way, an optimistic work culture strengthens your employees’ defense mechanism against stress. In order to establish an optimistic work culture in your organization, you can try these tactics:

a. Remind your employees of your faith in their abilities. This activity can give a great positive start to the workday for your employees. It simply involves gathering them together and appreciating them for their positive contributions to your organization, thus reaffirming your faith in their abilities.

b. Give them short term goals to achieve. When your employees achieve their goals their self-confidence enjoys a big surge. It is with the increase in their self-confidence that your employees will ultimately start believing in themselves, thereby looking at different work obstacles with a solution-oriented approach. By simply giving your employees some short term goals to achieve, you can give a significant boost to their self-confidence and enhance their resilience against stress.

c. Listen to their grievances: When your employees know that you’ve got their back and you’ll listen and try your best to resolve their grievances, they always remain hopeful and their stress level automatically remains at its minimum. Thus, it is vital for you to give your employees the freedom to share their grievances with you.

2. Extending proper human treatment to your employees:
Many studies have shown that lack of proper treatment at the workplace significantly contributes to the workplace stress experienced by employees. Thus, it is crucial for you to ensure that your employees are treated humanely in your organization. This does not simply mean providing your employees with the basic facilities such as clean drinking water, a hygienic work environment, and washroom facilities. It also means fulfilling your employees’ essential needs of empathy, compassion, and appreciation. So, in order to successfully reduce the levels of workplace stress, it is necessary for you to ensure that they receive proper human treatment, regardless of their job designation.

3. Giving them some space for the self:
Being excessively controlled in the office environment can make your employees feel suffocated and result in their being exposed to severe levels of workplace stress. In order to prevent this from happening, you should try giving them some space for the self. This can be done in a number of ways, such as giving them the freedom to take mini-breaks from work whenever needed and allowing them to change their workspace as and when they feel like doing so.

4. Refraining from micromanagement:
Micromanagement refers to the act of keeping a constant check on your employees’ activities and manipulating their ways of working. When your employees are micromanaged, they feel frustrated at their inability to do their work in their own way. Over time, this frustration takes the form of workplace stress, eating away at your employees’ overall health and work productivity. It is crucial for you to let your employees enjoy working in their own ways. You should try to assign your employees different work targets and deadlines, and leave the rest entirely up to them.

5. Promoting a culture of collaborative working:
It has been scientifically proven that warm and cordial relationships between employees play a major role in keeping their work stress levels in control. When your employees have good relationships with each other, friendly interactions trigger the secretion of Oxytocin in their body. Oxytocin is a happy hormone, which counteracts the levels of Cortisol -- the major stress hormone -- and induces stress relief. Further, promoting a culture of collaborative working is one of the best ways to establish cordial relationships between your employees. It is imperative for you to form teams of your employees and assign group tasks to them.

6. Embedding recreational activity breaks in the work schedule:
Many scientific studies have highlighted the fact that long and continuous working hours play a major role in elevating the stress levels of employees. In order to successfully reduce the levels of workplace stress, it is necessary for you to embed recreational activity breaks in the work schedule. When your employees participate together in different recreational activities, friendly relationships begin to bloom between them. This further leads to the establishment of a cordial work culture in your organization, which again contributes to relieving your employees of workplace stress.

7. Organizing Stress Management Programs:
Organizing stress management programs in your organization at regular intervals is a great way to reduce the levels of work stress, helping your employees to get acquainted with effective tools and techniques that can keep their stress levels in control. Mindfulness, Meditation, and Breath Focus are some of the techniques which are prominently taught in these programs. Furthermore, by organizing stress management programs you also make your employees feel that they are important parts of your organization and you are considerate about their overall well-being. These feelings of being important and valued themselves trigger the secretion of feel-good hormones, contributing to relief of their stress.

To conclude, workplace stress is a destructive force for both your employees and your organization. So, it is necessary for you to reduce workplace stress by practicing the effective ways of stress management which have been mentioned above.

BIO
An intellectual with a far sighted vision, Jessica Robinson is a woman of words. With her analysing approach, she has reformed new ideologies and carved a path for many to embrace the positive change. Additionally, it is certainly due to her high acumen, that she so easily understands every problem and proposes an actionable solution for the same. Also, It is by virtue of her decade long experience that her thoughts and suggestions carry much importance and are highly valued around the globe.
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Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.