To mark International Stress Awareness week this week, I wanted to create a guide for small business owners to aid them in preventing stress and supporting their employees through difficult times.
It can be easy to forget that employees dedicate a significant proportion of their lives to their work, and to neglect the impact that their work life can have on their stress and mental health can be very detrimental.
It is my goal with this blog post to provide you with a few tips and ideas to reduce stress within the workplace through flexibility, communication, transparency, and openness, that will ultimately lead to improvements in employee wellness, retention and productivity.
Be Approachable to Your Employees
As a manager or owner of a business, it is vital you recognise the role that your business can have on an employee’s mental health.
Through periods of high stress, deadlines, and large workloads, it can be incredibly useful for an employee to recognise that they are not alone.
As their superior, sharing your issues and being open to displaying your own stress during difficult times can make your employees more comfortable in approaching you with their own thoughts and emotions before they can evolve into large issues.
By sharing your own emotions and being approachable, stress related issues can be dealt with at an early stage making it more likely that a solution can be discovered.
If you believe employee stress management may be an area that affects your business, consider enlisting the consultation of an HR advisor to audit and assess the risks. Get in contact with us at aible HR Services here.
Allow for Flexibility
In this digital world, employees are increasingly seeking a level of flexibility regarding when and where they are able to work. Specifically, within service-based industries, workers and employers alike are recognising the benefits and improvements to work-life balance by allowing a level of flexibility to their working pattern.
By introducing measures for flexibility, your employees can reduce the impact and stress that their work life has on their personal wellbeing.
Below, a few examples of flexibility schemes that are increasingly being considered to improve employee wellbeing have been noted.
Incorporate Duvet Days
An increasingly popular benefit scheme, ‘duvet days’ are a form of paid leave wherein employees can request a day off from their work to focus on their mental health and personal issues including stress, without the need for explanation or advanced warning.
According to Breathe HR, the idea was first introduced in 1997 by British PR company August One Communications, allowing employees to take time off without the need for pre-planning.
The name ‘duvet day’ refers to the feeling you may get first thing in the morning before work, when all you want to do is turn off the alarm and get back under the covers. These employees would often call in sick and take the day off work, reducing productivity whilst also hiding their mental health struggles.
Employers are increasingly offering duvet days as part of their employee benefit scheme providing a means for employees to look after their personal wellbeing, whilst also opening up the conversation surrounding mental health, stress and personal welfare.
Consider Hybrid Working
As a result of the 2020 global pandemic, many businesses that were able to remain open were forced to adopt a remote working pattern. Whilst it came with drawbacks, many organisations and their employees recognised the advantages that came with a remote working pattern.
In 2022, many businesses have adopted a hybrid approach to working patterns to capitalise on the benefits of remote working, whilst allowing for the cultural and relationship benefits of in-person contact.
Popular hybrid working patterns, such as three days of office work and two days of working from home per week, allow employees the flexibility to manage other responsibilities whilst maintaining productivity from home.
Commuters will regain a significant amount of typically unproductive travel-time, which they are able to spend on other activities such as exercising, taking care of their children, undertaking household tasks just to name a few.
By placing a level of trust in your employees and allowing a hybrid working pattern, a much greater work-life balance can be achieved through regaining commuting time and allowing a level of flexibility to take care of personal tasks which would typically have to fall outside of the 9-5.
Incorporate Flexible Hours
In tandem with hybrid working, allowing for flexible hours during the working day can allow those with additional responsibilities, such as new parents, the opportunity to work in a way that benefits their personal life.
Rather than a strict 9am-5pm working day, you might consider allowing for some flexibility for your employees. Many organisations are now allowing their workers to be less strict with their arrival time, as long as the required hours are worked.
For example, swapping the strict 9am-5pm schedule to allow an 8am-4pm or 10-6pm working pattern.
This flexible approach to the work schedule can be utilised within the office or for remote workers and provide employees that extra level of allowance should any personal issues arise.
This also allows the individual employees to select a working pattern that suits their needs and preferences, for example if they are a ‘morning person’ or if they are required to take their children to school before their working day can begin.
Placing trust in your employees and allowing for flexibility within their working pattern allows them to address personal matters and select a working schedule that allows them to be the most productive, reducing stress and improving employee wellbeing.
Invite Constructive Feedback from Your Team
In addition to the business having an impact on your employees’ mental health and stress, it is also critically important to recognise the impact you can have as their superior.
Managers or owners who set unrealistic expectations, set limits on autonomy, fail to promote positive relationships, are unapproachable or poor listeners, and fail to adapt to the changing needs of the business and its people, may be creating additional stress for their employees.
It is important to therefore consider how your actions and tendencies may be affecting your people and recognise the need to take constructive feedback when necessary.
Stress related issues are best dealt with as early as possible, so an approachable leader with the ability to take feedback on board without letting emotions get in the way can continually and proactively improve the working lives of their employees.
Could your business stand to benefit from improving the way stress is managed for your employees? Contact the human resource and people management experts at aible HR Services.
