Consultant and HR Zone member Annie Lawler continues with her series on stress management, this time looking at why organisations should take time to understand the principles behind employee wellbeing policies, to ensure everyone benefits.

During the course of my work in organisational and individual stress management, I’m finding those organisations who ‘get it’, those who don’t and many who are somewhere in between.

Those who are choosing to ignore their responsibility for employee wellbeing are, at best, missing opportunities to maximize performance and at worst, could be laying themselves open to time-consuming, expensive and disruptive stress-related claims and employee tribunals.

These days, with so many areas where there is a necessity to make and publish policies, there are those who simply follow the regulations and ‘tick the boxes’ in the hope of covering their behinds and those who take time to understand the principle behind the rules and embrace it.

When following the letter of the ‘law’ does not serve the best purpose

The trouble with ‘box-ticking’ is that its interpretation by some members of staff often misses the point and therefore fails to show the promised benefits. It can also encourage ‘jobsworth’ type attitudes within organisations.

For example, a few years ago, I bought a train ticket for the 6pm train to Leeds on a Friday evening. We arrived at the station early and there was a train ready to go at 5.35pm, so we hopped onto it. The train was nearly empty and there were vacant seats all around us. When the train inspector came, he told us we were liable to pay the full single fare because we were travelling in the rush hour and our ticket did not allow us to travel during peak hours.

We had assumed that 6pm would still be peak time as I had travelled on the 6pm train often, which is usually ‘standing room only’ as far as Peterborough! Apparently though, somebody in an office somewhere had deemed that rush hour ended at 5.45pm and hence, we were breaching the conditions of out ticket.

The inspector rather brusquely dealt with the situation and told us we would have to pay a full single fare at a vastly inflated price or to get off at the next stop (which incidentally, didn’t connect with the train on which we had originally booked). We eventually refused to pay the fare, gave our names and addresses and after prolonged and time-consuming correspondence, all additional charges were waived.

What I’m getting at here is that a policy had been set and we had made a genuine mistake. The train we boarded was nearly empty and there were plenty of seats available. The train we were booked on would have been packed (though for some reason it was not deemed to be rush hour).

By following company procedure and ticking the boxes rather than using rational judgement and initiative, the inspector on this train not only created bad feeling about his company, he also involved other parts of his organisation in having to respond to lengthy correspondence. Had he embraced the principle behind the rule, the whole thing might have come out much better all round.

The principle of charging more at peak hours is to discourage travel during times when trains are packed with passengers. We had actually avoided one of the busiest trains of the week and boarded a much quieter one. What was the point in this inspector behaving the way he did and how did he benefit his organisation by behaving in the manner that he did?

With a little intelligent handling of the situation, he could have made the experience of his organisation a positive one. Instead, by following rules to the letter and failing to use initiative, he damaged his company’s reputation with us.

Getting it right

So, by all means, make sure you ‘tick the boxes’ in relation to employee wellbeing, but also understand the principles of what you’re getting into. Organisations that treat people like human beings, who involve employees as part of the team and value their input and ideas, not only protect themselves against potential litigation, they stand to see some real benefits.

Studies have been conducted, for example, on break taking which demonstrate that breaks of only a few minutes every hour significantly improve efficiency and accuracy. In my experience, current office culture often finds workers unwilling to leave their desks to take breaks during the day, because their peers don’t take breaks and therefore they feel guilty if they work in a different way.

What the employees and employers alike are failing to understand is that, in ‘looking like’ they are working hard, they are actually working inefficiently and could be setting themselves up to become ill. Therefore, they are not serving the best interests of the organisation or indeed themselves.

By the same token, those who prioritise their diet and exercise regime poorly, preferring to work 24/7, are also doing themselves and their companies an unintended disservice. What we put into our bodies in terms of food is fuel for our minds and bodies. If we feed them nutritionally deficient foods (often processed, quick, easy options), then it’s like feeding diesel to a petrol engine. It’s just not helping us work at our best levels.

Even just the act of drinking water, eating fresh produce and taking a few moments to breathe properly benefits our respiratory systems, our digestive systems and our detoxification systems. And if these are all working properly, our performance improves.

I could go on, but the point is that if we look after ourselves, we’re more likely to be in a position to perform at our optimum levels and to provide help and assistance to others in and out of work.

As with all these things, it’s a case of balance and people generally know what they should do to remain healthy, but feel they have to behave in a different way and believe they are serving their organisation better if they do.

Policies in place

From the company’s perspective, there needs to be policy in place on organisational wellbeing of which stress management is a key component and it needs to be followed through. And this is the crux of the matter.

So many companies have little or only vague ideas of what they should be doing to protect themselves and their employees, and put people in charge of spotting undue stress who have no training or understanding of how to spot the signs or what to do about it.

Some have occupational health (OH) people in place and think that covers them, but the OH representatives are only as good as the information that is given to them and are often not working on ‘the shop floor’. In addition, some do not have specific training in stress management or could do with additional support in these areas.

Not only are these organisations putting themselves and their employees at risk, they are also failing to understand the benefits of having a well workforce. We wouldn’t dream of expecting our shiny new Mercedes or BMW to run at full speed 24/7 without stopping to refuel or to put it in for a service now and then, so why would we expect ourselves to behave in this way?

A healthy and motivated workforce will show vastly improved performance, will be less likely to be absent from work and will be less likely to leave their employment, amongst other benefits. We’re not just talking ‘soft skills’ and being ‘touchy feely’ here, we’re talking good business practice.

I realise I’m on my soapbox, but I don’t apologise for it. I’ve experienced first hand the ill-effects of undue stress and see every day, other cases where it could be avoided. It does not serve either the individual or the company to work in inefficient and unproductive ways, but this is common in Western business at the moment. Sure it takes some changes and some effort, but so does anything that’s worth doing.

If your company is not already familiar with or conforming to HSE’s best practice guidelines on stress in the workplace and ensuring they work on the ground as well as on paper, not only are you putting yourselves at risk, you’re failing to maximize opportunity for your business. There are plenty of case studies and research which reinforce these claims. Is it really necessary to wait until there is a claim against an organisation before they’re willing to listen to reason? I’d be happy to hear your views.

Inviting your views

Because HR Zone and I share our belief in this inclusive way of working, we would like you to be able to share your views and opinions with us. In this way, we can better develop products, ideas and services which will serve HR Zone members and organisations in general.

You are therefore invited to take part in the Breathing Space for Business survey on Stress Management in the Workplace. This survey is offered to all visitors to the Breathing Space for Business website, but we want to separate HR Zone members’ responses so that we can prepare a meaningful report, based on your responses, and report back to you.

Therefore, when you access the survey at www.breathingspaceforbusiness.com and click on ‘Corporate Survey on Stress in the Workplace’ at the bottom of the home page, you’ll notice that there is an opportunity to identify yourself as an HR Zone member at the bottom of the questionnaire.

All HR Zone respondents who complete the survey by 14th September 2007 will receive a complementary report of the results.