In a return to her series on stress management, consultant and HR Zone member Annie Lawler highlights the importance of ensuring employee wellbeing becomes a part of your organisation’s culture if it is to be successful and produce positive results.
Wellbeing and stress management is an area of growing concern for companies because employee wellbeing is a legal responsibility for all employers. Stress is a huge issue today and there are considerable pressures for both employers and employees to play close attention to stress levels in and out of work.
Get it right for your business and you are likely to:
- Avoid expensive and time-consuming litigation
- Improve retention of good staff
- Reduce absenteesim
- Improve performance
But the question I am often asked is, if employers acknowledge that stress can be a problem, does everybody jump on the bandwagon and start taking time off or performing at less than their optimum, using stress as an excuse to behave badly?
In my experience, and as has been shown by many studies on the subject, good stress management and wellbeing policies help reduce absenteeism, and do not result in an avalanche of people using it as an excuse to take time off.
Extreme pressure
Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule and there are some unscrupulous people who will use whatever excuse you give them to play up. However, they are few and far between and, if anything, I find to the contrary – that people are often working under extreme pressure and making themselves very ill – rather than daring to admit they have a problem with stress.
This ultimately causes additional stress to an organisation, because now they’re not only dealing with a sick employee, but also the additional stress placed on the rest of the team due to the sick employee’s prolonged absence.
Our current culture is based on achievement of wealth and ‘things’, which puts enormous pressure on people to succeed. Add to that the fact that real job security is rare these days and that we are encouraged to be ‘on the go’ 24/7 (which we were not designed to do) and you have an awful lot of people who daren’t admit to being ill or having problems, even if they are putting their health at severe risk. It’s a real problem and one that employers need to address in co-operation with their employees.
No brainer
I’ve always said that company wellbeing is a bit of a no-brainer. If employees feel they are treated like human beings and have a say in what they do and how they do it, employers are going to get far more out of the vast majority than they are from a workforce who feels constantly put upon and disrespected.
I’m not saying we should treat everyone with kid gloves. I’m very well aware of the pressures of business, having worked at board level in the advertising industry for many years. But there is a balance and that’s what stress management is all about.
This kind of initiative certainly must involve the HR team. But the ultimate responsibility lies at the top of the company – at board level – and employee wellbeing has to become part of company culture if it is to produce the best results. It has to be preventative rather than something that is only addressed when a critical situation is reached.
Note my use of the word ‘wellbeing’ rather than ‘stress’. One of the first rules of effective stress management is positive thinking and behaviour. That’s why I will usually title my seminars using words such as wellbeing and why I often introduce positive thinking and behaviour to my private clients in the early stages.
Just by getting the words right, you’re less likely to lay yourself open to the few people who want to play the system in order to dodge hard work.
If you also provide people with techniques and tips which actually work for them, you’re less likely again to find people who want to abuse the system.
So, what can organisations to do maintain healthy stress levels? As always, there is no one solution, but as a rough guide, here are some starting points :
- Make sure you have a wellbeing or stress policy and that this is clearly communicated to all staff via company handbook, intranet and so on.
- Involve your team via surveys and/or focus groups in decisions about healthy working practices and the maintenance of balance in the workplace.
- Consider running wellbeing and stress management workshops, which give people a clear understanding of what undue stress is, so they can recognise it in themselves and others in their team. They’ll also gain an understanding of what the potential effects of undue stress are and will learn a range of techniques for maintaining healthy stress levels.
- Provide access to mentoring and/or counseling for employees showing signs of undue stress.
- Communicate clearly, regularly and through a variety of mediums with your staff.
- Treat your team with the same respect you expect of others towards you.
- Be aware of members of the team who are showing signs of undue stress and consult with them to take positive steps to reduce the pressure. Two recent stress-related tribunals resulted in employees receiving awards in excess of £100,000 because employers were aware of their employees’ problems and did not take action to relieve pressure.
- Make wellbeing and development part of your company culture and set an example from the top.
Of course, being a specialist in stress management and wellbeing, I would say that, wouldn’t I? But I say it having seen and worked on both sides of the fence and from having produced positive results for the clients I work with. I only wish someone had come into my company 20 years ago and taught me what I know now. Life would have been a whole lot simpler and happier!
So, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it – and if you haven’t tried it, maybe now is a good time to take a fresh and positive look at the whole issue and see how it can benefit your organisation.
Breathing Space for Business works with businesses to help them reduce absenteeism, improve staff retention, morale & performance and avoid expensive litigation. For more information contact Annie Lawler, Breathing Space for Business on 0772 581 8884 or email annie@breathingspaceforbusiness.com or visit: www.breathingspaceforbusiness.com
5 Responses
Thanks for your comments and contributing to the debate
Peter, Hoda and Don
Thanks so much for your feedback on the article. You all make very valid points.
Peter – I understand your comments on stress being caused by things going on ‘outside of our control’, but this is a central issue to stress management. So often, the source of our personal stress, whilst triggered by things going on around us, is ourselves and the attitudes we adopt to react to them.
Much of the stress management training helps people become aware of external influences, the effects they have on you as an individual and differentiating between those you can do something about and those you can’t. Often if you can’t change the situation, you can change your attitude towards it and this is a central part of stress management training. I’d be happy to discuss this with you further if you want to get in touch.
Hoda – thank you for your supportive comments and it’s so true that, because an organisation has a stress or wellbeing policy, they do often use this as a form of lip service.
Both with corporate and 1-2-1 clients, a point I always emphasise is that you may know what to do about managing stress, but unless you put what you know into practice, you won’t see any different results.
Which leads me onto Don’s comments and another belief of mine. I couldn’t agree more and this is something I constantly reinforce with my corporate clients, that any effective stress management or company wellbeing practice has to come from the top and become part of company culture.
Thank you all for your fascinating and valid contributions.
Best wishes
Annie Lawler
“Pull Yourself Together”
Don
I don’t believe that manager/leaders do not want to manage/lead in a way that does not produce stress, they are all aware of the the cost implications of not doing so.
Unfortunately they have not got a model that shows them how to do it.
A manager manages in the same way that he saw his seniors manage (Command and Control) before he became a manager, this is the only model of management that he has been exposed to and he therefore has no choice about how he manages.
The result is that through no fault of his own his management produces the stress that is so destructive.
One of the consequences of the alternate management model, exemplified by Douglas McGregors “Theory Y”, is that the workforce are much more productive because they are not being stressed by their managers. The knock on effects being better retention and reduced recruiting and training costs.
If we are going to make management of
stress and other “people issues” part of the performance criteria of
managers/team leaders the first thing that we have to do is show them how to do it.
There is no point making managers responsible for the stress they induce in their workforce if their idea of managing stress is to tell someone to “Pull Yourself Together”
We must introduce them to Theory Y first to let them see how it works.
Unless we give them the opportunity to see for themselves how a different management model works then they will continue to do what they have always done and they will continue to get what they have always got.
Peter A Hunter
Author Breaking the Mould
http://www.breakingthemould.co.uk
Stress Management
Much of what is contained in this article needs to be taken on board by organisations, but, I continue to be frustrated that nearly all commentators overlook the absolute requirement to include management of stress and other “people issues” in the performance criteria of managers/team leaders. Team Leaders must not only be aware of the good stuff covered in this article; and they must not just agree with what is said……they must be required to manage/lead/support/engage [whatever trendy new words are used] as part of their job. Only then will the goals and objectives required to establish maintain and grow company cultures, become an ongoing reality. So let’s get Team Leaders leading as a non-negotiable part of their job. Apply this thinking in the organisation and we have buy-in from the top down…….and again can I bemoan the fact that so often we overlook the fact that if the top team does this, and is required to make sure the next team in the organisation chart does it, and so on, then and only then can it become an organisational reality. Oh to get back to the basics!!
Stress management
I endorse Annie Lawler’s comments. One of the contributory factors in our ability to manage stress is whether we have an internal or an external locus of control. Peter’s posting leads me to believe that he has an external locus of control – certainly in this context. This will cloud his perception and underpin his belief that he cannot control his stressors. We then believe everything is someone else’s fault, never our own.
An external locus of control also contributes to poor time management and work/life balance.
All the issues mentioned are within our control. We have a choice in whether we modify others’ behaviour; live with it, or move onto pastures new. Wellbeing policies also cover issues such as management style, unrealistic deadlines, or targets, role, company support, consultation over change and a host of other issues. The stress guidelines and questionnaires issued by the HSE (www.hse.gov.uk) make good reading.
Companies that introduce wellbeing policies and offer stress management workshops to help their staff may occasionally be offering a band aid to protect themselves against compensation claims. However, once staff are fully informed and regain control of their lives, they can put pressure on their organisations to pay more than lipservice to these vital issues. For things to change, first we must change.
.Don’t learn to live with Stress, remove the behaviour that caus
Stress is caused by the things that we cannot control, deadlines, targets, unrealistic expectations, all of which are set by management.
If we try to manage our stress we are burying our heads in the sand by refusing to acknowledge the source of the stress.
If we had a broken leg would we learn how to live with the fracture or would we go to hospital and get the leg fixed.
We need to acknowledge the source of our stress then we can start looking for ways to remove the behaviour that is causing the stress, not learning how to live with it.
Peter A Hunter