SOLUTIONS
> Training & Speaking

Solutions for Workplace Stress

Workplace stress reduction begins with corporate leadership. Many companies have instituted wellness programs that address actions individuals can take to reduce personal stress and improve nutrition, exercise, and life style habits.

When employees are stressed, however, they often find it more difficult to implement life style changes. The physical effects of stress on the body automatically sabotage their efforts, making it more difficult to make the right nutritional choices, be motivated enough to exercise, change comfortable habits, and actually lose weight even with life style changes.

Companies can now take the next step in improving their employee’s health and their performance.  By taking action to develop a corporate environment that reduces the root causes of stress, companies can improve morale, motivation, teamwork, innovation, and production and employee health.

Below are the root causes of workplace stress according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health along with specific solutions for each concern. 

Performance Health can help you implement these changes with a systematic process that will help your organization achieve goal driven results with innovative, cutting edge teams.

1. Poor, inadequate, or difficult interpersonal relationship between employees and their managers and between peers.
   
   Solution: Develop Inclusive relationships – The way people interact with each other affects their physical and emotional health.  Honest, fair, and positive interactions with   others actually releases brain chemicals that opens us up to new ideas, the desire to get to know the other person and work with them. This kind of interaction builds morale and motivation and contributes to innovation and team success.
   
   
   
2. Absent, unclear, or misaligned corporate and individual professional goals.
   
   Solution: Develop a corporate strategic plan and update it annually. Use technology such as web casts, pod casts, and online newsletters to share your company’s strategic plan and progress towards your goals.  Knowing where they are going and how they are going to get there (job functions) improves morale and motivation.
   
   Employ talent management strategies and development plans to align employee strengths, talents, and personal professional goals with organizational goals. When employees meet expectations they get a rush of adrenalin and want to repeat the process.
   
   
   
3. Job functions don’t align with business goals. Busy work or work without purpose is stressful. Employees can assume a “why bother” attitude.
   
   Solution: Involve employees in designing work processes. Being involved in the process improves employee “buy-in” and because employees often know the system well they can anticipate road blocks and short cuts before systems are implemented. Being involved in the process gives employees permission to act autonomously and make continuous improvements to the process.
   
   
   
4. Lack of management or leadership support. Employees say lack of time, personnel, and money are very stressful.
   
   Solution: Anticipate the kind of support your employees will need. Beyond time, personnel, and financial support, employees may need additional training, coaching, or flexibility in scheduling.  Having to do more with less is standard in most companies these days. Feeling pinched can be lessened by being flexible in work situations, involving employees in decision   making, and managing by goal achievement not hours worked.
   
   
   
5. Lack of positive reinforcement. Even with decades of performance management practices, employees continue to report that they are infrequently reinforced for good work.
   
   Solution: It is normal to focus on undesired behaviors because we are biologically wired to detect danger in our environment.  Focusing on desired behaviors will take conscious effort on the leader’s part but the outcome is more of the desired behaviors. Focus on specific behaviors is the first step in developing a habit.
   
   
   
6. Lack of rewards and insight into improvements
   
   Solution: It’s true that what gets measured gets done, and it’s true that if you can see your progress toward a goal you are more motivated to continue or if progress is not fast enough, change course. Reward and systematically coach employees to help them relive and repeat successful projects and to gain insight into problems. When people solve their own problems, they are much more likely to implement the changes.
   

Get the Benefits of Reducing Workplace Stress No

The financial impact of managing workplace stress can be significant and in addition to decreasing the costs of absenteeism, turnover, worker’s compensation and litigation.

Programs that reduce the root causes of workplace stress by empowering employees show financial returns in four areas. This study was on Fortune 100 and 500 companies by the Frank Russell Company.

• Sales Growth 16.1% vs. 7.4
• Profit Growth 18.2% vs. 4.4%
• Profit Margin 6.4% vs. 3.3%
• Growth in earning per share: 10.7% vs. 4.7%
• Total return, stock appreciation + dividends: 10% vs. 8.8

• The Neuroscience of Leadership by David Rock and Jeffery Schwartz

• Brain and Mind Fitness News: The Neuroscience of Leadership and Brain Fitness

• The National Institute for Organizational Safety and Health