REBA’s 2018 Employee Wellbeing Research report has found that almost three quarters of employers are concerned about the impact of high-pressure working environments on their employees’ wellbeing. It’s a concern which ranks significantly higher than an ageing workforce or the physical inactivity of employees.
If you share it, there’s no time like the start of the year to address it. By managing the pressure employees face at work, you’ll find they’re:
- More productive
- Less at risk of accidents
- Less likely to be absent
- More engaged
- More likely to help you generate profits
Here are our top three tips to reduce pressure at work and thus improve the wellbeing of your employees and your business in 2019:
- Resolve employee dissatisfaction
What are you currently doing to ensure staff aren’t unduly stressed at work? Many organisations offer subsidised leisure club memberships, lunchtime fitness classes or other sociable activities aimed at supporting employees’ mental and physical wellbeing.
But if these perks aren’t supported by other benefits such as flexible or remote working practices, time off in lieu and good communication processes, their effect will be limited. Likewise, if they are counter-balanced with unfairly high expectations of employees’ working overtime or the like, their benefit may be cancelled out.
The resulting impact of over-pressured employees can have a negative affect your brand, your recruitment processes and ultimately your business success.
The first step in resolving employee dissatisfaction is to understand the source of it. Ensure you have robust feedback processes in place and are listening to what all your employees are saying. There are often some simple steps you can take to take pressure off them.
- Resolve skills gaps
While heavy workloads or unfeasible working practices might be the route cause of some employees’ stress, for others it can be a result of knowledge gaps or the absence of a particular skillset.
Without the right skills, tasks will undoubtedly be more time-consuming and stressful – particularly in organisations implementing the latest technologies.
As an employer, there are two key ways to address this common issue:
- Provide excellent opportunities for development and training to make sure staff feel competent in their roles
- Open up future job opportunities to a wider pool of candidates to increase your chances of finding employees with the particular specialities you need
In our recent recruitment blog we highlighted that finding the right staff is set to become even more challenging this year, so employers who work with a recruitment partner who can reach out to passive as well as active candidates will have a strong advantage.
- Resolve management issues
Of course, you can’t discover what you need to achieve steps 1 and 2 above without solid line management in place.
Managers have a huge impact on employee wellbeing and the not-so-good ones are often the catalyst for people leaving their jobs. So, it pays to make sure your managers (and you yourself) have the necessary skills to line manage well and that they share the business’ values.
With all the recent talk about the need for greater mental health support in the workplace, it’s also vital they understand how to spot, accept and address mental health issues.
We’ve provided organisations across South Wales with a comprehensive recruitment service to define and find the ideal managers and specialist professionals they need to drive success.
This year, resolve workplace and recruitment pressure by working in partnership with us. Get in touch to arrange a meeting today, and a happy new year to all our readers!
