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Stressed Out: The Uptight Workforce

How often do you go home thinking, "What a stressful day. Thank goodness it's over"? According to a recent study by the ComPsych Corporation, a provider of employee assistant programs, the number of similar such people is rising. In the second half of 2004 alone, stress levels have increased by 18 points.

Of the people surveyed, 76% of respondents reported having high levels of stress; a significant increase from the first half of the year. Notably, workload was cited as the most common source of stress, and the number of people claiming that taking time off work was their primary means of coping with stress has increased by 10 points. Not surprisingly, the number of people reporting low levels of stress has noticeably decreased in since the beginning of the year
(HR Business and Legal Reports: http://hr.blr.com/Article.cfm/Nav/5.0.0.0.31253).

It's obvious that we're living in a time where the majority of the workforce is stressed out - and the situation is getting worse. It seems that these days no country, no profession, no person is free from the effects of stress.

So what exactly is stress? It's likely that most of us know what it feels like to be stressed. But describing that feeling, or the symptoms of that feeling, can be more difficult.

One definition of workplace stress is:

The European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs (Guidance on work-related stress: Spice of life - or kiss of death), describes job-related stress as:

What these two definitions have in common is that while the effects of stress may not be able to be categorically defined beyond being of both an emotional, mental, and physical nature, they can often be harmful or distressing.

This is not to say that stress always has negative effects, but that experienced for a prolonged period of time, or left unmanaged, stress is most likely to be detrimental to one's wellbeing.

Because it has such potential to harm, stress is very costly not only to the individuals experiencing it, but also to the organisation for which they work.

For the individual, stress can cause anything from chronic fatigue, depression, insomnia, anxiety, and allergies to substance abuse. On a larger scale, stress can also contribute to hypertension and even alter someone's immune functions, therefore contributing to heart and cerebrovascular disease, ulcers, and in the case of corrupted immune systems, cancer.
(http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/stress/intro.htm -
International Labour Organization)

Of course, when an employee is effected like this, it can't help but impact their organisation. For the organisation, employee stress can result in:

• Absenteeism
• Lower productivity
• Higher medical costs
• Staff turnover, and the associated recruitment and training costs

In fact, stress has been identified as one of the most common causes of workplace injury and illness. Exposure to mental stress factors falls within the top five of most frequent injury worker's compensation claims. It falls second on the list as the cause of injuries that result in the highest total weeks off work, and is the most likely cause of injuries that result in more than six months being taken off work (Community Services Safety Pack: A Guide to Occupational Health and Safety: 2004). So, not only is stress one of the main reasons for workplace injury and disease, its effects are often the most long lasting.

The costs of these effects are significant. It has been estimated that in the UK, over 40 million working days are lost each year due to stress-related problems. In the US, this figure is considered to be closer to 275 million working days
(http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/stress/intro.htm
- International Labour Organization).

Whichever way you look at it, as stress levels increase, and these costs go up, stress is going to become an issue that organisations are going to have to address if they want their business to remain viable.

Of course, there is no "one fix wonder" that offers a cure to stress. Because stress is an individual thing, the methods for addressing it may also have to be individual. However, before you can start to address stress you need a place to start. How can you can help organisations uncover where the problems lie for their staff, what the responses to stress are, and how these responses can be reduced?

Dr. Russell Watson, President of Target Consulting, Inc. has developed a psychometrically validated tool that offers the perfect starting point for organisations seeking to do just that. The Pro-ActiveStressCheck™ is a behavioural questionnaire that allows respondents to gauge their reactions to stressful situations, and which provides action plans for reducing those reactions. It is based on research that began in 1982 across thousands of individuals so validity is a strength.

The Pro-ActiveStressCheck™ measures stress in five areas. The first four areas are:

• Elevated Physical reactions (i.e. rapid heart rate)
• Lowered Physical reactions (i.e. lethargy)
• Elevated Psychological reactions (i.e. thoughts racing)
• Lowered Psychological reactions (i.e. depression)

The fifth area that the questionnaire measures is unique to the Pro-ActiveStressCheck and recognises that not all stress is negative. The Pro-ActiveStressCheck also measures how respondents rate in the Optimal Human Performance Scale, which is the "good stress" factor. Those people who score highly in the Optimal Human Performance Scale have learnt how to handle stress effectively, and can even use stress to fuel their performance.

If an organisation can help staff to reduce their responses in the first four areas of stress while increasing their optimal reaction to stress, they will see less injury and sickness in the workplace, and achieve lower absenteeism rates and higher productivity rates. Knowledge of the current situation is the first step. Doing something about it is the second.

One US company made the decision to address stress in the workplace by implementing a wellness program that included the Pro-ActiveStressCheck as a key element. Over the next two years they saved nearly 30% in self-insured payouts for days off work for minor illnesses.

It is the combination of the Pro-ActiveStressCheck with holistic wellness programs and other behavioural assessments (for example Styles and Values questionnaires) that provides such bottom line impacts.

So, consultant's who choose to include Pro-ActiveStressCheck in their kitbag can sell much more than one product. Instead, they can use the StressCheck™ as a catalyst for an entire stress solution, on-selling their own consulting skills as a major component.

Consultants on-selling their consulting expertise with the StressCheck will need to look at the individual situation of the organisation and the types of stress being suffered in order to make pertinent suggestions for overcoming stress. However, there are some immediate tips that you can take to the organisation and the staff involved.

The first tip is to work through the action plans provided for each stress type in the automatic report generated by the Pro-ActiveStressCheck. This is good news because it means that the consultant doesn't need to be an expert in stress themselves - the report contains all the information for them. The consultant can work with individuals to flesh out the action plan and to help them implement it into their own situation. Working with staff to discover what the action plan steps will actually look like in their life and which will be most effective in their situation is another useful consultant tip.

Other quick hints to give to organisations for reducing stress include:

• Give staff the freedom to remove themselves from the workplace when they need to. Rather than staff simply taking coffee at their desk, encourage them to go for walks or take their coffee outside. If staff need time out, they need it to be fully removed from their work environment.
• Try something different, such as allowing meetings to be held outside. Like the first option, this simply gets people out the typical work environment and helps to create a more relaxed atmosphere.
• Ensure that workloads are kept interesting and challenging. Becoming bored with your work is de-motivating and just as stressful as being too busy. The combination of a heavy but mundane workload is particularly stressful.
• Implement good change management practices. Change in the workplace is stressful. Staff need to be able to work through their feelings towards a change and be given sufficient time to adjust.
• Consciously praise staff for a job well done. Praise and recognition immediately improves the way staff feel about themselves and their job. Praise not only reduces stress for staff, it is one of the most effective ways for getting the best out them. Staff who feel valued will continue to work hard in order to achieve further recognition.

It's worth noting too that experience suggests that staff do not abuse privileges such as the ones listed above. Instead, they are likely to work longer and harder, while feeling more relaxed.

If this isn't sufficient reason for your clients to start addressing stress, remind them that the stress levels of their staff is now their legal responsibility. In some countries, staff can sue their organisation for undue levels of stress, and under health and safety laws in many countries, if employees suffer injury or illness due to stress, organisations can be charged with fines or even criminal prosecution (How to get a stress-free workplace:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2996224.stm).

Legalities aside, in a year that has reached such a peak in stress levels, we see it as our ethical obligation to reduce stress where we can - and hope you do too. As we head into the Christmas season, perhaps it's worth making an early New Year's Resolution, to strive to reduce stress not only for our clients, but for ourselves as well.