Experts Share Best Way To Reduce Stress in the Workplace
Developing resilience in the workplace has never been an easy task for team leaders. In all industries, from tech startups to financial institutions, building and maintaining resilience continues to be a key strategic priority. But the teams that know their own, and their colleagues’ strengths, are using this to ensure they work together more effectively.
We all know that too much stress is not only detrimental to our physical health but also inhibits performance. Work-related stress affects peoples’ lives differently; for some, it leads to less creative thinking, difficulty making decisions, limited focus or sometimes obstructed communication.
Left unaddressed, it can become the fast-track to low morale, higher employee turnover and burnout. Recent studies have found that employee resilience is associated with decreased stress and that those people with low resilience are four times more likely to experience burnout.
What does resilience in the workplace look like?
It’s not that resilient individuals have fewer stressors at work; rather, they are better equipped, through mental health training and cognitive tools, to manage their challenges. Evidence shows that resilient employees engage in three specific behaviours, which help them remain focused and optimistic despite setbacks or uncertainty:
- Strong emotional regulation skills: they don’t exhibit excessive negative emotions during difficult times
- Self-compassion: they have a consistently positive outlook even during failures
- Cognitive agility: they deal with each difficult situation they face with ease
Organizations will find it increasingly necessary to help equip their employees, leaders and managers to acquire the skills needed to adapt during these times of unprecedented change. Employees who undergo mental health awareness training from our mental health clinicians learn how to adapt and thrive in change. Of course, building resilience in the workplace is not going to happen overnight but rather an ongoing process that needs to be developed over time.
How can I begin the conversation around mental health in the workplace?
Start first by highlighting the skills and strengths of team members. This is a great place to begin a productive and positive conversation about mental health.
There is an interesting relationship between understanding one’s strengths and the effect this has on engagement. Building on people’s strengths in the workplace, rather than trying to eliminate their weaknesses, led to a “12.5% rise in productivity, a 14.9% reduction in employee turnover and an overall increase in profitability by 8.9%” according to research from Gallup.
Upon further in-depth analysis of this work, we see that using employees’ strengths as the foundation upon which to build is not only the most effective route to enhancing performance and promoting commitment, but it also reduces stress, subsequently enhancing health and happiness and building more resilient organisations.
With these findings in mind, consider that many individuals may not know their key personal strengths or how to use them effectively, and very few organisations are doing anything to address this.
What is the value of resilience to employers?
A resilient workforce benefits the business in so many ways. Facilitating resilience from a senior level promotes organisational resilience, making it a work-wide culture. This reassures and encourages employees to commit time for personal development to evaluate how they manage their stress levels.
Resilience training also helps employers by:
- Building a more open, inclusive and resilient workplace that attracts and retains top talent
- Reducing absenteeism, presenteeism and long-term absence from work
- Preventing unnecessary employee turnover
- Building a reputation as an employer that truly cares for employees
- Supporting sustainable performance and productivity with a 5-6x return on investment
What is the value of resilience to employees?
A person can only effectively develop their resilience with self-reflection. They need to consider the pillars of resilience and identify which areas they need to work on. Giving and receiving feedback in the workplace can help tremendously with this. The value to employees is also:
- Greater workplace happiness and job satisfaction
- Better job ratings, performance reviews, and promotion potential
- Reduced absenteeism
Resilience training eases the burden of responsibility employees carry and gives them the tools to manage challenges. Moreover, it encourages cooperation and collaboration, further reducing stress in the workplace and encouraging others to be more aware of any warning signs that show an individual is struggling mentally.
Looking for ways to help your employees be less stressed and more effective?
Most training providers are training-only companies, wellbeing specialists or large groups who cover the whole of healthcare. Onebright is differentiated as we are true experts in mental health. We purposefully choose not to dilute our expertise by expanding to other health services, making us a niche in the market.
At Onebright we work with mental health clinicians who are experts in workplace mental health. The specific expertise of our trainers inspires trust, encourages open dialogue around mental health and effectively upskills a manager’s ability to support issues with mental health in the workplace.
