Stress, anxiety, and burnout are all very serious and very real health hazards that can occur amongst your team. Are you looking out for them enough? Are you doing everything you can to ease these conditions? Here are some ways you can reduce your employees’ stress levels and create a better work environment.
Promote Communication
It’s not always easy knowing how to reduce employee stress, especially when multiple factors can play a part in the cause of that stress. However, promoting communication might be an effective option to explore.
If your team knows they can discuss any concerns with you, they might be more inclined to come to you with their problems rather than trying to tackle them on their own to the detriment of their individual employee mental health.
Offer Work Schedule Flexibility
While the 9-to-5 schedule is the most common among working professionals, it doesn’t work for everyone. Some employees have outside commitments and might struggle to balance the demands of a traditional 40-hour working week and their home life.
If you’re dedicated to learning how to help reduce stress in employees, work schedule flexibility might be something you consider. When employees can work the hours that suit their lives the best, they can reward you with increased productivity.
Prioritise Mental and Physical Wellness
To reduce stress, managers need to make sure that employees are prioritising their mental and physical wellness. To do that to the best of their ability, they often need their employer’s support.
You might decide to explore your options around offering health insurance as part of their benefits package and even access to mental health services to ensure they’re always able to get the help they need.
While such benefits might seem costly, studies have shown that company loyalty and employee performance can increase when workers have access to health insurance.
Have Fun in the Office
Employers should help reduce their employees’ stress, not increase it. While you might not be able to change their workload, you can create a work environment that encourages a balance of work and play to break up the average working week.
Don’t be afraid to get creative with office diversions like board games, table tennis, video games, and even a dog-friendly policy. Small changes might be enough for your team to feel like you appreciate their hard work.
Encourage Breaks and Leave
Employees who feel well taken care of generally work hard for their employers, but they can’t do this for months on end without risking burnout. When you’re learning how to reduce employee stress in the workplace, look into the benefits of encouraging regular breaks and leave.
You may find that by encouraging your team to take frequent breaks, you benefit from more creativity, productivity, and improved mental well-being. While you’ll need to familiarise yourself with the laws around paid and unpaid leave policies, it might be worthwhile when your team feels well taken care of.
It’s not just actioning these helpful methods once, they have to be utilised on a long-term basis to reduce employee stress in the long run and maintain a healthy work environment.