What do you do in your organisation to increase awareness and manage the impact of stress? This month, we marked National Stress Awareness Day with The Stress Management Society, who this year shone a light on workplace stress in concert with the EU-OSHA 2014 – 2015 Campaign: Healthy Workplaces Manage Stress.
To be able to assess the real impact of workplace stress, The Stress Management Society conducted a study on men and women in workplaces across the UK. The study found that:
- 43% of people say they feel stressed at least once a day at work
- 22% of people feel they can never escape work as the increase of online and digital working has made them contactable 24 hours a day
- Almost half of those questioned said they failed to take a proper break from work for lunch
- More than a quarter of people check their emails as soon as they wake up, 48% then continue to check them during the evening and almost a third (28%) of people check them at the weekend
- Almost a third (28%) of people say that stress affects the quality of their work
It is evident that work is a major stressor and, with working hours increasing, we are spending more and more time at work. Here are a few tips to help reduce stress at work, increase productivity and efficiency and also improve quality of work:
- Work-work balance: Prioritise and balance the conflicting demands on your time. Do the most important task when your productivity is at its highest during the day and save the non-important tasks for when you productivity dips.
- Do one thing at a time: Focusing on one task at a time can increase productivity by over 400%. Finish your current task before moving on to a new one and minimise disruptions.
- Learn to say NO: Simple but effective. Negotiate a mutually agreeable outcome. Where ‘no’ is the appropriate response, say it without guilt.
- Master your technology: Don’t be a slave to technology. Use it to save time; don’t allow it to waste your time. Use applications to manage your time more effectively, set reminders and diarise tasks, but switch off when you are doing something important that requires attention and focus. Also, don’t forget to switch off when you are away from work for a healthy work-life balance.
If you like these tips and would like to gain a greater understanding of how employee stress is affecting your business, join Symposium Events and The Stress Management Society at the Workplace Wellbeing and Stress Summit 2014 in London on 27th November.
- Taking control of absence - 17 June 2015
- Are you aware of the importance of good mental health within your organisation? - 16 June 2015
- More productivity is a good thing, right? - 19 May 2015
- Election 2015 – The future of British workplaces - 8 April 2015
- Healthy workplaces manage stress - 20 November 2014
- Did you know that absenteeism is very costly for businesses? - 3 October 2014
- Do you have a healthy work-life balance? - 22 September 2014
- How does stress affect your sleep? - 8 September 2014
- How do healthy workplaces manage stress? - 22 August 2014