Reducing stress in the workplace makes your people more productive

Employee stress is a problem for all businesses (and all employees). Stress naturally occurs in the workplace. When left unchecked, it can wreak havoc on employee health and productivity.

Relationships

Relationships can make or break a work environment. When people don’t get along and don’t know how to communicate effectively, it can create a lingering tension in the office. Consider investing in some training. Training sessions can promote an understanding of personality types in order to help people to work together more effectively.

New, more modern policies

Consider if there are new policies that could be introduced that would make the office less stressful, such as a casual dress policy. People feel less stressed if they are comfortable so maybe it is time to say goodbye to suits and ties. Another positive change could be to introduce an open door policy. This will encourage people to communicate more freely with their managers.

Office environment

Take the time to walk around your office space and consider if it is possible to make it a more enjoyable working environment. Perhaps there is a lack of natural light or a lot of clutter around the office. An office cleanup followed by some fresh paint and a few new features like a coffee machine and some plants can make it more enjoyable to work in. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune but a few tweaks can make all the difference.

Promote activities that make the office more pleasant for your employees.

This might include reassigning workloads in order to spread the work more evenly between teams, giving public recognition for a job well done or starting a weekly lunchtime barbecue during warm weather. You might add perks such as office yoga classes, gift certificates after completion of a difficult project or health and wellbeing initiatives such as healthy eating week, lunchtime running sessions, etc.

Agile working

The world of work is changing and agile working is becoming the norm. Giving your team members the flexibility to work from home or at different times of the day can help them to improve their work life balance. If someone needs to focus on a particular project, they can work from home or somewhere quiet, away from the office, in order to get their project over the line. This can help to reduce their stress levels and improve their productivity.