According to research conducted by AIS, “83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress.
There are various factors that lead to this rising issue, including an unsupportive work environment, lack of recognition, micromanagement, inadequate compensation, etc.
Excess stress can deteriorate the employees’ quality of life. It gradually diminishes their emotional, mental, and physical well-being. Further, it drains out their energy, minimizes focus, and affects productivity, subsequently impairing business performance.
Therefore, it is necessary to take measures to alleviate stress levels and foster a healthy work environment at the workplace.
This blog discusses strategies to combat workplace stress and how SAVIOM’s advanced resource management software can help.
But first, let’s start with the basics.
1. What is workplace stress and its causes?
Work-related stress is employees’ physical and mental responses to job demands and pressures that exceed their knowledge and abilities. Here are some of the factors which lead to workplace stress:
- Work overload: One of the primary reasons for high workplace stress is work overload. Often, managers assign tasks to employees beyond their capacity or provide unrealistic deadlines. This makes them feel pressured, leading to stress and compromised work quality.
- Micromanagement: When managers closely watch and control employees’ work, they may feel discouraged. Further, the lack of autonomy can develop feelings of inadequacy and incompetence among employees, leading to increased stress.
- Unfair treatment at work- Another critical factor that increases stress is a non-conducive work environment. When an individual faces discrimination, they may feel undervalued, disrespected, and unsupported, leading to stress.
- Role ambiguity- When there is a lack of clarity regarding expectations, responsibilities, and work boundaries, employees may find it challenging to prioritize their work. This feeling of confusion, uncertainty, and lack of control can all contribute to job stress.
Now that the causes behind stress are clear, here is what you can do to minimize workplace stress.
2. Strategies for managing workplace stress
Workplace stress can significantly reduce organizational efficiency by affecting the top and bottom lines of the organization. But one can take practical steps to keep stress at bay. Here’s how: formulate ways to reduce its effects. Here’s how:
2.1. Avoid over-loading your employees beyond their capacity
According to Statista, “39% of employees say heavy workload is their main cause of stress.”
Frequently overloading resources with work raises their stress levels and causes fatigue. In the long haul, it will lead to burnout, declining mental and physical health, and eventually reducing employee productivity and morale.
To avoid this, managers should look into the current and future resource schedules to ensure resources are available before allocation. Following this, they can set deadlines that can be achieved by the resource and ascertain a balanced distribution of workload. This will help ensure that every resource is optimally utilized without assigning them work exceeding their capacities.
2.2 Empower employees to work on projects of interest
When employees work on similar projects frequently, they become disinterested, get stressed out and take unplanned leaves to distance themselves from the pressure source. This can be avoided if managers ensure that employees’ interests are considered before allocating them to projects.
While fulfilling project resource requirements, managers can publish open positions using specific details such as skillsets, qualifications, experience, etc. These positions are notified to all relevant resources across the enterprise. Accordingly, resources can show their interest in suitable open positions. Managers can then choose the best-fit resource for the projects. As resources work on the interest of their projects, it will motivate & engage them, ultimately reducing stress.
2.3. Offer flexible work schedules
When employees have to abide by a rigid schedule, fulfilling personal obligations might become challenging. This can lead to physical exhaustion and stress, affecting work performance. However, offering flexibility or variable work hours enables one to accommodate various working styles. This essentially helps strike the ultimate work-life balance.
For instance, employees working continuous night shifts may become stressed due to the disruption in the ‘sleep-wake cycle’. However, flexible schedules, such as rotational shifts, can help maintain a synergy. It will also allow employees to cater to their work with improved focus and increased efficiency while alleviating stress levels.
2.4. Encourage employees to take paid time off
Employees experience work fatigue when they do not receive timely breaks or leave. This harms their mental and physical health, eventually leading to burnout. Therefore, organizations must encourage employees to plug off from their work and take sufficient paid time off and vacation.
Further, managers can also plan some team outings. This will help them take a break from the monotonous work schedule. Also, when employees return from holidays or leave, they are more engaged and focused at work.
2.5. Implement rewards and recognition programs
According to a study, “recognizing employee performance increases engagement by 60%”.
So, building a work culture where employees are given reward points, appreciation emails, bonuses, salary increments, and other incentives, etc., is essential. Otherwise, employees may feel demotivated and exhausted if their efforts and contributions go unrecognized.
Thus, formal or informal reward and recognition programs are among the most effective ways to increase engagement and productivity. It boosts employee morale and motivation to contribute more for the company. When employees are more engaged and driven at the workplace, it automatically reduces their stress levels.
2.6. Provide career development opportunities
Employees constantly seek opportunities to hone their skills and diversify their portfolios for professional growth. However, the absence of an Individual Development Program (IDP) that cater to personal aspirations may generate dissatisfaction and insecurity. Moreover, monotonous work responsibilities without new areas to explore and learn about can lead to decreased morale and stress.
To combat this, organizations should understand every individual’s career goals and create a practical roadmap to help achieve them. They can also assess the employees’ performance and find areas where they need learning. Accordingly, they can initiate upskilling/training programs to expand their portfolios. This way, an adequately trained employee will be confident to do their job well, thereby minimizing stress.
2.7. Organize team-building activities
Regular monotonous work can be stressful and take a toll on employees’ well-being, making it challenging to concentrate on their work. Additionally, it will lead to an increase in stress levels, which affects their performance.
Therefore, organizations can initiate team-building activities to help the workforce quickly adapt to work culture. For instance, group activities like discussions, online meetings, brainstorming, casual meetup, etc., will improve communication and teamwork. Further, it will help employees collaborate better, relieve employees of stress, and help them get more productive at work.
Let’s see how a resource management tool helps combat workplace stress.
3. How advanced resource management software can help combat workplace stress?
Today, embracing advanced tools and technology enable employees to spend their time at work productively and reduces the risks of stress and burnout. Hence, Saviom’s next-gen resource management software is one such tool that helps organizations to optimize their employees and conquer workplace stress effectively.
Here’s how-
- The tool’s enterprise-wide visibility and advanced filters enable managers to identify the right resource for the projects at the right time.
- The forecasting capabilities help predict resource shortages and surpluses in the long and short-term, bridge that gap in advance, and ensure efficient resource allocation. Further, it boosts productivity and engagement, which lowers stress.
- Additionally, managers can track their team’s utilization with color-coded heatmaps and associated reports and take corrective action if workers are over or underutilized. Ensuring optimal utilization helps reduce employee burnout and stress.
- With the open seat feature, employees can express their interest in a project and get selected as per their capability. Allowing employees to work on projects of their interest leads to improved motivation and reduced stress.
- Furthermore, the collaboration function allows real-time communication to start conversations with team members across various touchpoints, encouraging a creative and collaborative work environment.
In this way, all these resource management features help address the issue of workforce stress.
4. Conclusion
Stress has now become a common issue in the workplace. Therefore, if not addressed correctly, it can negatively impact workforce productivity and their quality of work. By implementing a combination of stress management strategies and advanced resource management software, organizations can help employees improve their well-being and perform at their best. This can ultimately lead to greater organizational success and profitability.
