A healthy workplace environment plays a key role when it comes to achieving positive outcomes in a stressful atmosphere. Stress is common and oftentimes unavoidable in the workplace. Especially, present-day jobs can be highly insecure, full of challenges, fraught with high expectations, and demands; which all are causes of stress in the workplace.
The Employee Workplace Stress Survey 2020 by leading online jobs portal JobNet.com.mm has recently revealed that 83% of employees feel stressed at their workplaces. According to respondents of the survey, the two main factors that can cause workplace-related stress are a lack of supervision/management (48%), and a lack of teamwork (32%). It can be concluded that effective supervision and good team relationships are instrumental in fostering workplace happiness and the productivity of employees, which can impact the profitability of an organization.
Appropriate supervision is vital as it ensures productivity and profitability of an entity. As the structure of most business organizations is more or less hierarchical, companies must empower and encourage their employees in management positions regarding effective team management skills to reduce the work-related stress of their subordinates, as well as to increase everyone’s productivity. From the data acquired through the survey, 49% of respondents have responsibility in a management role. Among them, less than 50% acknowledge they know how to appropriately handle the anxiety and stress of their teams; as their companies have not always provided training on team stress management.
It can be difficult to deal with our own stresses, but as a manager, it is even more challenging to also reduce the work-related stress of team members, which can be done by companies who create a healthy workplace environment for all employees. Although stress can be contagious, well-being has the same effect within a team. It is said that 37% of employees prefer an Employee Assistant Program, and 34% of those would like to do team activities and outings as methods to relieve their stress. Leaders can cultivate well-being among team members by prioritizing activities that promote personal health and stress management. These can include practices of mindfulness, resilience training, and encouraging people to exercise or engage in renewal activities.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, workers around the world spend 34-48 hours at work each week on average, and many engage in work or related activities after business hours. According to the JobNet Workplace Stress Survey, lack of work-life balance is one of the causes mentioned in regards to work-related stress. By conveying the importance of stepping away from the desk and using time off work on the evenings and weekends to replenish energy and work on personal projects, leaders can help their teams avoid burnout or excess frustration. Some companies for example use policies such as no emails after office hours or on weekends/holidays.
To recap, if a company focuses on making employees happy, they in turn will make the company’s customers happy. Therefore, if employers can strive to provide a stress-free environment to their human capital, they should be able to attain greater levels of productivity and profitability.
The full report of Employee Workplace Stress Survey 2020 can be downloaded here.