We do it when you recognise either you need it, or you want to prevent it.
Proactive or reactive, which saves the most money?

Which is best for your business?
If you can keep your team in a happy and healthy place, or perhaps get them into a happier healthier place, your business will grow and make profit.

How are your sickness records?
Are there large numbers of people off work with stress?
Is there conflict in the office?
Do you have people in the office disengaging?

The list below highlights some of things to be aware of:

  • Confused thinking
  • Prolonged depression (sadness or irritability)
  • Feelings of extreme highs and lows
  • Excessive fears, worries and anxieties
  • Social withdrawal
  • Dramatic changes in eating or sleeping habits
  • Strong feelings of anger
  • Strange thoughts (delusions)
  • Seeing or hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations)
  • Growing inability to cope with daily problems and activities
  • Suicidal thoughts
  • Numerous unexplained physical ailments
  • Substance use

Are you seeing some of the above list in your place of work?
Our guess is that at any one time two or more of the above list will be in your work place.
Only you can decide when it is beginning to interfere with work place productivity and a happy working environment.

 

Stress is one of the biggest drains on UK business, and one of the easiest things to manage, if we know how.

What is stress?

The Health and Safety Executive defines stress as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them”.

There is a difference between stress and pressure. We can all experience pressure on a daily basis – in fact – some might say we need it to motivate us and enable us to perform at our best. It’s when we experience too much pressure, without the opportunity to recover, that we start to experience stress.

 

Everyone can feel stressed – it might be when we feel as if everything becomes too much to handle. It could be when things get on top of us and we feel like we’re unable to cope with the demands placed on us, both at home and at work.

Stress can affect different people in different ways and is often a result of a combination of factors in both our work and personal lives.

 

Why is stress a workplace issue?

All employees within an organisation can be vulnerable to stress depending on the pressure they are under at any given time.

Stress can be caused by work as well as by personal issues and problems outside the workplace (e.g. financial or domestic worries). Whatever the cause, stress can leave employees feeling unable to cope with the pressures of work – often resulting in poor performance.

Research has also shown that work related stress can have adverse effects for organisations in terms of:

  • Employee commitment to work
  • Staff performance and productivity
  • Staff turnover and intention to leave
  • Attendance levels
  • Staff recruitment and retention
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Organisational image and reputation
  • Potential litigation.

The impact that work-related stress has on small units or teams can be more prevalent than in larger organisations. Losing just one colleague for an extended period with a stress related illness can have a dramatic impact on the workload and morale of the rest of the team.

There is now convincing evidence that prolonged periods of stress, including work related stress, have an adverse effect on physical and mental health and well-being.

Stress can also lead to behaviours that are harmful to health, such as skipping meals, drinking too much caffeine or alcohol, or smoking.

Mental and physical ill health represent personal losses to individuals and costs to organisations, whether through sick pay for those who are absent from work or by poor performance from those who attend work.

 

By taking action to tackle the causes of stress in your workplace, you can prevent or reduce the impact of these problems for your organisation.

Successful programmes of workplace stress management have seen a significant reduction in sickness absence and staff turnover – good news for the employer and employee alike. Staff morale improves, people feel valued and the overall result is a healthier and safer working environment.

The total number of cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2015/16 was 488,000 cases, a prevalence rate of 1,510 per 100,000 workers.

The total number of working days lost due to this condition in 2015/16 was 11.7 million days. This equated to an average of 23.9 days lost per case.

 

Last year alone, UK businesses lost over £36 billion due to absences in the workforce. Yet this statistic only tells a fraction of the story. The cost of lower productivity stemming from employees who attend work even when ill could be up to three times higher.