Stress is an epidemic in the UK – and particularly so amongst the UK’s workforce. According to a recent YouGov survey, more than half of workers in Britain feel ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ stressed at work, whether due to the nature of their work or the circumstances surrounding it.
As a business owner, stress amongst your ranks can be harmful for a number of reasons, from the financial to the reputational – to say nothing of the moral imperative you have to ensure your workers are well looked after. But how might you effectively encourage better employee wellbeing within your business?
Proactive Health and Safety
Every business is legally obliged to actively attend to health and safety risks within their workplace and trade. There are stringent laws surrounding the provision of protective equipment proportional to health and safety risks faced by workers, such as footwear for technical and construction staff or gel wrist rests for administrative workers. Businesses are required to assess locations and activities for risk, and to implement specific measures to curtail the risk of injury.
But these requirements do not have to be where a business stops. Indeed, a proactive approach to health and safety, over an active one, can help employees feel assured that their safety is being taken seriously. Not only will incidences of physical injury decrease, but so too will stress levels – increasing employee wellbeing on two levels.
Flexible Work
The UK’s working population have made it abundantly clear that new modes of working should remain here to stay. Since the coronavirus pandemic demonstrated the viability of remote and hybrid working arrangements, workers have started to vote with their feet; companies unwilling to consider flexible working arrangements are more likely to see low staff morale and even increased staff turnover.
Offering flexible working is an extremely simple way to win over employee favour, while actively reducing stress levels. Flexible work enables workers to structure their lives more equitably, and can reduce some real roadblocks to wellbeing.
Progression and Development
A leading cause of stress in workers today comes not from the day-to-day tasks of the average employee, but more their prospects as a worker – especially in tandem with the rising costs associated with everyday living. Workers want to know that they have opportunities, whether in the form of career development or even progression.
Creating an active development programme within your company can be a fantastic way to alleviate worries in staff; you are investing in upskilling them, not just for their current role but also for the next. This is more likely to engender positive attitudes within the business, and to impact personal wellbeing in the same way. Even if new roles for progression are few and far between, regular training can help ensure your staff keep their options open.
Encourage Better Work Life Balance
Burnout is an epidemic and not only is it bad for your employees, but it’s bad for you as a business too.
Burnt out employees will be likelier to need time off and may even be less productive when they’re at work.
If you notice your staff answering emails out of hours a lot, question it. Is their workload too high? Would they rather alter their working hours?
Lead by example and encourage a switch off. And simply don’t allow a culture of long hours and expectation to be “always on.”
Two Way Conversation
Speak to your staff about what they value from their lives and how you, as their employer, can help ensure they have fuller lives.
Have a two way conversation before implementing any new schemes or plans and make sure that any work perks or additional measures are actually things your team wants!
