Being proactive combats cost of stress

Much has been debated about stress and whether it’s really such a bad thing after all – with many holding the notion that a good amount of stress helps get the job done. Stress can also be given as an excuse for time off work when the real reason might lie elsewhere. However, it is in employer’s own interests to be more savvy on the topic. With the right training and know-how, it is possible to spot the real symptoms of work-related stress and tackle it before it starts affecting your business’ performance.

Impact on productivity

Taking proactive measures to help prevent stress in your company can pay dividends in the long term, with stress widely reported to be one of the main causes of absenteeism.

The ICAS’ 2006 Absence Survey, which was conducted amongst its blue chip and public sector clients, identified stress as having the greatest impact on levels of long-term sickness absence. This research, carried out along with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Confederation of British Industry (CBI), shows that while people work well under a certain level of pressure, stress is an entirely negative situation and reduces performance both over the short and long term.

Indeed, according to The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), around half a million people in the UK at any one time experience work-related stress at a level they believe makes them ill. The HSE also report that up to five million people in the UK feel either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ stressed by their work. 12.8 million working days were lost to the UK economy in 2004/5 due to stress, depression and anxiety.

It makes good business sense then, to consider what steps you can take to reduce or eliminate potential stress hazards from your business, or indeed your own work-life balance.

So what is stress?

As stress does not exist as a diagnosable medical condition, the word itself can seem a loose definition for a collection of problems or disorders. Whatever you think about the accuracy of the term, it is clear from both research and occupational health statistics that an increasing number of people are leaving their jobs prematurely or becoming ill as a result of the work they do.

Pressure is, of course, unavoidable in the real word and it helps keep us motivated. It is excessive pressure that is the real issue and which leads to stress. This, in turn, undermines performance and can cost business significantly.

Instead of the popular notion of two sorts of stress – ‘good stress’ and ‘bad stress’ – it is more helpful to distinguish between pressure, which is fundamentally healthy, and stress, which is unhealthy. So when does healthy pressure turn into unhealthy stress?

Causes of stress

One of the biggest difficulties facing employers is that stress, unlike physical occupational hazards, is entirely subjective. People can react very differently to stress and handle pressure in many ways, so what can be a healthy amount of pressure for one person could prove too much for another. There is also plenty of evidence to suggest that personality factors can play an important part in deciding whether stress will be an outcome or not.

The top three (main) causes of absence cited by the CIPD are workload, organisational change or restructuring and pressure to meet targets. So, the normal demands and pattern of daily life in the business world are all potential sources of absence problems – which, as mentioned earlier, are often related to stress.

Spot the early warning signs

In a business, the symptoms of stress will often be manifested by increased levels of absenteeism. Sometimes these will be clearly attributable to stress, but stress can also reveal itself in health problems including migraines, stomach ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome and general fatigue. Other signs will include poor team working, increased levels of conflict and a general dip in productivity.

One or two of the symptoms (see sidebar) on their own does not necessarily indicate stress, but a few of these together signify a problem. The danger is that too many people do not recognise these early warning signs as significant, and so fail to take the necessary steps to alleviate them until too late.

How to tackle stress

Being proactive is the key here. Taking steps to identify potential hazards and eliminating or reducing their impact is much more cost-effective than allowing employees to become ill or leave their employment through stress.

Conducting stress audits or stress risk assessments within your business is a very useful way to discover the pressure points and unearth any existing problems. This can be done either by using specially designed survey tools or by using existing company surveys. Gathering data such as absentee statistics can also help pinpoint problem areas. On a micro-level, focus groups can be useful to provide qualitative information about issues that could be potential sources of stress.

The manager’s role

Managers can be pivotal in determining whether their team is likely to experience stress. If managers are unaware of the early warning signs of stress in their team, then often the first they hear about it is when they get a doctor’s note signing the individual off work with a stress-related condition.

An early intervention can make all the difference. Sometimes just being able to tell someone else about the problem can be enough to help reduce the pressure. Dealing with the problem at an early stage can mean raising an issue with the employee yourself rather than waiting for them to raise it. If the organisational culture is such that people are reluctant to raise problems with their manager, then it will be difficult to deal with issues proactively. It is important that managers are approachable.

Managers whose company has an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in place usually find that this service can be used as an additional support service for employees dealing with pressure.

Rehabilitation

Prolonged exposure to stress can lead to mental and physical ill health. When this results in performance or attendance issues, the individual may need support to restore their ability to function at work. Vocational rehabilitation is proven to be very effective in these situations by working with the employee, line manager, human resources and occupational health to design a workplace-based programme to address the issues and restore capacity for work. As part of this, another new development in tackling the problem is helping people build resilience to everyday pressures and situations likely to trigger stress. This is proving very effective in helping people feel more in control, and better able to manage their circumstances.

Liz McCaw is Client Services Director at ICAS. As one of Europe's leading employee and well-being companies, ICAS directly supports over one million employees in over 600 companies worldwide. ICAS has also helped employers and employees overcome depression and manage change, stress (with a focus on helping people develop resilience to stress) workplace conflict, bullying and absenteeism.