The holidays can be a stressful time for everyone. Family obligations, buying gifts, juggling home and work – people are often get stressed out by Thanksgiving and it only gets worse until after the first of the year. Stress has a big impact on your employees, too – at home and at work. You might not be able to help them in their personal lives, but reducing stress at work is definitely a good goal to have. When you do, you increase productivity and reduce safety problems.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE STRESSED
Regardless of the reasons, once your employees get stressed out, you can tell. They often have similar problems and symptoms. While some look like laziness, don’t jump to conclusions. They could simply be stressed to the max. Signs of stress include:
- Exhaustion due to inability to sleep
- Headaches and illnesses
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Lack of motivation
- Showing up late
- Inability to concentrate
- Poor decision making
If your employees are usually on their game, seeing these signs is a clear indication that something is wrong.
HOW STRESS IMPACTS WORK
If you don’t recognize the symptoms, you’ll likely recognize the results of stress. It’s bad for your employees and your company.
- Employees call out more often or they show up late.
- Productivity and performance goes down.
- Morale is low.
- Safety goes down and accidents increase.
Before you jump to conclusions that your employees don’t care or they’re choosing to focus on something other than work, consider the individual. When a normally great employee begins to falter, there’s a reason. It’s often related to stress.
HELPING YOUR EMPLOYEES REDUCE STRESS
You need your employees producing good work and staying out of accidents, especially if you’re in an industry that gets busier towards the end of the year. Workers’ comp claims and people out of work makes that even harder. Finding ways to help your employees reduce their stress keeps everyone safer and happier.
- Encourage employees to talk about it. Being able to admit to being stressed goes a long way in dealing with it.
- Offer time off. A stressed employee who causes accidents is worse than an absent employee who takes an extra day or two off.
- Listen to your employees. If their stress is related to the work environment, pay attention and then do your best to correct the problem.
- Offer workplace wellness plans that encourage healthy living and exercise. Physical movement helps decrease stress.
- Plan a social activity for your staff. A holiday themed party or outing may give your employees the chance to take their mind off their stress for a while. It also breaks up the monotony and gives people something to look forward to.
Having safety plans and procedures to reduce accidents are great! But it’s also important to think about your employees as people with lives they care about. We’d like to believe that we can leave the personal at home but it doesn’t work that way. Helping your employees reduce their stress at work makes everyone safer and reduces accidents. That’s good for them and for business.
No matter how hard you try, accidents happen on the job. Make sure you’ve got enough workers’ comp insurance to cover you and your employees. Contact Charlotte Insurance today, and we’ll let you know what other policies are available that keeps you legal and protects you and your employees.