Stress Management

In organisations everywhere, employees are facing increasing pressures in trying to be both effective at work and to maintain a quality home life.

Modern business demands high quality performance, short response times, long working hours and heavy workloads. At home people face money pressures, family demands, education concerns, high lifestyle expectations and limited time with loved ones. When an employee has a problem, whether the origin is work or home-based, performance in the workplace is likely to be affected.

Sickness absence is generally accepted to cost UK businesses 12.2 billion pounds a year, according to the latest figures published by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Work-related stress accounts for over a third of all new incidences of ill health. Each case of stress-related ill health leads to an average of 30.9 working days lost and a total of 12.8 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety in 2004/5.

• Stress affects one in five of the working population.
• It is now the single biggest cause of sickness absence in the UK.
• It costs UK industry £3.7 billion each year.

It makes sense, therefore, to take the best care of your employees and their psychological needs - not just to comply with legislation, but also to inspire greater commitment, efficiency and productivity.

Causes of Sress

The HSE has identified a range of risk factors summarised in the following groupings

• Demands - issues like workload, work patterns and the work environment
• Control - how much "say" a person has in the way they do their work
• Support - encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues
• Relationship - negative working relationships, conflict and unacceptable behaviour
• Role - lack of clarity or conflicting roles
• Change - the management and communication of organisational change (large and small)

Some of the most common stressors at work are acknowledged as:

• Poor communication
• Poorly managed change
• Little or no consultation
• Highly autocratic/directive management style
• Rigidity of structure and decision making
• Bullying and harassment
• Workload
• Lack of information or training
• Lack of clear instructions
• Lack of clarity in role, responsibilities or authority
• Lack of policies, procedures and systems to deal with issues at an early stage or to deal effectively with any grievance
• Poor work/life balance

Working with you to help solve problems

Our services aim to fulfil three main objectives:

• to look after the wellbeing of your employees
• to help maximise their performance and productivity
• to reduce the risk of employee litigation

We work in partnership with you, first to understand and then to address your specific needs.

As well as reducing sickness absence costs to an organisation, tackling stress can have a positive effect on:

• Employee commitment to work;
• Staff performance and productivity; Staff turnover or intention to leave;
• Staff recruitment and retention;
• Customer satisfaction; and
• Organisational image and reputation

How can Globis help? We can help you to do any of the following:

• risk assess your company
• plan and write a policy with help from focus groups
• train your staff and managers
• produce your own suite of branded stress management products
• organise stress awareness days

Consultancy

We offer a complete consultancy service to any organisation concerned with the effects of stress on its employees. All our consultants in this area are qualified therapists and management consultants, and specialise in stress reduction work.

Telephone support

We offer a dedicated telephone support service for individuals. All of this can be arranged from as little as £20 per employee per year.

On site support

To make sure that your team stays stress-free, we can also arrange onsite visits, refresher courses, stress awareness days or once-a-month stress clinics to discuss ongoing issues in confidence.