Has workplace stress management can impact your business?
Workplace stress management can improve your business. Workplace stress management strategies can also help improve employee retention. Workplace stress causes can occur and end up stacking issue upon issue.
Let’s face it we’ve all been under deadlines and had to work a little overtime. But stress statistics tell us a different story.
The law of diminishing returns is ‘the decrease in the marginal output of a production process as the amount of a single factor of production is increased, while the amounts of all other factors of production stay constant.’ This law applies to the relationship between employee productivity and hours worked.
Working too many hours a week or for too many consecutive days leads to less productivity over time, according to John Pencavel, professor of labor economics at Stanford University.
‘At 35 hours, an additional five hours to the length of the working week has consequences for the effective labor input that differs greatly from an additional five hours starting at 48 hours,’ says Pencavel. He calls this a ‘nonlinear effect.’ ‘Workers need time to recover from work,’ he says.
Employee output appears to fall after 50 hours and drops even more after 55 hours. In addition, an employee working 70 hours produces nothing more than someone working 55 hours, according to Pencavel’s study.
Completing tasks with strict deadlines is the major cause of stress for employees. We cover how to reduce workplace stress. While most people understand that not having enough time to finish tasks and projects can create stress, they may not grasp how not having the right technology and resources in place can multiply employees’ stress and anxiety when deadlines are creeping in.
How to handle workplace stress in your organization can make for a more profitable business if your employees are happily working.
A stressed employee won’t be a productive employee.
Being an effective team requires creative energy and efficient work. Stress can get in the way and weigh down productivity if it’s not managed successfully. Even the most composed employees in your office feel the pressure to deliver results.
According to the APA, about 36 percent of workers feel stressed out during their workday. That’s over one-third of employees in America. And it might mean that 1 out of 3 people in your office experiences stress daily.
Having stressed employees in your workplace can cause damage to time management, health and wellness, relationships in your office, focus, and productivity in your business.
Time spent coping with workplace stress is worth the investment and can help you solve larger issues with your marketing team. You can help protect your marketing team from potential burnout with the right technology, learning experiences, and tips to help get you there.
Here are 6 useful tips for workplace stress management and empowering employees to understand the importance of workplace stress reduction.
Stamp Out Workplace Stress Step by Step
Use technology to save time and produce results. First, around 8,000 marketing technologies, also known as MARTECH, are available in our digital world today. That’s a lot of tools! But don’t feel pressured to go on a technology shopping spree.
ESG and political agenda run the game in corporate America, causing unneeded stress to fit in or be cast as an outcast for your beliefs. These are just some of the effects of workplace stress.
Research the tools that best fit your needs and see what works for your business. If you don’t have the budget to hire a marketing employee, technology is a great alternative to help your current staff work more.
Using MARTECH can help eliminate unnecessary labor to save time and reduce stress. Start researching today to see what tools will help your team boost productivity and overcome deadline anxiety.
2. Provide training for enhanced productivity.
Without proper training, these beneficial tools are close to useless. Even beyond learning new tools, well-trained employees will produce better quality work and save more time in the long run.
HR Magazine reports that companies that invest $1,500 in training per employee per year can see a 24 percent higher profit than companies that invest less in training.
Through a Learning Management System (LMS), you can provide employees with required reading content and courses and track your team’s progress in learning. Instructional videos and reading blogs are also great resources for training your team.
Introduce these tools with instruction and practice, so team members apply them well. Integrating them into everyday tasks and projects will increase efficient production.
Take the time to ensure your employees are on the same page and comfortable with these new platforms. This will ensure nothing piles on top of existing stress.
3. Maximize communication between team members.
The key to a well-oiled business is communication. Discuss ideas and issues, confirm responsibilities and ensure all teams are being considered.
Communicate with your team about the importance of self-care, and offer wellness resources if they are experiencing stress. Maintaining eye contact and listening well will put people at ease when communicating.
Act as an example to your employees. If they see you’re doing well, they will be more inclined to reduce their stress. Share your motivations and goals and provide opportunities for them to grow in your business.
Give every employee a chance to voice their ideas. This will develop a consistent line of communication to navigate pressure and stress.
Today, the workplace stress scale is running higher than ever. If employees feel they’re being heard, their stress will reduce.
4. Connect your team with the right resources for workplace stress management
Businesses forget their most valuable resources are sitting right around the corner.
Social learning is a theory that explains why we benefit from observing and imitating others in our environment. You can use this theory to connect your team members to learn skills and behaviors from each other. Collaborative relationships provoke new learning and opportunities and help when employees encounter workplace stress.
Social learning can be implemented online through social media or content creation. But also through conversations in the office and workshops between coworkers on skills they can share. If one employee is great at web design and the other excels in content creation, have them meet and teach each other.
Learning outside the office is necessary. At marketing events, your team can share ideas with professionals and learn from other businesses’ mistakes.
Help your employees be inspired by what’s working out in the world and bring that momentum back into your office.
5. Outsource when necessary.
As you know, marketing is an important aspect of any company. But, marketing techniques and technologies can get overwhelming and cause stress. Outsourcing is a good solution when your team can’t get everything done.
Outsourcing can save you time from having to learn new marketing techniques. Pass on projects to an agency that can handle them and let the marketing experts take on your stress.
You still get access to all data and learnings with the right agency. Your team can learn from the resource you hire to gain experience in marketing for the future. You can also reduce costs by hiring a team of experts in place of one full-time executive.
A study by Deloitte shows that 78% of respondents felt positive about their outsourcing relationship.
6. Minimize distractions
Stress can also come from distractions in the workplace. If your employees check social media or send texts, they lose their attention and fall back on projects. Distractions can also affect your mood, so keeping them to a minimum will result in happier employees.
The ring of a phone or a social media notification can disrupt productivity. Be patient and focus on the task before you; everything outside your office can wait.
Advise employees on ways to minimize distractions to reduce their stress. Some easy-to-implement tips include:
- Put your phone on the other side of the room.
- Listen to calming music if other noises distract you.
- Disable notifications for your email so you’re not checking it.
- Organize your space and keep it minimal and neat so nothing around you causes you to check out for a few minutes.
- If you find distractions overwhelming you to the where you’re no longer productive, take a short walk during lunch and clear your mind. Change your environment and then return to it with a fresh perspective.
- People need time to recharge. Ensure you’re getting enough sleep and plan downtime after work to relax and prepare for the following day.
Wrap-up On Workplace Stress
Long days. A lack of resources. High expectations from bosses and coworkers. The fast-paced demand for project completion. The list goes on.
Stress produced by busy schedules, responsibilities, and demands can set back your team’s work ethic and impact the company.
Too much stress could lead to employee burnout or the beginning of a failing business. Everyone wants to avoid that, and no business wants stress looming over their heads.
If any of that sounds familiar, or if stress is a common theme in your office, try out these tips for workplace stress, and let us know how it goes in the comments below.
This article was published in January 2023 but republished for new understanding and clarity.
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General FAQ’s
What is workplace stress?
Workplace stress is the harmful physical and emotional responses that can happen when there is a conflict between job demands on the employee and the amount of control an employee has over meeting these demands.
How to reduce workplace stress?
7 Ways To Eliminate Stress At Work
1. Act Rather Than React.
2. Take A Deep Breath.
3. Eliminate Interruptions.
4. Schedule Your Day For Energy And Focus.
5. Eat Right And Sleep Well.
6. Change Your Story.
7. Cool Down Quickly.
What causes workplace stress?
Some of the factors that commonly cause work-related stress include long hours. Heavy workload. Changes within the organization. Tight deadlines. Changes to duties. Job insecurity. Lack of autonomy. Tedious work.
