adminShelter Chieza Change Management
There are a lot of things that happen at home and work that can affect an employee’s performance hence there is need for companies to pay attention to the human physiological state of employees when they are at work.
Inadequate remuneration for instance is enough to affect the performance of an employee because it causes stress.
Stress is the psychological and physical state that results when the resources of the individual are not sufficient to cope with the demands and pressures of the situation.
You may see it more in other areas and scenarios than the others, more in other individuals than others.
Stress is more poignant and thrives in environments and situations where there are limitations.
These include work deadlines, family demands, limited resources at work and commuting long distances daily.
It is, therefore, critical for companies to constantly monitor the state of mind of their employees when they report for work.
Yet when employees come to work stressed, managers tend to blame the individual rather than the cause yet the company has a responsibility to ensure that employees are fit to carry out their duties.
Having a high number of stressed individuals in a company has negative repercussions on operations.
Among other causes, stress leads to high staff turnover, an increase in sick leave, reduced work performance and increased rate of accidents, and ultimately filters to a reduction in client satisfaction.
Employers therefore cannot afford to ignore stressed employees. Good employee management does not view stress as petty.
Ideally companies need to have resources to help employees to deal with pressures and demands faced by employees.
They should have scheduled and deliberate sessions where employees are addressed on problem solving, assertiveness and time management.
This may be in the form of games or scenario training. All these are targeted at influencing the individual to behave appropriately when faced with tough circumstances.
This can make a difference in individual behaviours. The ability to handle emergency situations and crisis improves when individuals have received appropriate training.
Employers must strive to create a good working environment and social support centres within the workplace.
While the tendency by most employees is to allow stressed employees to take days off, care must be taken to ensure that the affected employees get help because they might return in a much worse condition.
Assisting a stressed employee is easier if companies or organisations have centres for counselling.
As employers, be on the lookout for pressures at work which could lead to stress and ensure that workers that are vulnerable to such conditions are protected.
In my experience as a manager I witnessed a severe breakdown of an employee who suffered unjustified verbal attack from their superior.
When I moved to a new company where my office had a window facing the car park I endured my own kind of stress.
I was not used to the noise and traffic movements on a day-to-day basis. The noise affected my concentration so much that I could hardly get a third of my work done at the end of the day.
I came to understand that my continued stress was because I failed to adapt. In psychology they believe that over time, individuals response to unusual situations must dwindle, if this does not happen, individuals “eventually tend to collapse” from mental exhaustion. This then comes out in individuals as stress.
As employers it is important to address interactions between home and work related issues.
If for instance an individual is facing increased demands at work such as taking work home, job insecurity, long working hours, this is highly likely to affect their personal life especially the quality of life outside work.
The home is an extremely important buffer against the stress caused at work but if one is missing this important part then it creates a vicious cycle because the pressures of work can easily spill over into the house.
I believe that women are more likely to experience these sources of stress; because of they carry more burdens such as childcare and domestic responsibilities than men.
Success in managing and preventing stress within your organisation entirely depends on the culture of the organisation.
Stress must be seen as helpful information to guide action, not as weakness in individuals. Ensure that you develop a culture of openness and understanding, rather than of blame and criticism in the workplace.
This can only be achieved if we have active leadership and role models from the top of the organisation.
Some companies have gone so far as drawing up a stress policy for the organisation. It’s never too late to come up with such interventions.
Till next week, may God richly Bless you!
Shelter Chieza is a Management Consultant. She can be contacted at [email protected]
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