Stress Management in the Workplace

Workplace stress is defined as harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when job requirements do not match the worker's capabilities, resources and needs. (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health 1999)

Excessive workplace stress may lead to higher risk for heart problems, mental health problems, back pain, substance abuse, injuries, infections and conflicts among employees. (Dr. Martin Shain 2000)

It is estimated that work-related stress costs the national economy a large amount in sick pay, lost productivity, health care and litigation costs. (Palmer et al. 2004) Excessive stress and other mental health problems are estimated to cost Canadians over 33 billion dollars each year in lost productivity. According to Buffet Taylor's Wellness Survey in 2000, 83% of people surveyed stated that stress is a major health concern within their organization and 20% stated they were experiencing stress-related illness each year. The National Wellness Survey Report 2006 noted "work-related stress" is the number one health risk that is most frequently identified as a concern to the 512 Canadian organizations that participated in the survey.

Some sources of workplace stress may include:

Organizational and management culture: limited involvement of employees in the decision-making process, poor communication, ineffective performance appraisal system, neglect of occupational health and safety program requirements, ineffective management

Role in the organization: confusing organizational structure, unclear role expectations, conflicting job demands, high/low job demand, long hours, insufficient break time, shift work, unpredictable work hours, tight deadlines, low job control, routine or repetitive work, expectation to perform dangerous tasks

Relationships: conflicts with clients, supervisor or co-workers, lack of trust/respect, lack of support, threat of violence or harassment, lack of human contact or communication

Work environment: lack of opportunity for performance or career development, lack of job security, unequal pay, crowdedness, disorganized and cluttered work space, noisy, poor lighting, poor air quality or temperature control, poor ergonomic furniture/workstation

Difficulty balancing work and home: overwhelming work and family responsibilities that lead to work-life conflicts and lack of support

Benefits to the company by implementing stress management initiatives:

• Improved employee health and therefore reduced health benefit claims
• Increased motivation and commitment
• Increased job satisfaction and loyalty
• Improved creativity and performance
• Increased morale and trust
• Reduced absenteeism

The Canadian Institute of Stress (Bell Canada Operator Services research) shows that stress control programs can result in:

• 18% reduction in absences
• 32% reduction in grievances
• 52% reduction in disability time
• 7% improvement in productivity
• 13% improvement in service quality

York Region Community and Health Services has developed a comprehensive guide to provide the Workplace Wellness Committee or representatives tools and resources to assist them in the implementation of a comprehensive workplace stress management program.

Building a Successful Program in Your Workplace - A Comprehensive Guide

A Simple Guide to Stress Management can be your main tool in building a sucessful stress program in your workplace. Before the implementation of a stress management program, an assessment is recommended. The assessment provides baseline information related to the needs of the employees and the workplace. This information is used to prioritize needs, develop goals and objectives for the program, design an action plan and identify an evaluative process for the program. The following two tools may be adapted and used for assessment:

• Workplace Stress Management Program Pre-assessment: This assessment is to determine the employees' level of awareness of stress management initiatives that are available at their workplace and the employees' needs 
• What is Your Stress Level? quiz: A summary of this assessment, when submitted by employees anonymously, will provide a general picture of the stress levels of the employees

The Program Content - Health Promotion Strategies

A comprehensive stress management program is the most effective way to provide information and support to employees on stress management and therefore influence behaviour. Evidence-based research has shown that implementing a variety of health promotion strategies is the most effective way to bring about behaviour change. These health promotion strategies include:

1. Awareness Building
2. Education and Skill Building
3. Environmental Supports
4. Policy and Guideline Development

The following sections provide details on how to build a workplace program for each of the four health promotion strategies: 

Awareness Building

To promote stress management in the workplace, it is important for the organization's management as well as employees to be aware of the existence of stress in their workplace. It is only with awareness that you will start to identify the sources and root causes of your workplace stress.

Suggestions of how to promote stress management:

Tools and Resources	Activities
Employee Self-Quiz: What is Your Stress Level?	Distribute the self-assessment to all employees to complete to increase their awareness of their personal stress level.
Stress Management Quiz	Raise awareness by challenging employees to a fun and informative quiz contest related to identifying their sources of stress and stress management strategies. Workplaces may choose to offer incentives to increase participation.
Posters	Display posters with positive stress awareness messages in visible high traffic areas such as cafeterias, washrooms, bulletin boards etc.

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Education and Skill Building

Once aware of the existence of stress in the workplace, there is a need to make an impact on changing behaviour through a variety of education and skill building initiatives. 'Awareness building' and 'education and skill building' strategies may be implemented concurrently.

Email messages 
A set of 4 email messages on stress management strategies that can be sent to employees.

Payslip inserts 
A set of 4 payslip inserts on stress management strategies that can be mailed to employees over several pay periods, for workplaces that do not have the email set-up.

Information sheets
Distribute resources at displays and workshops, post on bulletin boards or include in corporate newsletters. 

Games

Road to Resilience Game 

 

DVDs for loan

Working with Stress

Living with Stress

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Environmental Support

Environmental support includes anything in the workplace environment that will promote the reduction of stress or increase the employee's coping skills and management of workplace stress. This would include initiatives to promote physical activity and healthy eating as well.

Implement initiatives related to physical activity, such as:

• Provide onsite fitness room, bike racks and shower facilities
• Provide subsidized fitness club memberships
• Host an on-site class- yoga, Tai Chi, aerobics
• Organize walking groups over breaks
• Promote "Take the stairs" campaigns

Implement initiatives related to healthy eating, such as:

• Provide healthy foods at meetings
• Offer healthy alternatives in company vending machines
• Provide attractive locations for eating meals inside and outside
• Encourage cafeterias to offer more healthy food choices at reasonable cost

Implement initiatives related to stress management, such as:

• Host onsite progressive muscle relaxation classes
• Host onsite stress reduction program
• Create a quiet or relaxation room for employees
• Incorporate stretch breaks a couple times throughout the day
• Invite guest speakers/consultants to provide information on finance, child care services, senior support services
• Develop and conduct an employee interest survey to identify needs and environmental supports that meet their needs
• Conduct an assessment of the physical work environment and organizational culture to identify ways to improve
• Provide training for managers on how to identify employees suffering from stress and how to manage the situation
• Provide Employee Assistance Program and encourage employees to use their counseling services
• Provide dependent care initiatives such as emergency child care and elder care services; financial assistance for child care expenses or on-site child care services
• Provide access to community resources and services (Stress Management Website List) 

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Policy and Guideline Development

More companies are moving towards the development of a policy to increase a change in individual health practices. Work-Life balance is an issue that is becoming an increasing concern to employers and employees. As work becomes more demanding and family commitments become more pressing, employees may be more stressed and less productive at work. Employers who support health initiative programs can positively impact the health of employees, allowing them to be more productive both at work and at home.

Some ways stress can be managed may include offering opportunities to increase work-life balance by developing policies related to:

• Flexible work hours
  • Job sharing
  • Gradual retirement
  • Part-time work
• Flexible work arrangements:
  • Flexible work hours and compressed work week
  • Flexibility with location of work
  • Telework (e.g. telephone/video conference)
  • Self-scheduling
• Flexible leaves and benefits:
  • Employee leaves include educational, maternity, paternity, parental and sabbaticals
  • Employees choose how to direct funds identified within their benefit plan
  • Encourage employees to take vacation and/or use unpaid leave
  • Paid or unpaid sick leave
  • Flexible dependent coverage

Policies are the difference between making health information available and creating a healthy workplace environment. It shows commitment from upper management to the employees as well as a link between employees' well-being and the organization's success. Policies establish guidelines for practice and also set goals and framework for action. Taking steps in developing a stress management or work-life balance policy and guidelines are shown to have benefits to your organization, such as:

• Attracts new employees
• Helps to retain staff
• Builds diversity in skills and personnel
• Improves morale
• Reduces sickness and absenteeism
• Enhances working relationships between colleagues
• Encourages employees to show more initiative and teamwork
• Increases levels of production and satisfaction
• Decreases stress and burn-out

Stress Sample Policy

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Evaluation
 

• Workplace Stress Management Program Evaluation - The information gathered can provide feedback on the effectiveness of your program activities in meeting the needs of your employees and reducing their stress. Workplaces are encouraged to adapt the questions to meet the specific components of their program
• What is Your Stress Level? quiz - Workplaces may choose to have their employees complete this quiz for a second time to compare with the initial responses from the assessment prior to the implementation of the stress management program to identify if the stress level of the employees, as a group, has decreased with the implementation of the program
  

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Links

Workplace Resources

Back to main Health Topics page for information on other topics

For more information, please contact
York Region Health Connection at 1 800 361-5653, TTY 1-866-252-9933