Source: theHRDIRECTOR
Date: Summer 2006

Stress: sickness absences cost businesses an average of £601 per employee every year, according to recent research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, March 2006).

As a large proportion of absences nowadays are stress  related, British organisations need to start investing more in their workforce and implementing practices that address stress-levels, in order to prevent this waste of millions of pounds every year. There are two sorts of stress that can lead to absence. Firstly, is the stress that comes from disengagement. Here the employee feels under-stimulated and loses their connection with the workplace. The second form of stress is the opposite, where the employee feels overwhelmed or overworked in their job.

Absences due to a lack of engagement are often caused by under-utilisation of the employees’ skills, and are frequently manifested in the ‘Monday/Friday syndrome’, where it becomes all too easy to take the odd unnecessary day off. Once this habit gets established it can become very difıcult to break, and line managers need to look out for these trends and nip them in the bud. Managing boredom-related stress can present a real challenge to businesses as the signs and symptoms are often subtle and many managers ınd their time drawn into ıre-ıghting more obvious employee issues. Managers can reduce workplace frustration and the resulting stress by ensuring varied roles which draw on the individual’s strengths and interests, wherever possible. Some pressure and challenge in a role is very motivating and encourages employees to work to the best of their ability, bringing greater results for the company and reducing the likelihood of boredom occurring.

On the other side of the coin are the absences caused by over-work or expecting employees to undertake tasks where they are not equipped or trained. Stress generated in this way can be particularly harmful. The danger is that once an employee takes time off work because of this sort of issue, it can be very hard to come back, especially if the individual feels that work is mounting up in their absence and nothing has really changed. The longer this continues the more the individual’s confıdence declines, and in some cases the employee never returns.

This can often be avoided by training, effective communication and support; line managers should ensure that conversations about stress and wellbeing form part of their regular one-to-ones with the team. These conversations should also explore personal job satisfaction and motivation as well as perceptions of workload. This allows managers to spot potential problems and take action before pressure levels start having a negative impact. By keeping the communication lines open, staff learn not only that stress can be discussed but that their manager can help, and wants to!

Many businesses look for ways of eliminating stress,  for example with anti-bullying policies and stress prevention programmes. However, essentially the workplace is a microcosm of society and since these toxic elements exist ‘out there’, it is inevitable that they will seep into business. Whilst it is still advisable to implement preventative measures, organisations should accept that these things happen, that they are normal, and that they need to prepare for them.

Managers must therefore be suffıciently trained to deal with stress, conflict and bullying, and be capable of constructive communication. Managers also need to know how to manage absences when they do occur. One badly managed absence can have a knock-on effect on other members of the team, so the manager must ensure they are giving out the right signals. If it appears there is no consequence when someone is off work, this affects other people’s motivation to attend work the next day. If you are not missed, then why bother coming in?

Whilst there is a duty of care to manage work-related stress, businesses should be encouraged to go one step further and promote workplace wellness. Instead of antibullying campaigns, business should implement dignity in the workplace initiatives; instead of stress they should focus on wellbeing policies. These need to be boardroom priorities. In this way the focus is on the positive end result, rather than the negative symptom.
This makes good sense – it is far more cost effective to keep well people well than it is to bring stressed or absent people back.

Improving workplace wellness is a multi-layered task and should involve everyone, from the board all the way down to junior members of staff. Looking ahead, advancing technologies mean that businesses are entering an era where they will be able to measure the health of their workforce and quantify the direct cost of stress and disengagement. In this respect the future is rosy – as the cost of poor health and workplace toxicity become more transparent, organisations will increasingly invest in maximising the wellbeing of ‘their greatest asset’.