6 Things Leaders Can Do to Tackle Stress in the Workplace

Updated on July 19th, 2018 by Quertime Writer in Self-Improvement

Stress in the workplace is likely to occur when the management is unable to resolve or overcome different constraints. However, excessive stress can interfere with the productivity of your business. As a business owner, stress can negatively impact your general performance when it arises. Effects of stress can be clearly manifested by your employees in absenteeism, lack of motivation for work, and restlessness.

Stress in the workplace has become a significant health risk with so many factors involved. If your business is a startup, stress may have adverse consequences on your firm. It is, therefore, important to manage stress in the workplace. You can make a few alterations that can change the image of the company. This can be done by first identifying the causes of stress at the workplace. Those changes can have a big impact and boost the morale of employees while at work.

There are strategies you can employ as a manager to stem stress at your startup. If you employ these strategies, the general working environment will be more welcoming and boost productivity. Some of the strategies you can use include:

1. Offer Flexible Working Conditions

Strict and rigid working conditions can contribute to work-related stress. The working conditions set by the manager or owner in most cases tend to favor the employer. Working conditions that affect employees adversely can lead to stress in the workplace. As a mitigation measure, you can create a well-structured organization that focuses on enhancing the employees’ productivity.

Employees need to be involved in the assignment of roles and duties. You can structure your departments such that a worker knows the period when he or she should be actively involved and when to take a rest. Approval processes and work distribution should be done with openness and employees consulted on extra working hours. By doing this, employees will feel more appreciated and work in a less fixed and stringent environment.

The promotion of flexible working conditions, such as remote work option, has also become one of the implementations of the employment strategies. The idea of offering a work-from-home option is becoming a selling point for many job applicants. Alternatively, allowing employees to work from co-working space is another great way to smoother office environment transitions and reduce stress from work. This option is also thought to boost employee productivity.

2. Make workplace Wellness a Priority

If workers are sick, they tend to accumulate more stress. If they miss work and their workloads pile up waiting for their return, they add up more stress. As a startup owner, you need to ensure good health is not only achieved away from work but also within the working environment.

There is no harm in sparing some space for a gym within the business premises. You may also offer self-practices like slow breathing to relieve workers any stress. In the work schedule, it is extremely important to avoid exposing workers to deadlines that make them work in a hurry. Such deadlines also create anxiety and affect the normal brain functioning. It is, therefore, vital that you give the employees health and wellness priority to get maximum returns from their efforts.

3. Work Towards a Higher-Level Goal

As a startup owner, you need to identify what the real motivator for work is. In many cases, money and more benefits are seen as the main motivator. This may not be the case. Some people can be paid well but still feels lowly, a feeling that culminates to stress.

It, therefore, requires that better and valuable goals be set. Every employee should have an intrinsic motivation that is more than just the enumeration. Perhaps it could be to change the lives of the immediate society. Setting goals is about learning and applying what you learn as an entrepreneur. If it can get to a level where the workers enjoy their daily activities while aiming at an overall goal, work-related stress will be a thing of the past.

4. Support Programs that Nurture Employees

In a startup, there is a high probability that new recruits are not much exposed. Some of these employees will join but feel isolated from the more established workers. They will tend to associate less with others and hence have a low morale of spending time around the workplace. If they feel undervalued, they will have stress and maintain a low profile.

You can ensure that the co-working space is developed such that daily interactions between workers are helpful. To invest in their personal development, you can rely on the co-working space that is maintained in the business. As a manager, you can organize charitable events and social days when employees can mingle and learn from one another. Such interactions will reduce the general stress at work.

You can also open opportunities to your team by supporting those who are aiming to develop their skills. A graduate diploma in project management will help them utilize their communication and leadership skills that they can apply in the workplace.

5. Examine Your Compensation Structure

As a manager, you need to learn more about how to manage stress effectively with new ideas every day. It may require that you dig deep and analyze your compensation structures. Most employees are likely to work with an aim of earning more. You could pay them according to the work they do. This, however, may not solve the problem of stress at work. Some members may become more aggressive and step on others on their way to more earnings.

This implies that you should craft a policy that is all-inclusive. Compensation for stress at work may be done by involving all employees in general activities. When they work in groups, healthy discussions can reduce the stress. For instance, you can award remedial payments at a flat rate so that none feels isolated. Mobilize employees to work in teams to instill leadership and cooperation. In this way, there will be harmony and reduced stress levels due to total member involvement in the activities.

6. Help Your Employees Perform Under Pressure

Pressuring and pushing your employees to perform without planning is sure to backfire. Why? Because pressure, like any other negative triggers, is among the worst productive killers and stress enhancers.

Some of the positive strategies you can implement to help your employees perform include:

Having a clearly defined role for your employees
Encouraging them to do their best without constantly interfering them
Listening to their suggestions

Do not make something get any more complicated than it should be. Instead, you should try to simplify their work life by improving the UX of your employees with the same level of design as you would do for your customers.

Most employees are willing to work hard for the good of the business, but only as long as it’s recognized. You need to give them appropriate praise and promotions, or even a little something like a thank you gift for each of the employees. Let them know that you appreciate their hard work.

It is normal to have stress in a business enterprise. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to ensure it does not negatively impact the performance of your firm. Subsequently, you need to invest in stress management in the workplace. By doing this, stress levels will be reduced and productivity will go up.

Author: Paige Ellingson
Paige Ellingson is a creative communication executive and writer. Currently she’s based in SE-Asia and she writes for The Work Loft, an intelligently designed premium coworking space in the heart of Bangkok’s CBD.