12 Ways to Help Lower Stress
Here are 12 ways you can decrease—or prevent—employee stress during bad (and good) economic times:
1. Adjust expectations after cutbacks
Staff reductions and budget cuts increase stress levels by overburdening the remaining workers. So today’s leaner budgets call for careful prioritizing, and smaller workforces require managing workloads prudently. Avoid assigning new projects your employees can’t adequately handle.
2. Communicate with employees
Try to keep workers abreast of what’s going on in your organization—the good news and the bad. Provide an opportunity for them to air concerns informally with their supervisors, in meetings, or perhaps in a Q&A column in a company newsletter. This can help reduce stress-inducing gossip or rumors.
3. Be straightforward
If you’re implementing a layoff, being honest with the survivors will help alleviate their fears. Saying everything is fine, when it isn’t, will undermine employees’ trust in the company.
4. Whatever you do to “right-size up”, do it only once
Whenever you bring about changes, layoffs, or cutbacks due to an economic downturn, every time something occurs it brings morale lower and stress higher. Trust gets lost and fear becomes the driving factor. Plan strategically so that everything you carry out takes place at one time. Once completed, let your employees know.
5. Reduce conflicts
Whenever you bring about changes, layoffs, or cutbacks due to an economic downturn, every time something occurs it brings morale lower and stress higher. Trust gets lost and fear becomes the driving factor. Plan strategically so that everything you carry out takes place at one time. Once completed, let your employees know.
6. Maintain employee benefits
Stress levels rise when valuable benefits such as health insurance, vacation pay, and sick leave are cut back. Weigh the savings from reducing benefits against the potentially high costs of lowered productivity and burnout.
7. Encourage vacations
Be sure workers take vacation time instead of letting it accrue indefinitely or getting paid for it. Employees who get to relax and rejuvenate away from work develop fewer stress-related ailments and are more alert and energetic on return.
8. Give employees more control
Workers who have some control over how they do their jobs take greater pride in their work, are more productive, have more self-confidence, and cope better with job stress. Allow employees to make decisions, undertake new challenges, and learn from their mistakes. Streamlining red tape—for example, giving a modest increase in spending authority without supervisor approval—can give an employee a greater sense of control over the job.
9. Recognize and reward
Bonuses, achievement awards, or public praise for a job well done can pay off in boosted productivity, loyalty, and morale.
10. Examine environmental factors
Stress can be exacerbated by environmental conditions such as crowding, noise, air pollution, or ergonomic problems. Assess your workplace and consider environmental solutions.
11. Educate workers on finances and recession-related topics
Informing employees about how to stay afloat in a recession can help them feel less anxious. Consider holding brown-bag lunch training sessions on topics such as reducing credit card debt, making a budget, investing, 401(k) distribution, and living on a retirement income.
12. Offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and a Pastoral Counseling Program
If you don’t already have an EAP or pastor support program, gather a list of local resources that employees can turn to when they need help managing stress.