Stress is one of the main reasons for employee sick time. It is, therefore, in the interest of your business that you try to reduce the stress within the workplace as much as possible for your employees.
Obviously, the less amount of time any of your workforces take off work, the better and faster your orders or services will be completed, and the happier your customers will be, the more orders you will have, the faster your bottom line will grow.
Improve scheduling processes
You would be amazed at how much stress a badly organized scheduling process can instill in not only those workers trying to hit the time schedules imposed upon them, but also those that are expecting targets to be met. Even if you have one badly timed process within a schedule can throw everyone within that stage and every stage after into crisis as they are then seriously working against the clock and hoping in an impossible way to be able to claw back a little bit of time either for themselves or those further on in the process.
It is, therefore, important that you make sure that the timings that your scheduling is based on are correct and fully obtainable by everyone. If you find that your timings are the other way and too slow, then this could work to your advantage in the fact that you will never be late for your deadline.
Provide technical support
Stress can really spike when technology breaks down or when there is a fault either within one area of the business or on a workstation.
Generally, those that work on the computers or laptops within a business do not have the knowledge or access to sort out the problems at hand. Unless you have your very own IT department within your business, the best bet is to outsource this area to a business with the knowledge, qualifications, and time to help your employees get back to work quickly while being able to stay calm safe in the knowledge that they are in safe hands.
Deal with victimization
Victimization is an area that causes so much stress within the workplace for employees that are the target from those that are able to bully, harass, or alienate, whether it is due to their sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or ethnicity. Those employees that are the culprit should be dealt with and told the error of their ways, it is not enough to give them a slight telling off and advise them to ‘stay away’ until the dust settles, and those that are re-offenders should be shown the door.
It is unfair that any employee has to enter a workplace and put up with this kind of treatment from another regardless of station or job role. You will find that it is not only the victim that suffers from the stress of the situation but also those that witness it but can not do anything to support their fellow worker.