Page 7 - Keeping Employees Happy, Healthy & Productive

Many employees are afraid to communicate about stress, especially if they feel their relationship with their boss is part of the problem. Opening doors to share can help, but understand that they may be reluctant to talk about it.
However, high levels and prolonged periods of stress impact productivity and health. Ultimately, stress can lead to burnout, leaving an employee unable to work at all.
Burnout is most often caused by:
• Asking somebody to do too much or to work faster
• Holding somebody in the same job for too long without any growth opportunities • Unrealistic deadlines or schedules
• Lack of breaks
• Harsh consequences for failure
• Insufficient recognition or praise
• Lack of agency
• Ineffective leadership
• Insufficient staff
Most of these are things you can do something about.
So, how can you reduce stress within your organization? Here are some tips:
• Keep expectations reasonable. Always listen to an employee who says they need help or can’t get it all done.
• Create a culture of recognition, including encouraging praise from supervisors and providing opportunities for peer recognition.
• Educate employees on stress management techniques such as mindfulness, and engage in those activities yourself.
• Reach out to struggling employees and help them find a solution, which might be encouraging them to take a much-needed vacation or reassigning some of their workloads.
• Use employee satisfaction surveys, which are anonymous, to assess overall levels of burnout and find out what employees want.
• Provide increased variety in the workplace.
• Consider setting up a mentorship program to encourage communication between peers.
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