Stress has become an integral part of our modern workplace as we lose the more social and informal work setting to western corporate structures. Traditional roles such as farming may have been more physically demanding, but they allowed for social interactions and individual control of one’s own work, which research indicates reduces stress.
Today, the corporate working environment is definitely less social, more antagonistic and competitive, leading to higher levels of stress. Whilst different work places have different characteristics, things that cause stress (stressors) have increased in the Ghanaian work environment. Research among university lecturers indicates that the essential causes of stress are clearly linked to work approach in the modern workplace. It also shows that a more individualistic approach, loss of control over one’s own work, excessive focus on workload over anything else and competition for senior roles can easily lead to bullying, harassment or a blame culture, which all cause stress.
To determine whether stress training is a valuable investment is to identify what the impact of stress on workplace performance is. Job performance is the result of three factors working together: skill, effort and the nature of work conditions. Stress can have negative consequences on performance by affecting all three factors. It affects your employees’ competencies by reducing their cognitive abilities through anxiety whilst also affecting their physical and emotional wellbeing. The mental ability of employees is affected by poor concentration and decision-making abilities; also caused by excessive stress.
In a research on medical trainees, the documented consequences of stress included: alcohol and drug abuse, interpersonal relationship difficulties, depression, anxiety, and suicide. Other studies have shown stress can be detrimental to a professional’s academic achievement and effectiveness in work situations by decreasing attention span and ability to establish productive working relationships.
In addition to affecting psychological and emotional well-being, stress can also result in a decrease in physical health, such as the development of hypertension, heart disease and immune deficiency disorders. The results of the study above indicate that there is a negative relationship between job stress and job performance.
A recent research in the UK indicates that absenteeism as a result of stress, cause substantial loss of revenue to organizations. Whilst such research is not available locally, the suspicion is that, stress causes similar levels of reduced productivity, reduced employee ability, negative workplace culture and poor physical health. In most cases, it can lead to workplace accidents and destruction of an organization’s reputation.
There is an ongoing war for talent and organizations are competing to attract the best employees. People are usually organizations’ best assets and the reason for their competitive advantage. Loss of a single employee can lead to the loss of significant organizational knowledge and advantage. No employer would like to lose the talent they have spent their valuable resources developing to any of these conditions that result from stress.
However, for stress training to deliver value, it has to provide employees with the capacity to identify and manage their own stress effectively. Highly individualized stress training geared toward the individual can have immense benefits in these regards. Such programme will provide employees with the necessary tools to handle stress before it becomes chronic or lead to serious medical conditions. These training programmes (if they are focused on improving conflict resolution, communication and other skills that can help reduce stress) will also have a positive impact on the interpersonal relationships at work, further reducing stress and leading to productive working relations.
Organizations that focus their resources on training employees in managing their stress as well as investing in programmes that assess workplace and individual stress will reap the benefit. Such organizations will have healthy employees, project a better image and are likely to have more loyal employees.
The benefits will include:
1. Better reputation
2. Improved employee health and well-being
3. Employee loyalty
4. Lower level of employee absenteeism and turnover
5. High productivity
By Douglas Hagan
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