The cost-of-living crisis is affecting most of us in one way or another. And your employees are no different. In fact, our teams are more stressed than ever, and that’s going to have a knock-on effect on your business. How? There are 3 main ways you’re going to notice the impact:
Employee’s health and wellbeing
Everyone experiences stress in their lives, but at a time when there’s so much to worry about, we’re seeing more employees struggling with stress, anxiety, and depression.
Reduced productivity When your people are struggling with poor mental health, they have less focus for the job at hand. That means they’re doing less, so your productivity levels take a tumble.
Increased absenteeism
Stress is the most common cause of long-term absenteeism, so it’s easy to understand why you may see an increase in people taking sick leave throughout this crisis
As well as wanting to help your employees avoid these issues, you’ll need to protect your business from the impact of the cost-of-living crisis too. If your business can’t increase employees’ pay right now, you need to look at what else you can do to help ease this burden. And placing a focus on mental health and wellbeing is just the way to do that. There are lots of effective ways to encourage better mental health and wellbeing at work. And because we spend a lot of our lives in the workplace, it’s important that you make sure your employees are taking the time to stay healthy, both mentally and physically.
Here are 3 simple ways you can help your people relieve or avoid additional stress:
1.Talk to them Yes, it sounds basic, but talking to your people, asking them how they are, and an open and honest conversation can be a huge help for your people. Once they realise that it’s ok to talk about things that may be bothering them, it’ll be easier for you all to help them work through any worries and provide useful solutions or support.
2.Encourage them to take breaks You know just how easy it is to hit burnout when you’re working hard and have constant worries on top of that. One of the most simple ways to avoid this is by taking a break. That means you should be making your employees take their regular breaks during the working day, but also making sure they use their annual leave, even if they’re not going away.
3. Look at other ways to boost happiness That makes it sound simple, and of course it isn’t that easy to make everyone happy! But look at the small tweaks you could make to create a big impact. Think about offering better flexibility, wellness programmes, or running stress management workshops.
If you’d like a hand dealing with increased stress in your business, give us a call to see how we can help
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