Stress in the workplace
There are many causes of stress in the workplace. BMR Health and Wellbeing review Three and give you some tips to reduce.
Work Overload
Work overload occurs when the demands of the job are greater than the workers' capacity to meet them. Demands can be physical, mental, emotional, or a combination of these. Overload often leaves workers unable to meet deadlines, or safety and quality requirements.
Tips
Assist employees in the development of personal work plans to help them prioritise their tasks
Encourage employees to speak up at an early stage if they feel their task demands are excessive
Unless necessary, avoid asking employees to regularly stay after hours without prior consultation
Poor Change Management
Workers are not consulted about workplace changes that are likely to affect them, communications about change are poor, and/or they do not receive enough practical support during workplace change.
Tips
Ensure employees are consulted about workplace change and as a minimum, note that employees and/or their unions have a legal right to be consulted about significant changes under their award, agreement or industrial relations legislation.
Provide group information and/or feedback sessions to give employees the opportunity to raise any concerns about the change in a group setting
Train leaders to support employees through periods of change
Unfair Decisions and Treatment
The company does not treat everyone fairly. This can include inconsistent use of policies and procedures, unfair or biased decisions, lack of transparency in decision-making, and/or poor management of underperformance.
Tips
Design procedures so they can be consistently applied to all employees and work groups (e.g. performance review process)
Listen to the concerns of all employees being impacted by a procedure and allow employees to request additional information or clarification if needed
When investigating issues of misconduct, ensure all parties have equal opportunity to respond to allegations