Stress Management and Relaxation Techniques

Archive for the ‘Workplace Stress’ Category

What are the Management Standards for work related stress?

The Management Standards define the characteristics, or culture, of an organisation where the risks from work related stress are being effectively managed and controlled.

The Management Standards cover six key areas of work design that, if not properly managed, are associated with poor health and well-being, lower productivity and increased sickness absence. In other words, the six Management Standards cover the primary sources of stress at work. These are:

* Demands[1] – this includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment.
* Control[2] – how much say the person has in the way they do their work.
* Support[3] – this includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues.
* Relationships[4] – this includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour.
* Role[5] – whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles.
* Change[6] – how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation.

The Management Standards represent a set of conditions that, if present, reflect a high level of health well-being and organisational performance.
The Management Standards:

* demonstrate good practice through a step by step risk assessment approach;
* allow assessment of the current situation using surveys and other techniques;
* promote active discussion and working in partnership with employees to help decide on practical improvements that can be made;
* help simplify risk assessment for work related stress by:
o identifying the main risk factors for work related stress;
o helping employers focus on the underlying causes and their prevention; and
o providing a yardstick by which organisations can gauge their performance in tackling the key causes of stress.

Change in the Workplace Stress Management

Workplace stress management can already be quite a task just to maintain employee productivity, efficiency as well as satisfaction. Nothing can be more stressful for managers than  to handle stress brought about by workplace change. Change can affect the workplace in many ways, with the negative side of it always bringing along considerable stress to some.

Workplace change is usually inevitable in the business world. Changes in the economy and the competitiveness between businesses can bring about certain changes in the workplace when most may least expect it. Businesses always run the risk of having to stage lay-offs, personnel downsizing and even bankruptcy. And when these changes happen, the employees of the affected businesses go through quite a stressful situation having to deal with unemployment and an uncertain future. The management even has the more stressful task to inform employees about it.

It is important for management to try to break the news of a workplace change in a less abrupt manner as possible. Communication would be very important in this case. Effective and timely communication may help affected employees better understand and accept such upsetting and stressful news.

One of the best ways to communicate massive changes in the workplace is to involve key communicators to bring the news to the employees. While it may sound logical to have  the CEO speak to the entire group of working personnel in a company-wide meeting, he or she alone may not be able to give the details more effectively on all levels. The CEO of the company alone may not be able to satisfy employee questions and concerns.

Having other people such as supervisors or team leaders to handle the job of communicating any workplace change would surely be more efficient and effective. By having the company’s front-line supervisors and maybe team leaders address employees under them and answer their questions, this helps  communicating change more efficiently accessible to more employees and may take less time to make them understand and accept the unfortunate news.

But aside from having several people handling the stressful news of change to company staff. It is also as important for the management to create an effective message. And since companies are comprised of different departments and levels, the message of change should be designed to cater to the information needed of these different levels. In short, the message should cater and fit to a specific audience in order to be more effective and hence avoid possible confusion as well as additional stress.

Effective communication of change in the workplace means that information required by different levels of the company should be satisfied. Others may stop at citing the reasons why change is a good idea for the company. Other companies may only try to communicate only what the changes affect the corporate level.

Neglect on providing information that really matter to employees, such as how the change may affect their future in the company, can really add considerable stress and many sleepless nights to many people.

That is not considered as good workplace stress management for a company that is in the midst of undergoing changes.