Working from home isn’t always the delight it is made out to be. With staff stress levels at an all time high, where do we go from here?
In the wake of the pandemic, it’s easy to feel burned out, stressed out, and overwhelmed. We all just lived through a global traumatic event. We are all tired, narky, and ready to throw the baby away with the bathwater because of it. Even back in 2019 before all this happened, workers were already feeling more stressed out than ever before. The question is: what can we do about it as employers and SME owners?
Why are Employees Stressed Out?
As we move into 2022, it’s not impossible to see why our employees might be stressed out. They are stuck in a difficult situation. If they come back to the office to work, they risk catching covid. If they choose to remain remote, they face a variety of challenges that go together with home working.
Home working isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You are often left working at a kitchen table or on your living room sofa. It causes back problems when you don’t have a proper office set up. Employees are suffering aches and pains because they cannot afford the space for home offices. Home working comes with frequent disturbances from family, pets, guests, and children. Relatives will forget that you are working and pop round to visit, or you may feel an increased sense of isolation that experts attribute to the lack of participation in office culture.
3 Ways to Improve Employee Stress Levels
Now that we recognise and understand why employees are stressed out, let’s talk about three ways we can combat this stress and bring it back down to manageable proportions.
1 – Remote Work Wellbeing Training
Indulge in some Hays Wellbeing Online Training for the worst affected members of staff. Those who have been remote working for longest will be feeling the strain. Inviting them to attend wellbeing training means staff learn ways to self-manage their work-life balance. They can then make sure they are treating themselves correctly.
2 – Home Office Appraisal
You can inspect home office setups to find ways to compensate your employees aches and pains. A video chat meeting is enough to see what equipment they need to properly facilitate them working form home. It is still your responsibility to make sure that an employee has everything they need and won’t get hurt carrying out tasks on your behalf at home.
3 – Weekly Check Ins
Having a weekly meeting or video chat with employees helps to keep track of those stress levels. Remote work is very isolating. Employees no longer feel like part of the team or part of the company. Weekly meetings helps you keep them feeling part of the group, while simultaneously letting you see if they need help. If you check in on an employee and their mental state is not good, you might even consider bringing them back into the office for a few weeks to see if it improves.
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